Annoyed by St Joseph Statue Article

[Tybourne]

Here it is: catholic.org/featured/headline.php?ID=5497&wf=rsscol

The site does not have a comments section so I’m posting a response here. Burying statues of St Joseph is a venerable Catholic tradition as practised by St Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church and Blessed Br Andre of Mount Royal, Montreal, Canada among many others.

It’s not so much a question of whether or not this devotion is practiced but of the spirit in which it is done (devotion and faith vs. superstition). The Church does not exist only in the Magisterium, but in a balance between the Kingly authority of Rome, the Priestly authority of the Liturgy and popular devotions like this one and the Prophetic authority of the Church’s true theologians, such as St Teresa!

Any thoughts?

 

[Seatuck]

Here it is: catholic.org/featured/headline.php?ID=5497&wf=rsscol

The site does not have a comments section so I’m posting a response here. Burying statues of St Joseph is a venerable Catholic tradition as practised by St Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church and Blessed Br Andre of Mount Royal, Montreal, Canada among many others.

It’s not so much a question of whether or not this devotion is practiced but of the spirit in which it is done (devotion and faith vs. superstition). The Church does not exist only in the Magisterium, but in a balance between the Kingly authority of Rome, the Priestly authority of the Liturgy and popular devotions like this one and the Prophetic authority of the Church’s true theologians, such as St Teresa!

Any thoughts?

Can you provide some resource to show that those people buried statues and that it was accepted by the church as good?
I know some medals have been buried in the past by a saint or two, St Therese of Avilla for one… Blessed Andre had members of his order put St. Joseph in a unsheltered place so that he would provide a roof. I don’t think the church taught anything about that though.

I personally find it objectionable to bury a statue of St. Joseph upside down in order to sell your house. Why not put him in a prominent place and pray a novena instead? Those practices have definitely been approved of by the church.

So can you please use some church documentation for why you think the practice of burying a St is a venerable practice? Thanks.

 

[Lee_M]

I agree with the author of the article. I know people that have done this thinking this superstition is going to help them sell their house. I believe their time would be better spent in prayer.

 

[Tybourne]

Hi Seatuck and Lee,

Thanks for your replies. I read about this once in a letter of St Teresa but I’m sorry, I can’t find it online now. Hopefully someone else can help. It’s a sacramental and like any, can be abused. If someone lights a candle in church and then just walks away, that could be superstition. If they pray briefly and then leave the candle burning as an intention that their prayer continue in and with the Communion of Saints, that’s Catholicism! I think there is more danger today in lack of faith than in the possibility of superstition.

 

[OldAgeGuru]

We just bought a house, and the owners had buried a statue of St. Joseph in the yard. The day we closed they asked if they could swing by and dig him up. We were fine with that. They came over and couldn’t find him. Once the weather got a little less brutal outside we went to the garden store, bought some Passion flower seeds , found St. Joseph, washed him off, put him on the mantle and planted the seeds.