apparently, quite a few cathloics resort to a most unusual practice to sell their houses: what you do is purchase a statue of St. Joseph (father of Jesus, patron of carpenters). Any kind will do-plastic, marble, metal…it can be madin taiwan or China. You then list your house, and VOILA! You have a buyer!
Does anybody know how such a strange practice came into being? I’m sure nothing like this is endorsed by the RCC. It defies logic-is it a survival of some pre-Christian (i.e. Roman practice)?
I wouldn’t be surprised. I suspect that a lot of statue-burying took place at the building of structures, rather than the selling, though.
It’s done around here in Massachusetts, and there are other analogous practices – having a statuette of St. Francis looking out the window when you’re looking for a job, etc. I think with reference to selling the house, you might bury the whole Holy Family, and not just Joseph. It is kind of a Catholic folk custom, probably of Italian origin, though it seems like other ethnic strains of Catholicism have picked it up. I don’t know that the Church has strong views on what seems to the casual eye like a fairly idolatrous practice. One of those things, I suspect, where the Church kind of looks the other way, and if necessary makes a few bland excusatory remarks.
Here’s a Snopes article on the subject – and a SDSAB article, for good measure.
And my favourite quote on the subject:
Glad to have that cleared up. 
I think it’s just Joseph. I have a friend whose parents actually did this when they had trouble selling their home in Brooklyn. I’ll ask her later.
ralph124c actually left out one crucial element of the process as that friend described it to me: the statue has to be buried upside down. And after the thing has done its work and you’ve sold your home, the story goes, it just disappears.
I really hope that Binz is not teaching any kids religious ed. Superstition is superstition, regardless of motive.
And don’t forget that you have to dig it up after you close. Otherwise, bad things happen. My parents’ next-door neighbor forgot to dig up her St Joseph statue after she moved (her husband had just died) so she called up the new owners. They refused to let her dig it up, and refused to dig it up themselves. Ever since then, everyone who has had that house has left it vacant and unsold for at least a month, including two owners who had to sign the house over to the bank. Coincidence?
Well, yes, if course it is. Their problems had nothing to do with the statue. St Joseph doesn’t mess with your finances when he’s angry. He rises from the ground where the statue was buried and strangles the entire family, one by one.
I think you bury the whole Holy Family when the market is bad and you’re feeling desperate. In Massachusetts, we’ve gone through a spate of that. I’m not sure people here traditionally bury upside down. We reserve that for vampires, I think.
Thanks for the laugh at the end of a difficult day!
I had an idea that this practice might descend from the ancient Roman practice of sacrifice to the “household gods”. It was a common practice in Roman times to have small representations /sculptures of patron gods ( a warrior migh have a statue of Mars). These were buried under the house to assure good luck. Could the St. Joseph thing be a remnant of this old practice?
WAG And IF it works its a miracle?