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Solanus Casey

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Name
  
Solanus Casey


Role
  
Priest

Solanus Casey Get to Know Fr Solanus Solanus Center

Born
  
November 25, 1870 Oak Grove, Wisconsin United States (
1870-11-25
)

Major shrine
  
St. Bonaventure Monastery Detroit, Michigan

Died
  
July 31, 1957, Detroit, Michigan, United States

Parents
  
Bernard Casey, Ellen Casey

Books
  
Letters from Solanus Casey

Hear brother leo s favorite memory of father solanus casey


Solanus Casey (25 November 1870 – 31 July 1957) – born Bernard Francis Casey – was an American Roman Catholic priest and a professed member from the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin. He was known during his lifetime as a wonderworker known for his great faith and his abilities as a spiritual counselor but also for his great attention to the sick for whom he celebrated special Masses. The friar was dubbed a wonderworker for his working of miracles during his life which made him a much sought-after individual and came to be a revered and notable figure in Detroit where he resided. He was also a noted lover of the violin which was a trait he shared with his namesake Saint Francis Solanus.

Contents

Solanus Casey wwwtodayscatholicnewsorgwpcontentuploads2012

His cause for beatification commenced over a decade after his death and he became titled as Venerable in mid-1995. One miracle is required to be approved for him to be beatified with one such healing later receiving approval from Pope Francis in mid-2017; he shall be beatified in Detroit at Ford Field on 18 November 2017.

Solanus Casey The Solanus Casey Center

Venerable solanus casey


Childhood and studies

Bernard Francis Casey (nicknamed "Barney") was born on 25 November 1870 on a farm in the town of Oak Grove, Pierce County, Wisconsin, as the sixth of sixteen children to Bernard James Casey (6 October 1840 – 9 September 1915) and Ellen Elizabeth Murphy (1 September 1844 – 5 February 1918) who were both Irish immigrants. He was baptized on 18 December.

Solanus Casey Father Solanus Casey Priest Prophet and Porter ncregistercom

He contracted diphtheria in 1878 which permanently damaged his voice and left it wispy and slightly impaired; two siblings died as children from this also in 1878. The family later moved to Hudson. In 1878 he began school at Saint Mary's but this was cut short in October 1882 when the family relocated again though this time to Burkhardt in Saint Croix County. In 1887 he left the farm to work in a series of jobs in his home state and in Minnesota working as a lumberjack and a hospital orderly as well as working as a guard in the Minnesota state prison and a street car operator in Superior. His time as a prison guard saw him befriend a couple of Jesse James' cohorts. At first it seemed that he desired the married life when the mother of a girl he had proposed to suddenly sent her off to a boarding school.

Solanus Casey Solanus Casey Wikipedia

While working at his last job he witnessed a brutal murder which caused him to evaluate his life and his future; this event happened as he drove his car in a rowdy section of Superior where he saw a drunken sailor stab a woman to death. He then acted on a call he felt to the priesthood. But due to his limited formal education he enrolled at Saint Francis High School Seminary – the minor seminary of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee – in January 1891 hoping to become a diocesan priest. Classes there were taught either in German and Latin which he did not know how to speak. In due course he was advised that – due to his academic limitations – he should consider joining a religious order if he wanted to become a priest. There he could be ordained a "simplex" priest who could preside at a Mass but would not have the faculties for public preaching or hearing confessions. So he first returned home before deciding to make his application.

Solanus Casey Pope Francis announces Fr Solanus Casey to be declared blessed

Following this advice he applied to the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin in Detroit into which he was received in 1897. But his moving to Detroit came on 8 December 1896 after reflecting before a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary when he heard her distinct voice telling him to "go to Detroit". Upon the reception of the religious habit on 14 January 1897 he was given the religious name of "Solanus" after Saint Francis Solanus; both men shared a love of the violin. He made his vows on 21 July 1898. He struggled through his studies there but received his ordination to the priesthood on 24 July 1904 from Archbishop Sebastian Messmer at the Saint Francis of Assisi church in Milwaukee. Because he had not performed well enough in his studies he was ordained as a "sacerdos simplex". He celebrated his first Mass on 31 July 1904 in Appleton with his family present.

Priesthood

He served for a full two decades in a succession of assignments in friaries in New York. His first assignment was at the Sacred Heart Friary in Yonkers and was later transferred to New York City where he first served at Saint John's Church next to Penn Station and later at Our Lady Queen of Angels in Harlem.

He was recognized as an inspiring speaker. In August 1924 he was transferred to the Saint Bonaventure convent in Detroit where he worked until 1945. During this time he served for the most part as the simple porter (or receptionist and doorkeeper). Each Wednesday afternoon he conducted well-attended services for the sick and through these services became known for his great compassion and the amazing results of his consultations with visitors. People considered him instrumental in cures and other blessings received from him. He loved to kneel before the Eucharist in the quiet of the night; Father Benedict Groeschel once recalled visiting the convent on a warm night and was unable to sleep. Groeschel – around 3:00am – took a walk and arrived at the chapel where he put on two lights and saw Casey kneeling on the top step of the altar. Groeschel observed him for several moments and noted Casey didn't move – the priest simply flicked the lights off to leave Casey to his prayer.

