Having Medals/Jewelery Blessed Before Selling

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El_PAso

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Hi,

I make and sell sterling silver jewelry. I particularly like old Catholic medals and set them in rings. If your curious my work can be seen on etsy under AztexSilver.

I have never had any blessed before I sell them as I recall at a local church they make you pay for the item first, even if a priest is standing right there, before they will bless it. So I figure it breaks some kind of rule.

A friend wants one Mary medals that was made by a prisoner in Ciudad Juarez, Son. Mex… Back through the 1970’s the warden was getting old silver Mexican coins and having prisoners hand carve/engrave them into medals. They are quite something to see considering the used nails and glass and what ever they could find to make them. I figured my friend is Catholic but she is not. She is a “searcher” but has a “thing” for Mary. She is Christian of some sort.

Any way I would like to have it blessed for her but she has not bought it yet. I am 99% sure she will but she may not. But she would probably never have it blessed unless of course she becomes Catholic. She lives out of town and is visiting for one day this week and I will deliver it to her then. She can’t buy it and have me bless it…

Since she has a “thing” for Mary, a very good thing!, I figure have a sacramental would be nice for her to have.

Am I breaking any “rules” by having an item for sale blessed before money changes hands? Oh yea…she picked out one based on photos but I have a feeling she may want a different one when she sees them. So I would have to have both blessed and she’d probably only buy one….

Sorry to be so confusing…

Thanks,

EP
 
El_PAso said:
Hi,

I make and sell sterling silver jewelry. I particularly like old Catholic medals and set them in rings. If your curious my work can be seen on etsy under AztexSilver.

I have never had any blessed before I sell them as I recall at a local church they make you pay for the item first, even if a priest is standing right there, before they will bless it. So I figure it breaks some kind of rule.

A friend wants one Mary medals that was made by a prisoner in Ciudad Juarez, Son. Mex… Back through the 1970’s the warden was getting old silver Mexican coins and having prisoners hand carve/engrave them into medals. They are quite something to see considering the used nails and glass and what ever they could find to make them. I figured my friend is Catholic but she is not. She is a “searcher” but has a “thing” for Mary. She is Christian of some sort.

Any way I would like to have it blessed for her but she has not bought it yet. I am 99% sure she will but she may not. But she would probably never have it blessed unless of course she becomes Catholic. She lives out of town and is visiting for one day this week and I will deliver it to her then. She can’t buy it and have me bless it…

Since she has a “thing” for Mary, a very good thing!, I figure have a sacramental would be nice for her to have.

Am I breaking any “rules” by having an item for sale blessed before money changes hands? Oh yea…she picked out one based on photos but I have a feeling she may want a different one when she sees them. So I would have to have both blessed and she’d probably only buy one….

Sorry to be so confusing…

Thanks,

EP
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If an item is blessed then sold, it loses its blessing.
 
billcu1 said:
If an item is blessed then sold, it loses its blessing.
Click to expand...
Hmmm…

Is this “legend” or fact?

In all honesty she has “bought” it but we have not exchanged money yet. It is a custom order specifically for her.

I am not charging more for the blessing and do it out of good will. She will buy it blessed or not! So I am not dealing in blessings.

Thanks,

El Paso
 
It seems that selling blessed objects is a form of simony. The Catholic Encyclopedia has an article on Simony that you might want to check out.
 
El_PAso said:
Hmmm…

Is this “legend” or fact?

In all honesty she has “bought” it but we have not exchanged money yet. It is a custom order specifically for her.

I am not charging more for the blessing and do it out of good will. She will buy it blessed or not! So I am not dealing in blessings.

Thanks,

El Paso
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No, it’s fact. It is considered the sin of simony. In your case, it’s more of gray area. In the future though, it’s probably a better idea for the customer to have the item blessed themselves, lest it cause confusion and accusations of simony.
 
I was under the impression that selling a blessed article for more than it would cost unblessed is indeed simony, because the price has been raised due to the blessing and the vendor is thus selling both the article and the blessing. Blessings cannot be sold and no one should profit financially from one.

However, I thought it was all right to sell a blessed article for the same price as it would cost unblessed. For example, if I buy a rosary for $10 and sell it, unblessed, for $20, that’s fine. If I buy a rosary for $10, have it blessed and then sell it for $20, that’s also fine because I would have sold it for $20 regardless. If, however, I buy a rosary for $10 and sell it for $20 *because *it has been blessed, that would be simony. If I buy two rosaries for $10 each, have one blessed, sell the unblessed rosary for $20 and the blessed one for $25, the sale of the latter would also be simony if the only reason the price has been raised is the blessing.

