v-e-r-y OFF topic, a query about Catholic statues

I "Googled" for it and found these links for you.

suzee spun a FINE 'yarn':

Thanks, anyways, Sue. (I was raised Catholic, the Church left me at age 13-ish, I left IT at age 18, and I HAD heard of it. It COULD be a Polish Catholic thing, they're very big on St. Joseph.... Noreen

Bernadette spun a FINE 'yarn':

Thanks, Bernadette! I'll forward this info to the feuding family mambers. Noreen

I was raised Catholic, and I never heard of this! Could be it's a superstition (?) unique to this family...?

sue

suzee spun a FINE 'yarn':

Yes, like the Irish with St. Patrick, the Poles (and Italians) in Chicago and up in WI claimed St. Joe, BIG-time, on March 19. In Chicago, all the Poles and Italians wore RED on St. Joes Day... funny that I still remember all this, it's a LONG time ago that the Church left me and I later left it.... :D Noreen

Ah that could be. I lived in the West so there weren't big ethnic groups, in or out of the Church. Unless you count Mormons...

sue

I was born and raised a Roman Catholic, and never heard of this superstition (and my Mom was from an Irish background and was *very* superstitious) until I moved into this house 3 1/2 years ago and the neighbour (a Dutch Roman Catholic) was trying to sell her house... she mentioned it to me then. She also said something about painting her door yellow to boost the sale of her house. Nothing to do with the statue, but a completely different superstition. Personally I find it disrespectful to bury a statue of any saint.

By the way... although you may not have meant it as such, I also find it disrespectful to call St Joseph "St Joe" just as I do not like to hear some people call St Anthony "St Tony". Unless you lived back when they did and knew them personally (which I highly doubt that anyone shortened names back then anyway), I don't think it is very nice to abbreviate someone's (most especially a saint's) name to make him/her sound like they are your buddy.

Just my opinion! Gemini

Not Likely spun a FINE 'yarn':

Gem, Sorry, didn't mean to offend, but gotta tell ya, our church,the one I grew up in, honest to god, was St' Joe's. NOT St. Joesph's. St. JOE'S. Noreen

YarnWright spun a FINE 'yarn':

AND, maybe it was a Chicago thing, but the church my Dad grew up in was not St. Patrick's, but St. Paddy's, honest to god, AND the church my uncle Lefty grew up in was St. Aggie's NOT St. Agnes's! Just my two cents, Noreen Oh, mom says her church, St. Stanislas Kostka, had the official *letterhead of St. Stash's*, and that one was in northern Wisc.

YarnWright spun a FINE 'yarn':

OH! Gem, I DO agree about burying seeming sacriledge. (My mother, to this day, cringes when a loaf of bread is upside down, she feels the "lord" is upside down when you do that.....) Silly, eh? Noreen

Noreen, Just what were they stash-ing: souls?! ;-))

-- Carey in MA

Carey N. spun a FINE 'yarn':

Carey N.. . .

No, St. Stash's is pronounced (Polish) StOsh's. (StAHsh's) Good one, tho, LOL! :D Noreen

How about money. Isn't that what churches always want? ;-) Forgive me if I offended anybody.

Macaroni (whom I normally ignore) spun a FINE 'yarn' and I had to reply in kind:

None taken. In fact, for once we agree (Church's/Money) If you look at my response to Carey, Stash is pronouned StAHsh/StOsh, so St. Stash's had nothing to do with stAshes. Stash is a Polish nickname for Stanley, and Stanslaus is the full Polish name for Stanley. N.

Macaroni (whom I normally ignore) spun a FINE 'yarn' and I had to reply in kind:

None taken. In fact, for once we agree (Church's/Money) If you look at my response to Carey, Stash is pronouned StAHsh/StOsh, so St. Stash's had nothing to do with stAshes. Stash is a Polish nickname for Stanley, and Stanslaus is the full Polish name for Stanley. N.

I didn't mean to sound pious or anything, I am far from that. I honestly never heard of any church abbreviating the names of the Saints... and always cringe when I hear it.

About your Mom and the bread... I *vaguely* remember my own Mom saying something about that, but her main thing was if bread fell on the floor, she always said "Someone belonging to me (ie family) is hungry. ;o)

As for religious superstitions... she hung the rosary on the clothesline on my wedding day so it wouldn't rain... and it didn't, even though the sky was very heavy with rain clouds most of the day. I remember Father Boyer grinning at her when she told him... he said his own mother used to do the same thing. ;o) That is the *only* religious superstition that has been done in our family though.

You know... the bread thing is likely because in the church bread is thought of as the body of Christ, hence the communion host (flat bread wafers). So your Mom and all the others before her obviously got it from that. :o)

Not Likely spun a FINE 'yarn':

Not Likely. . .

Wow, never heard of the Rosary one, will have to ask my Mom about that! :D As for the Church's using the short names or nicknames, the girls or boys basketball teams (all these Church's mentioned in Chicago) really did have St. Joes, etc on their uniforms.. Noreen

Not Likely spun a FINE 'yarn':

Not Likely. . .(Gem) I think you're correct! Although, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Communion bread, or WAFERS made from unleavened bread?? Just wondering... Noreen