Casey was also a violinist and he loved to play this for his fellow friars during their time of recreation though often accompanied this with an Irish song; his terrible singing voice was attributed to his speech impediment he had since his childhood. His fellow friars could not refrain from rolling their eyes or cuffing coughs so he would excuse himself politely and sneak down to the chapel to entertain an invisible audience at the tabernacle. The friar often fasted but did eat enough in moderation since for him that was essential. Until his late seventies he was able to join the younger religious in games of tennis and volleyball and even went jogging on occasion.

Declining health and death

In 1946 – in failing health and suffering from eczema over his entire body – he was transferred to the Capuchin novitiate of Saint Felix in Huntington in Indiana where he lived until 1956 when he was hospitalized in Detroit. In 1957 he was rushed to hospital for food poisoning and upon his release was noted by the friars that he was walking much slower and was scratching at his legs only to discover his skin was raw and infected which prompted a return to the hospital. The doctors diagnosed him with erysipelas – though another account has psoriasis – which was beyond treatment and the doctors were even considering amputation. This idea was dropped soon when the ulcers began to heal.

On 2 July 1957 he was readmitted to hospital for good after several back-and-forth trips due to the deterioration of his skin disease. When he was readmitted he was put on oxygen. His sister Martha came to visit him when his relations were notified of the seriousness of his condition; the two prayed the rosary together.

He died from erysipelas on 31 July 1957 at 11:00am at Saint John Hospital in Detroit with only his nurse at his side. A commemorative plaque was placed outside the door of the hospital room where he died. His last words reportedly were: "I give my soul to Jesus Christ." There was an estimated 20, 000 people who filed past his coffin prior to his funeral and burial in the cemetery of the Detroit convent he had lived in. On 8 July 1987 his remains were exhumed and reinterred inside the Father Solanus Casey Center at the Saint Bonaventure convent; his remains were found to be incorrupt save for a little decomposition on his elbows. His remains were clothed in a new habit prior to re-interment in a steel casket at the north transept. A range of miraculous cures have been associated with the late friar's intercession both when he was alive and after his death.

Exhumation

His remains were exhumed for the collection of first and second-class relics on August 1, 2017. His remains were placed in a new black casket and reinterred in a glass case instead of the previous wooden sarcophagus.

Beatification process

The beatification cause for the late friar commenced in Detroit after an informative phase for investigation was opened in 1976 in what could be a process overseeing the accumulation of witness interrogatories and documentation pertaining to life. The process concluded sometime later and all documentation was sent in several boxes to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome who validated the informative phase on 7 November 1986 while later receiving the Positio dossier from postulation officials around 1995. The theological advisors approved this dossier on 7 April 1995 as did the cardinal and bishop members of the C.C.S. on 20 June 1995. Pope John Paul II – on 11 July 1995 in a private audience with the C.C.S. prefect Alberto Bovone – confirmed that the late friar had lived a model life of heroic virtue and titled him as Venerable.

For the friar to be beatified a miracle (in normal circumstances a healing) had to receive approval though there had to be confirmation that science could not explain the miracle in question. Numerous cases were investigated including one that was researched and sent to the C.C.S. who validated that diocesan process on 3 April 1998 though this was debunked as being no legitimate miracle. Another case was investigated sometime later and the investigative phase for this ended in the diocese of the miracle's origin on 18 January 2015. This received C.C.S. validation on 12 October 2015 before a panel of medical experts approved the healing to be a miracle on 22 September 2016 during their meeting; theological consulters likewise approved this miracle on 19 January 2017. The members of the C.C.S. granted their own approval to this on 2 May 2017 before Pope Francis approved this miracle on 4 May thus approving that the late friar would be beatified. He shall be beatified on 18 November 2017 at Ford Field in Detroit.

The current postulator for this cause is the Capuchin friar Carlo Calloni.

Quotations

  • The only science that gives purpose to every other science is the science of religion—the science of our happy relationship with, and our providential dependence on God and our neighbor.
  • We are continually immersed in God's merciful grace like the air that permeates us.
  • Gratitude is the first sign of a thinking, rational creature.
  • Thank you God, in all your designs.
  • Confidence is the very soul of prayer.
  • Do not pray for easy lives; pray to be stronger people. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks.
  • Like the Holy Trinity, Faith, Hope and Charity are one. Theoretically, Faith, like the Eternal Father, comes first, but in both cases they are essentially one.
  • God condescends to use our powers if we don't spoil His plans by ours.
  • We must be faithful to the present moment or we will frustrate the plan of God for our lives.
  • Many are the rainbows, the sunbursts, the gentle breezes—and the hailstorms—we are liable to meet before, by the grace of God, we shall be able to tumble into our graves with the confidence of tired children into their places of peaceful slumber.
  • References

    Solanus Casey Wikipedia