U.S. priest will soon be a step from sainthood
Catholic officials say a Panamanian woman’s prayer at Casey’s tomb in Detroit was answered with a miracle: Her skin disease was healed through his intercession.
DETROIT — When Father Solanus Casey is beatified Saturday as “Blessed Solanus,” the legendary Catholic priest will become an even greater inspiration — and rarity.
The Capuchin friar will be the third person born in the United States to be beatified. The other two are Miriam Teresa Demjanovich, a Sister of Charity who was born in 1901 in Bayonne, N.J., and died in 1927; and the Rev. Stanley Rother, a missionary born in 1935 in Okarche, Okla., and murdered in 1982 in Guatemala.
Casey will be granted the title of Blessed, one step from being named a Catholic saint.
By a decree of Pope Francis, Casey will be honored because Catholic officials say a Panamanian woman’s prayer at Casey’s tomb in Detroit was answered with a miracle: Her skin disease was healed through his intercession.
Nearly 70,000 people — from parishes across metro Detroit as well as Guam, Ireland, Italy and Panama — are expected to pack Ford Field downtown for the beatification ceremony and four-hour Mass. About 500 priests will be in attendance, including 235 brown-robed Capuchin friars and four red-robed Catholic cardinals. It will be ordinary and extraordinary. Casey, born in 1870 in Oak Grove, Wis., was a member of the Capuchin Franciscan Order of St. Joseph and helped start the Capuchin Soup Kitchen in Detroit.
“Father Solanus is, in some ways, one of the premier citizens of our city,” Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron said. He added that Casey’s beatification will be a “jubilant celebration” and recognition that Pope Francis “sees great holiness in father’s life.”
The priest’s beatification coincides with an upswing in national attention on Detroit, as it experiences a civic revitalization amid entrenched poverty.
“It’s a critical thing for the church in Detroit to bring hope, and Father Solanus helps with hope,” said the Rev. David Preuss, director of the Solanus Casey Center at the Capuchin monastery.
“He was not a martyr or a great preacher. He was someone who was given a menial job. He was a receptionist, but when people came to the door, he gave such loving care of them that he transformed them,” Preuss said. “Where he goes beyond us is in his depth of faith and prayer. It allowed God to use him for miraculous purposes.”
As much as he was known as a healing mystic, Casey also was an ordinary man in the years he lived at the monastery. Generations of Catholics here cherish stories of how a family member visited the humble friar at the Capuchin monastery.
Casey was known to enjoy Detroit coney dogs and the Detroit Tigers. His tomb at the monastery is adorned with the image of a violin. He loved to play it, albeit not well.
“The other friars used to put their fingers in their ears,” said Brother Richard Merling, a Capuchin who as a youngster met Casey and has worked on his sainthood cause for decades.