talk with the doorkeeper about their family, medical, and added amazing endings. Among them: and fi nancial problems were long — every day. Our Sunday Visitor engages, catechizes, and • “Papa went to confession and Holy Communion inspires millions of Catholics with relevant and In New York parishes and later back at St. Bonaventure for the fi rst time in 49 years,” Solanus penned easy-to-read pamphlets like this one. e wide Blessed Monastery in Detroit and at St. Felix Friary in at the end of an entry about a woman asking for range of topics available includes: Huntington, Indiana, Father Solanus reminded people prayers for her father who had le the Church. • Church teachings that he couldn’t hear confessions. He did assure them • e sacraments Solanus of God’s mercy and unbounded love. “ ank God • “Walking out of the monastery without • Current events ahead of time,” he counseled. “His plans for us are assistance” followed his notations on a forty- • Seasonal themes always the best.” six-year-old man who suff ered a fractured skull • Stewardship Casey and broken back several weeks earlier in a car accident. e man was carried in to see Father • Papal teachings Solanus. To view our current off erings and see sample God’s Doorkeeper • “Declared entirely cured July 2 without having PDFs online, visit osv.com/pamphlets. any operation.” Father Solanus added that note to data recorded about fi  y-nine-year-old Bertha Smith who’d been diagnosed with stomach cancer. She’d already had four operations at Detroit’s Ford Hospital.

Father Solanus with visitors in As the decades moved by, Capuchin authorities tried Huntington, Indiana, c. 1954. to reduce demands made on Father Solanus. He was getting old and rarely got more than fi ve hours of sleep a night. To the frustration of his superiors trying to Father Solanus Casey’s Spiritual Counsel: ease his burdens, Father Solanus always found it hard “ ank God Ahead of Time” to turn away hurting and needy people. A terribly painful skin disease plagued Father Solanus To order additional quantities of this or any other pamphlet contact: Let us thank him at all times and under whatever 1-800-348-2440 • Fax: 1-800-498-6709 • www.osv.com circumstances. ank him for our creation and our in his last years. In the summer of 1957 he was existence; thank him for everything…. We should thank hospitalized. On the morning of July 31, he sat up and By Catherine Odell him frequently for not only the blessings of the past and stretched out his arms as if on the cross. “I give my soul For Review Only. to Jesus Christ,” he said before falling back and taking Copyright © by Our Sunday Visitor, Inc. present but also thank him ahead of time for whatever No part of this pamphlet may be reprinted or reproduced in any form. he foresees is pleasing to him that we suff er. We should his last breath. Father Solanus was eighty-six. Twenty do this not only in general but in each particular case. thousand people came to the doorkeeper’s wake and Inventory No. P1952 funeral. Nihil Obstat: Msgr. Michael Heintz, Ph.D. Censor Librorum e simple tomb of Father Solanus Imprimatur: ✠ Kevin C. Rhoades Today, people come Casey, at the threshold of the As well as providing a listening ear, Father Solanus Bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend continued to demonstrate his devotion to prayer, from all over the public chapel of St. Bonaventure’s 010/17 Monastery, Detroit. Copyright Our Sunday Visitor, Inc. healing, and the Church. He asked those who could world to see his e Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur are offi cial declarations that a book aff ord it to make a contribution to the Capuchins’ tomb. ey leave or pamphlet is free of doctrinal or moral error. No implication is Seraphic Mass Association, which supported Capuchin tiny slips of paper contained therein that those who have granted the Nihil Obstat or Imprimatur agree with the contents, opinions, or statements expressed. missions around the world. While Father Solanus was with prayer requests still in New York, his Capuchin superiors asked him atop his tomb. Photographs and painting are taken from Solanus Casey: e Story to keep a record of prayer requests. He also took notes Father Solanus’ of Solanus Casey by Catherine M. Odell when a healing or an unexplainable turn of events was legacy lives on. He reported. is a model for the value of caring and Eventually, Father Solanus fi lled seven ledger-style continues to teach notebooks with notes on more than 6,000 “cases.” On us the power of about 700 of those case notations, he later went back listening. Geerts Dendy Nancy by Painting For Review Only. Copyright Our Sunday Visitor, Inc. n November 18, 2017, Father A Capuchin Vocation Solanus Casey, O.F.M. Cap. O A er years of prayer and soul- (1870-1957), was beatifi ed in searching, Barney felt that God Detroit, Michigan. Beatifi cation was calling him to be a priest. moves the priest, declared He entered the seminary of the venerable in 1995, much closer to Archdiocese of Milwaukee but sainthood through the Church’s had to leave because of academic offi cial canonization process. problems. At the age of twenty- Father Solanus Casey, a so - six, he entered the seminary again spoken Capuchin priest and son Retouched photo of Ellen and Bernard Casey, taken around 1890. in Detroit, joining the Order of of Irish immigrants, is one of the Friars Minor