Tuesday,
October 30, 2007
Desperate Home Sellers Turn to St Joseph,
including Jews, Buddhists and Atheists
The
ANNOTICO Report
Thanks to Pat Gabriel
Owners,
Realtors Bury Statues Of
Wall Street
Journal
By Sara Schaeffer
Munoz
October 30, 2007
Cari Luna is Jewish by heritage and Buddhist by religion. She
meditates regularly. Yet when she and her husband put their Brooklyn, N.Y.,
house on the market this year and offers kept falling through, Ms. Luna turned
to an unlikely source for help:
The
Catholic saint has long been believed to help with home-related matters. And
according to lore now spreading on the Internet and among desperate
home-sellers, burying
"I
wasn't sure if it would be disrespectful for me, a Jewish Buddhist, to co-opt
this saint for my real-estate purposes," says Ms. Luna, a writer. She
figured, "Well, could it hurt?"
With
the worst housing market in recent years,
Some
Realtors, too, swear by the practice. Ardell DellaLoggia, a Seattle-area Realtor, buried a statue
beneath the "For Sale" sign on a property that she thought was
overpriced. She didn't tell the owner until after it had sold. "He was an
atheist," she explains. "But he thanked me."
Existing-home
sales fell 8% in September to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.04 million
units, the lowest level in nearly 10 years, according to the National
Association of Realtors.
Statues
of
Most
statues come in a "Home Sale Kit" that is priced at around $5 and
includes burial instructions and a prayer. One site, Good Fortune Online,
recently added another kit with a statue of St. Jude
-- known as the patron saint of hopeless causes -- "to help those with a
difficult property to sell," the site says. Another site,
Stjosephstatue.com, takes orders for its "Underground Real Estate Agent
Kits" at 1-888-BURY-JOE.
Demand
for the statues has been growing. Ron Weissman, who
sells the statues at Good Fortune Online, says about six months ago he switched
to online transactions because the increase in calls -- from about two a week
to 25 calls a day -- was too much to handle. Richard Weigang,
owner of www.catholicstore.com1, says he sells about 400 statues a
month, double the amount he sold a year ago.
In
Catholicism, St. Joseph, a carpenter, is honored as the husband of Mary and
foster father of Jesus. Representing a humble family man, he is the patron saint
of home, family and house-hunting, according to the Rev. James Martin, a
Jesuit priest and author of "My Life With the
Saints." Popular belief holds that people who wish to enlist
Methods
of burying the statue vary. Instructions in one package give buyers several options,
including burying it upside-down next to the "For Sale" sign, burying
it three feet from the rear of the house and burying it next to the front door
facing away from the home. Phil Cates, owner of stjosephstatue.com, says:
"I've seen it buried in all types of places with all types of
ceremonies." He says the detailed burial instructions are largely intended
to prevent people from forgetting where they put their
Theologians
say there's no official doctrine that calls for the statue's interment. The
practice may have stemmed from medieval rites of land possession, in which
conquerors claimed land by planting a cross or banner, says Jaime Lara,
associate professor of Christian Art and Architecture at
Some
clergy aren't sure how
"I
think it's much more respectful than burying the poor guy," says Msgr.
Andrew Connell, the archdiocesan director of the Pontifical Society for the
Propagation of the Faith in
"We
don't advocate burying," he says. "Some of those statues are quite
beautiful."
Catholic
leaders also say that faith and devotion are necessary, in addition to burying
a statue, otherwise the practice amounts to little
more than superstition or magic. But they are also enjoying the saint's
newfound popularity. "If they have a good result and they think it was
Once
someone's home sells, the custom holds, the statue should be dug up and put in
a place of honor in the new home. That's what Ms. Luna did after she and her
husband sold their house shortly after burying
But
not everyone is aware of the follow-up step. Trudy Lopez and her husband buried
a statue of
"And
I'm thinking, 'If my family knew what I am doing, they'd die,' " she
says.
Soon
they got an offer, but didn't realize they were supposed to bring the statue
with them to their new home.
"I'm
afraid a lot of the statues won't be unearthed and someone will go over
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB119370066239175607.html
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