BOSTON -- In order to sell a house these days, people are looking for all the help they can get.

A Boston area real estate agent is among those who've turned to a saint. And she believes it worked.

Facing a slow market  agent Judy Moore turned to a St. Joseph figurine. She buried it in the yard, head down. And she soon had a buyer.

Moore isn't alone in turning to St. Joseph. Stores nationwide that sell religious goods say sales of his statues are way up. They come with varying instructions, but they all boil down to burying the statue in the yard or near the "for sale" sign -- then saying a prayer for a buyer.

Linking St. Joseph to real estate goes back to the 16th century, when a nun buried his medal and prayed to him for help in getting land for convents.

These days, one theology professor has a more simple explanation: "In times of crisis," he says, "people try anything."

Edwina Baniqued