Lucky Charms Pt. II - Jo Meet (St.) Joe

We had our little bulls for about two to three weeks, prior to our wedding (July 3^rd of this year).  As we continued our house hunting, weeks, and then months went by, and we were still at square one without a home. Justin and I thought we needed a little something extra and drew upon our Catholic roots…if you guessed that we got a St. Joseph statue, you’re absolutely right!

I know what you’re probably thinking to yourself right now:  “Joanne, I thought these St. Joseph statues were only for home sellers having difficulty selling their homes, not homebuyers.” Well, I did some research (i.e. surfing the internet) and found out that St. Joseph is not only the patron saint for home sellers, but also for all real estate.  I bet it’s due to his mad carpenter skills!! Woot, woot! (just kidding J)

After finding out this neat little tidbit, I went off on a St. Joseph statue hunt (during my lunch break at work).  My search for catholic supply shops led me to The Paschal Lamb in Fairfax, VA.  As I was perusing their statue section I had some difficulty picking out St. Joseph from the rest of the other saints (they all seemed to share a similar look back in the day). I asked the salesperson to point me in the right direction and she led me to this:

This looks like a Jell-O pudding pop :/

Bleh, I am not a fan.  It was colorless, cheap, hollow, and plastic.  These statues were more appropriate for burying in the yard (its actual intended use), but definitely not something to display in your house.  Not digging this colorless selection of St. Joe, I asked the salesperson to show me some statues that were a little nicer, with a little more color and personality.   The salesperson then showed me a display of porcelain saints, to which she cheerfully said, “These are hand painted from Italy!”  As I looked at these colorful, “hand painted” versions of my potential lucky charm, I could see one of them begin to mouth something to me with its lips.  Was I seeing things or did the St. Joseph statue tell me he’s expensive?  Nope, I was just seeing things, but by just looking at these statues, you knew they definitely weren’t cheap.  “Hand painted from Italy” equals “expensive”.  I had to think for a moment how much I was willing to spend on this thing, but I figured I should shell out the extra dollars if this was going to get plenty of face time in our current and future home.   It may even come in handy if we ever want to sell our home in the future.

A fine piece of Italian craftsmanship: Our St. Joseph Statue

As evidenced in my first post, we succeeded in getting our first place.  Now, do I think the St. Joseph statue had anything to do with it? Well, a week after I purchased the statue (with the blessing by our priest the following Sunday), we found out that our offer was accepted. Coincidence? Possibly…or maybe we got a little divine intervention J

You can find out more about this tradition/superstition here.