Location, location, St. Joseph make sale

Tom Kerscher in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on how the downturn in home sales has lead to an upturn in sales of St. Joseph statue kits.

Indeed, many home sellers are eager to buy a kit, which runs about $5 and up, and stick the statue in the ground. But you're supposed to give it a little more respect than that.

Was it so long ago that this background would have been superfluous?

Joseph was a carpenter, the husband of Mary and the earthly father of Jesus.

Of more immediate importance,

Among his many patronages, he's considered by some to be the patron saint of house hunters and house sellers. The tradition of burying his statue to help sell a home is supposed to include prayers to St. Joseph. And, when you sell the home, you're supposed to dig up the statue and give it a place of honor in your new home.

The most honored part of that protocol is burying the statue. Next most honored is saying a prayer. The story quotes successful seller Clare Chin.

"I read the instructions and religiously followed them, although I'm not religious," she said.

Chin has since found two St. Joe statues buried in the yard of her new home - evidence that many people stop following the directions after they bury the saint's likeness.

More likely they stop following directions when the house sells. Reminds me of Wendell Sonny Lawson (Burt Reynolds) reneging on his bargain with God in The End.

Sales are also going "gangbusters" at the Marian Center of Milwaukee, where a dozen of the 48 statues that were delivered this month have already been sold, said office assistant Darlene Fisher.

Fisher said she makes sure to impress on buyers that they have to pray to St. Joseph.

"If they think that burying him is going to sell their house, that's a superstition, and we don't promote superstitions," she said.

Speaking of movies, as in the theme from Alfie, the statue is something even unbelievers can believe in.

David Teuteberg ... said he merely humored his wife, Lena, by agreeing to use St. Joseph when they put their Palmyra home up for sale two years ago.

Teuteberg said he thinks his wife didn't follow the kit's directions properly, but the home sold in about two weeks.

And, though he claims he's not a believer, Teuteberg said another St. Joe went in the ground two weeks ago when the couple put their Waukesha home on the market.