BREAKING NEWS
September 17, 2006
St. Joseph On a Roll
Selling a home or condo these days can be time-consuming and anxiety provoking, so much so that some home sellers are asking for divine intervention.

Case in point: St. Joseph. Lore has it that if you bury a statue of the saint upside down, facing the street (or facing the home), you can sell your home more quickly. Once you sell, you dig up St. Joseph and put the statue in a place of honor in your next home.

"Just how this ritual began is lost in the myth of time," Barron said.

The Web site, www.stjosephstatue.com, says however, that the tradition began hundreds of years ago in Europe. "During those times, an order of nuns prayed to St. Joseph [the patron saint of the family and household needs] when they needed more lands for convents. The sisters were encouraged to bury their St. Joseph medals in the ground," the Web site reports. The site sells "The Underground Real Estate Agent," which offers instructions and a statue.

You also can pick up a statue of the saint at many religious goods stores in the Chicago area. One of the most popular is the House of Hansen. Martin J. Ahrens, a co-owner since the '70s, says it offers a good selection of St. Joseph.

Ahrens said he's recently been seeing an increase in traffic to buy the statues. Real estate agents are one of Ahrens' biggest customers. "They come in and buy dozens at a time," Ahrens said. "Many people tell me it works, even the cynical ones."
Chicago Sun Times