Capuchin, a branch currently few native-born North of the Franciscan order. Since the Americans to be beatifi ed. seminary faculty spoke mostly German, Barney was e Capuchin soup kitchen in Detroit about 1939. at a disadvantage again. His superiors were eventually Detroit and the Path to Father Solanus is shown top le . concerned with his theological knowledge and Sainthood understanding. When ordination fi nally came in 1904, ough Father Solanus died many decades ago, Detroit e three Casey brothers, shown in Barney — by then “Father Solanus” — was ordained a picture from 1913, who became Wisconsin Farm Boy as a simplex priest. He couldn’t exercise the priestly has never forgotten him. Authentic and approachable, priests. From le , Father Maurice, Father Solanus was devoted to the Detroit Tigers. He Father Edward, and Father Solanus. Bernard Francis Casey Jr. was born on November faculties of hearing confessions or preaching homilies loved hot dogs with onions, shooting pool, family 25, 1870, in Oak Grove, Wisconsin. “Barney” was — ordinary responsibilities for a parish priest. reunions, and practical jokes. Most of all, as others the sixth child of Ellen and Bernard Casey Sr., and, knew, he loved God and helping others. In 1929, four time, the archbishop said, because she didn’t want to a er three boys, the couple decided to give this son Obedience and days a er the Stock Market Crash, Father Solanus draw undue attention to herself — a consideration that his father’s name — Bernard Francis. More Casey Acceptance helped start a soup kitchen. All too soon, as automobile mirrored Father Solanus’ own qualities. children followed, and eventually there were sixteen What limitations factories closed, it was feeding between 1,500 and 3,000 children in the close-knit Casey clan. ey farmed on these were for a people a day. Even with this great legacy, in the eyes of the Midwestern frontier, and every young Casey child 34-year-old priest many it was undoubtedly his ministry of prayer and North American Saints helped to support the family. who wanted to give healing that made him a saint. and Martyrs Farming was a risky business, and the nightly Casey everything to God! However, it requires more than a legacy and life family Rosary o en ended with prayers for good ough it surely devoted to prayer and healing to be offi cially • Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774- harvests and protection from prairie fi res, locusts, and humiliated him, recognized by the Church as a blessed or saint. On May 1821): born in New York City drought. Father Solanus 4, 2017, speaking to an excited and joyous crowd at the and canonized in 1975. was completely Solanus Casey Center in St. Bonaventure Monastery ere was a spiritual depth in Barney that stood obedient and in Detroit, Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron explained • Katharine Drexel (1858-1955): born out, even in his large, busy family. He was deeply ready for any role. At the large oak desk he used near the main entrance of St. Bonaven- that the miracle needed for the beatifi cation of Solanus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and committed to prayer, especially the Rosary. At the same His fi rst pastoral canonized in 2000. ture’s Monastery in Detroit, Father Casey had been approved in September 2016 by the time, he was witty, handsome, athletic, and strong. He assignments were at Solanus enrolls a visitor in the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. e miracle was a fearless catcher for family baseball games, but, he Capuchin parishes in Seraphic Mass Association. involved a foreigner, a woman with an incurable, • Kateri Tekakwitha (1656- wouldn’t participate in the amateur boxing matches his New York. Solanus congenital skin disease. She was visiting friends in 1680): born in Auriesville, brothers organized, apparently because he didn’t like was given simple jobs: acting as doorkeeper, training Detroit and asked to go to the Solanus Center to pray New York, and canonized the idea of hitting and hurting an opponent. altar boys, serving as sacristan, moderating the Ladies at the tomb of Father Solanus. She wanted to pray for in 2012. Sodality. At eighteen, he fell in love with Rebecca Tobin. A er others who needed healing. While praying, she heard • Francis Stanley Rother he proposed marriage, Rebecca’s mother refused to Ironically, parishioners were soon drawn to a voice within saying, “Pray for yourself.” She did, and (1935-1981): born in Okarche, give her consent and sent Rebecca away to boarding Father Solanus — fi nding that the doorkeeper was was instantly cured of a life-long skin ailment. Oklahoma, and beatifi ed on school. Shaken and sad, Barney continued working for compassionate, wise, and patient — and sought his Back in her own country, she went to fi ve doctors. September 23, 2017. some years as a streetcar conductor, fi rst in Stillwater, pastoral care. Unburdened by the usual responsibilities ey all agreed that there was no scientifi c explanation Minnesota, and later in Superior, Wisconsin. And yet of a parish priest, he had time to listen. God used that. he remained unsettled. Within a year or two, the lines of visitors wanting to for her cure. She wished to remain anonymous for a e Crosiers Shutterstock, Courtesy of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City For Review Only. Copyright Our Sunday Visitor, Inc.