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Introduction

What is a saint?

Trappist Thomas Merton wrote that the true saint wanted to become “a window through which God’s mercy shines on the world.” For that reason, Merton said, a saint “strives to be holy … in order that the goodness of God may never be obscured by any selfish act.” Fr. Merton’s musings about sainthood had not yet been written when Fr. Solanus Casey, OFM Cap, died on the last day of July in 1957. Without a doubt, however, many who knew Solanus would have asserted that he fit the Trappist’s vision of a saint. In his eighty-six years, the unassuming doorkeeper had indeed been a wonderful and ever-open window for God’s mercy.

Several days after the death of Fr. Solanus in Detroit, his Capuchin brothers went to his small room at St. Bonaventure’s Friary to collect his things. The brothers found some clothing and shoes, a brown skullcap, family photos and letters, a trunk, a few books, a pair of wire-rimmed glasses, a violin, pictures of the Blessed Virgin, a rosary, and the red stole he used each Wednesday at the 3:00 p.m. healing service. It was a poor man’s holdings.

Also discovered were seven ledger-style notebooks that Solanus had kept for more than thirty years. These notebooks recorded prayer requests made of Solanus and the Seraphic Mass Association. Six thousand “cases,” as Fr. Solanus called them, were included in the notebooks. On 700 of those case notations, he later went back to add some rather astonishing postscripts. Healings were reported. Conversions were confirmed. Threatened bankruptcies, mental breakdowns, even divorces appeared mysteriously averted. Other great and inspiring stories of astonishing wonders were only hinted at in the terse self-effacing remarks added by the notebook’s author:

• “Papa went to confession and Holy Communion for the first time in 49 years,” Solanus penned at the end of an entry about a woman asking for prayers for her father who had left the Church.

• “Walking out of the monastery without assistance,” followed his notations on a forty-six-year-old man who suffered a fractured skull and broken back several weeks earlier in a car accident. The man had been carried in to see Solanus.

• “Declared entirely cured July 2 without having any operation.” Solanus added that note to data recorded about fifty-nine-year-old Bertha Smith, who had been diagnosed with stomach cancer. She had already had four operations at Detroit’s Ford Hospital.

It was the stories from these notebooks, as well as the testimonies about his holiness from hundreds who had known Fr. Francis Solanus Casey, which seemed to establish his cause for sainthood.

Although the city of Detroit had informally “canonized” the soft-spoken Capuchin doorkeeper decades before his death, an official Church investigation into the virtues of Fr. Solanus wasn’t announced by Cardinal John Dearden, the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Detroit, until 1976. All of Fr. Solanus’s writings and many testimonials of those who knew him were gathered. More than 3,600 pages of documents were collected and transported to Rome.

From 1960, three years after his death, Fr. Solanus’s story was also being spread through the Father Solanus Guild, a group of devotees who distributed information about his life and ministry. The guild grew to a membership of one hundred thousand in forty-three countries. And at St. Bonaventure Monastery in Detroit, an impressive Solanus Casey Center was built in 2002. It quickly became a pilgrimage site and annually draws up to two hundred thousand visitors from around the world. Pilgrims can visit his tomb and learn not only about the life of Solanus Casey but also about other saintly Christians who, like the doorkeeper, boldly lived the Christian beatitudes and the works of mercy.

On July 11, 1995, in Rome, Pope John Paul II declared that Fr. Solanus had certainly lived a life of “heroic virtue.” From then on, Fr. Solanus would be referred to as “Venerable Solanus Casey.” The declaration of “venerable” status is the first of three major steps toward sainthood.

In September 2016, the miracle needed for the beatification of Solanus Casey was approved by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. The miracle involved a woman with an incurable, congenital skin disease who was visiting the United States. She was visiting a Capuchin friend in Detroit and went to the Solanus Center to pray at the tomb of Fr. Solanus. She wanted to pray for others who needed healing. While praying, she heard a voice within telling her: “Pray for yourself.” She did and was instantly cured of the lifelong skin ailment. When she returned home to her own country, she went to five doctors. They all agreed that there was no scientific explanation for her cure. She wished to remain anonymous for a time because she did not want to draw undue attention to herself.

On May 4, 2017, Pope Francis announced that Venerable Solanus Casey would be beatified. On that same day, Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron of Detroit announced that the necessary miracle had been approved. A few weeks later, the date for beatification ceremonies was set for November 18, 2017, at Ford Stadium in Detroit.

Once a person is beatified and declared “blessed,” public devotion to the person is then permitted. Churches may be named after the beatified person. Statues or pictures of the person may be displayed. Masses may be said in his or her honor. Solanus Casey is the second native-born American man to be beatified. Fr. Stanley Rother (1935–1981), born in Oklahoma and martyred as a missionary in Guatemala in 1981, was to be beatified a few weeks earlier on September 23, 2017.

A new miracle occurring after his beatification must be verified to move the Solanus Casey cause to the final stage — canonization. The Capuchin community along with supporters around the world and the city of Detroit believe that will happen before long. The life of Fr. Solanus changed others, often after no more than a momentary meeting. His closeness to the Lord was so apparent that people of all ages, creeds, economic backgrounds, and cultures were drawn to him.

“Don’t worry. God’s in charge,” Fr. Solanus Casey often advised those who came to ask for his prayers. “God knows the best way to get things done.” He also reminded worried visitors that nothing in this world could block God’s blessings and mercy.

One day, during Fr. Solanus’s time in Detroit, a small boy with a cast on his arm sat in the front waiting room of St. Bonaventure’s friary. After dozens of others moved ahead to ask the bearded Capuchin for a blessing, the boy finally moved to the porter’s desk with his mother. He had heard of the wonderful healings accomplished through this priest’s prayers. Suddenly, to the mother’s surprise, the boy began to tug anxiously at the cast encasing his arm.

The friar with the warm blue eyes and smile leaned over the desk to speak to the boy. He knew what the child was thinking. “God’s blessing goes right on through,” Fr. Solanus reassured the boy. With that, he blessed the youngster’s arm — cast and all — and then his mother. The boy’s face lit up with understanding and peace. He smiled back at Fr. Solanus and took him at his word.

In this book, I hope you will see how one man’s life and faith led many people from all walks of life to see that God’s blessings do penetrate — and transform — the pain, troubles, heartaches, and sickness in our lives.

Catherine M. Odell

August 9, 2017