Burying Saint Joseph
Okay, we’re talking about desperation methods here. I’m always of the opinion “Hey, what can it hurt?” A top broker and 40 year veteran of the real estate industry, Gloria Deysher, from Wilmington Delaware says she plants a small plastic statue of Saint Joseph in front of every home she lists for sale. Gloria has several good stories of homes that had been on the market for months or years and sold within weeks of burying a statue of Saint Joseph.
A California based company sells a statue of Saint Joseph in a kit called the “Underground Real Estate Agent Kit.” The kit includes directions for burying the statue in an instructional booklet, along with a burial bag and some historical information.
According to the U.S. Catholic Information Center in Washington, D.C., the tradition of burying a statue of Saint Joseph can be traced back several hundreds of years to Theresa of Avila. Theresa prayed to Saint Joseph when the convents needed more land and asked the convent’s nuns to bury Saint Joseph medals in the ground as a symbol of their devotion. Other historians argue that the practice came from German home builders who buried Saint Joseph statues in the foundations of the homes they built.
Gloria asks her Catholic priest to bless the 4 inch statues with Holy water before taking them to the seller’s home. The seller buries the statue upside down, facing the street and next to the for sale sign, and then prays to Saint Joseph for assistance. There are two different Saint Joseph figures. The first is Saint Joseph the worker. This one carries a water pitcher, a loaf of bread and has an axe by his feet. The second is Saint Joseph patron of the family, who is holding the child Jesus.
“It doesn’t have to be a Catholic home, either.” Gloria explains. “I ask sellers of every denomination to bury them in front of their home.” Once the home settles, you’re supposed to dig up the statue and put it in a place of honor in your new home.
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