Catholic Folk, Help Me Figure This Out

[puglogic]

When digging a new garden this summer, I saw something shiny under my shovel. When I dug it out and brushed it off, I found that it was a medal bearing the likeness (and name) of Saint John.

I know about burying medals of Saint Joseph to help sell a house, but I've never heard of someone burying Saint John. I'm curious, obviously, how this medal came to be buried a foot deep in my garden. Any thoughts on what its history might have been?

[catherine]

No idea. Maybe someone was gardening and it fell off and was never found?

[Lainey]

Maybe someone was gardening and it fell off and was never found?

That's my guess too. And I'd always heard that you have to bury a statute of St. Joseph (not a medal), and that it has to be buried upside down. And yes, I know someone who had trouble selling her house until her m-in-law advised her to do this, and voila, it worked.

[Tradd]

I'd guess the medal was simply lost.

[Glo]

I attributed selling our house to burying St. Joe face down. I think you had to plant him in a certain direction, too, but I forgot that part.

[SnakeBlitz33]

Superstitions. But, if it works, it works...

I'm an ex-Catholic... and I have never heard of burying a St. John medal. It's odd that it would be nearly a foot deep. If you live in a pre-dominately Catholic area, it could have some history behind it. I'm interested in knowing more when you get the chance. Post a picture if you can!

[Miss Cellane]

I'm voting for the medal got lost.

St. Joseph is the patron saint of home and family; that's why statues of St. Joseph are used when people want to sell their homes. I should point out this practice is not an official Catholic doctrine. There's a long history of various stories surrounding the practice, but it's basically akin to folklore.

The various St. Johns (there are a few of them) are patrons saints of:

Altar servers
Baptism
Booksellers
Boys
Editors
Firefighters
Heart patients
Jordan
Judges
Monks
Mystics
Orators
Priests
Preachers/speakers
Printers
The sick/skin diseases
Teachers
Turkey (the country, not the bird)

The only thing on this list that I could see someone burying the medal for would be the sick. It's not an established practice, but perhaps someone was following the general guidelines for the St. Joseph statue and hoping that a sick family member would be cured? But this is total supposition on my part.