Is this line of thinking accurate, or can a blessed item **never **be sold at any price without the item losing its blessing and the seller committing simony? :confused:
 
selling something that has been blessed, and advertising the fact that it has been blessed, is simony. On ebay I sometimes see medals and rosaries advertised as having been blessed by the Pope, or someone else important, which would make it more valuable by the connection to the name. This is wrong. If, however, that same object was sold without mention being made of the connection to the blessing, it is not simony, and perfectly OK. The object is still blessed, but the purchaser is not aware of the attached blessing.

Relics are a whole other ballgame.
 
billcu1 said:
If an item is blessed then sold, it loses its blessing.
Click to expand...
Nonsense!

Items sold in the Vatican gift shops are blessed!

Blessings and grace are not revoked…that would be like saying the grace received at baptism or reconciliation is stripped away once you sin again!
 
Neofight said:
Nonsense!

Items sold in the Vatican gift shops are blessed!

Blessings and grace are not revoked…that would be like saying the grace received at baptism or reconciliation is stripped away once you sin again!
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Who says? (not!)

One will not find that Vatican gift shops (those in the Vatican) engage in selling blessed items.

Items purchased there are often then taken the person who bought them -to the Weds Audience to be blessed by the Pope.

And as to Baptism and Reconciliation -yes sanctifying grace et al- IS LOST -upon the committing of a Mortal sin. So yes one “strips it away by oneself” upon committing such. One needs to repent and return to Confession!

As to blessed sacramentals -one will certainly find it said by many that an article looses its blessing upon being sold.

Not sure if one will find current documents to that effect --but it may be “supposed” and the article should be re-blessed.

It is quite certain that something which is blessed with an indulgence attached to it (-which happens when a medal, scapular, rosary, cross or crucifix -is blessed) --does certainly loose the indulgence if it is sold.

As the current Norms on Indulgences from the Church states:

N16 .2 “An indulgence attached to the use of an article of devotion ceases…if the article is destroyed or sold.”

(such is from the Holy See)

usccbpublishing.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=705
 
Thanks for all the great replies,

I had forgotten about the sin of Simony. I am on firm ground as the article was special ordered, price settled upon then I thought about having it blessed. So blessed or no the price is the same. If she was local I would have gotten the money up front and had it blessed but since at distance our transaction is different.

Since the recipient is not Catholic she would probably not get it blessed on her own, but since she is being drawn to Mary I feel a blessing will be nice. I am having it blessed simply as a favor.

Now I will not be getting my work blessed before sale even though I would not sell for more. As stated above this is an extraordinary circumstance.

thanks,

EP
 
Bookcat said:
Who says? (not!)

It is quite certain that something which is blessed with an indulgence attached to it (-which happens when a medal, scapular, rosary, cross or crucifix -is blessed) --does certainly loose the indulgence if it is sold.

As the current Norms on Indulgences from the Church states:

N16 .2 “An indulgence attached to the use of an article of devotion ceases…if the article is destroyed or sold.”

(such is from the Holy See)

usccbpublishing.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=705
Click to expand...
The issue was whether the blessing, not the indulgence was lost.

You’re opening the door to a practice of proper disposal of damaged sacramental…I have a rosary string broken, or a statue unable to stand…rather than worry about proper disposal, I just sell it for scrap and it is no longer sacramental, therefore nothing irregular has transpired? I think not.
 
Can. 1269 notes that sacred objects can loose their blessing (but it does not note how).

And the fact that the norms regarding *indulgences *state that the indulgence *is lost *if the object is sold seems quite pertinent here (the norms regarding indulgences note are referring to indulgences per se cause that is what they are about) -after all the indulgence comes with the blessing of the sacramental.
 
I have always been told to get rid of a sacramental to bury it. I am sure there are other valid means. And anything blessed has always been given to me. And I was told not to sell things blessed. The only thing I would know to do for sure is ask a priest or Bishop.

Bill
 
I have another question to ask that relates to this:

What if the item is blessed and you don’t buy it but you give a “donation”? I have come upon certain internet shops run by brothers/sisters that carry items that come “blessed” but when you add them to your cart it states “donation” instead of “buy” for the prompt. Is this a legitimate way of being able to attain a “blessed” item?
 
dreamfleur said:
I have another question to ask that relates to this:

What if the item is blessed and you don’t buy it but you give a “donation”? I have come upon certain internet shops run by brothers/sisters that carry items that come “blessed” but when you add them to your cart it states “donation” instead of “buy” for the prompt. Is this a legitimate way of being able to attain a “blessed” item?
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In any case I would have the item blessed afterwards.
 
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