When the real estate market is weak, it’s not surprising that home sellers look for help anywhere they can find it. . Sales of the Saint Joseph home selling kit skyrocket every time the housing market hits a slump. Can faith really move homes as well as mountains?
Origin of the St. Joseph Statue Myth
Rumour has it that St. Teresa of Avila (A.D. 1515 – 1582, R.I.P.) had an expanding Order that required the building of a new, larger nunnery. The nuns didn't have money to buy the land on which to build the convent so St. Teresa buried medals with St. Joseph’s likeness on the desired property. Their pleas to St. Joseph worked. As centuries flew by, the custom evolved into burying a St. Joseph statue to hasten the sale of a home.
Who is St. Joseph? He is the patron saint of employment and the home. Saint Joseph was the husband of the Virgin Mary in the Bible, the earthly father of Jesus. He has a history in the real estate world.
Stephen J. Binz, St. Joseph Expert
Catholic author and Biblical scholar, Stephen J. Binz, has written a book on the topic, St. Joseph, My Real Estate Agent: The Patron Saint of Home Life and Home Selling. Binz states, “I believe God can work in people’s lives in all sorts of ways without our really understanding them.” The book details the life of the saint and explains that burying a statue is a way of asking St. Joseph to look after one’s own family they way that Joseph provided for his own family, Mary and Jesus.
Binz made an interesting point in a recent interview, “I think that particularly in today’s financial climate, people are realizing that buying and selling homes is a lot more than a financial transaction. There really is a spiritual dimension to all of this. I think people realize they can pray about this reality and God really does hear their prayers.”
Binz continues, “Not just Catholics but many Christians are practicing this either out of superstition or out of the common faith that we share in the communion of saints. There is sometimes a fine line between faith and superstition but the difference is that faith is an act of generosity and superstition in this context is sort of a selfish act. In other words, if we put a statue in the ground and we expect our home to sell just because of some action or mandatory verbal formula, that’s superstition. Really developing a relationship with St. Joseph, really asking him to help us in our need and with the situation, and asking him to intercede with God on our behalf are all expressions of faith. This little devotional practice can indeed become a means of growth and faith and expression of Christianity.”
How to Bury a St. Joseph Statue in Your Yard
When burying the statue, you can’t just dig a hole and toss the statue inside; there is a protocol to follow. The most prevalent practice is to bury the statue upside down with his feet facing the heavens, close to the For Sale sign in the front yard. The hole should be three inches deeper than the statue itself. When you insert the statue, it should be facing the direction of the street.
The statue should be placed in a burial bag (usually included in the kit) before being placed in the ground. Apartment and condo dwellers with no outside space should bury the statue in a potted plant on the patio. Before covering the statue with dirt, a prayer should be said to St. Joseph. Most kits come with a card with suggestions on what to say. Once the home sells, the statue should be dug up, cleaned off, and placed in a spot of honour in the new home.
For the record, burying the St. Joseph statue to increase the chances of selling a home is not a church-sanctioned practice.
St. Joseph Statue Kits
Philip Cates, a California-based mortgage banker and the owner of www.stjosephstatue.com, has sold over a quarter million do-it-yourself St. Joseph kits since he launched the mail-order company almost twenty years ago. Sales of the kits through his website have risen about 100% every year since 2004. Cates claims the statue is more than mere superstition. "It’s the idea of getting beyond yourself. It’s about hoping and praying for something that is bigger than you are." Cates has trademarked the phrase St. Joseph: The Underground Real Estate Agent.
Does the St. Joseph Statue Work?
Does the St. Joseph statue really work or is it a bunch of sceptical babble? Some proclaim it is nonsense yet others are true believers in the statue’s power. Considering that millions of St. Joseph statue home-selling kits are sold every year through websites, religious goods stores, eBay, and hardware stores, this custom shows that in desperate times, people are willing to try almost anything.
Toby Welch - Toby is a full-time freelance writer who specializes in magazine articles, online writing, e-books, and manuscript editing.
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