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美國房地產不景氣，人們要靠聖約瑟這個土地公公來保佑房子買得出。康州每個星期有５０－１００尊聖約瑟塑像買出去。
奇怪的是誰買這塑像，基徒肯定不買，不信的也應該不買。
SOUTHINGTON, Conn.—You know the housing market isn't exactly on fire when you have to turn to divine intervention to get your house sold.
more stories like thisAt Patrick Baker and Sons, a religious goods store, about 50 to 100 statues of St. Joseph, some as part of a home-seller kit, have been sold every week since the housing market started its downturn.
Many believe St. Joseph is the unofficial patron saint of real estate.
"We've been selling so many because the market is so bad," said store manager Moureen Kelly.
"We've heard amazing stories of how people have sold their homes. People of all denominations are doing it."
Kelly is a believer. She sold a house using the St. Joseph method, which works, according to the kits, by burying a St. Joseph statue upside down somewhere in your yard and reciting a St. Joseph's prayer over it.
The process is purported to attract a buyer and when the house sells, believers then dig up the statue, clean it off and display it in their new homes.
Kelly says her house, which had languished on the market, sold just a week after burying the statue.
Anne Stack, an employee at the store, says she sold two houses using the method.
One was sold after a month and a half of saintly intervention, and the other in four days, she said.
It's not exactly clear why St. Joseph, the patron saint of workers, of the prevention of doubt and hesitation, and of happy deaths, was chosen as a great seller of homes.
The most popular tale seems to be that nuns looking for land for a new convent buried a St. Joseph medallion and obtained some land soon after.
Another is that German carpenters buried St. Joseph statues in the foundations of the houses they built because Joseph had been a carpenter.
A number of Realtors said they had heard of people using the statues, but weren't especially confident in the saint's ability to sell houses.
Pricing a home realistically or applying a new coat of paint might do more good, they said.
Still, many swear by St. Joseph.
Stack pointed out the variety of statues available at the store. The basic model retails for $6.25 and comes with detailed instructions and an accompanying prayer.
The small statue is of a bearded Joseph, dressed in a robe and a smock and carrying a jug and some bread.
An ax and what appears to be a book rest at his feet.
Pricier statues, not part of a kit, cost as much as $52.50. The kit instructions emphasize that the specifics of what you do with the statue aren't as important as your belief and trust that St. Joseph will help you.
Ray Valenti, of Re/Max Schoolside Realtors, in Meriden, said the St. Joseph craze is nothing new.
He's not a believer in the method himself, but said that some of his clients use it.
"Even when the housing market was fantastic people did that," he said. "St. Joseph must be working real hard for lot of houses right now." |
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