Fr. Solanus Casey gives Communion to a family during his 50th jubilee Mass in 1954. For Fr. Solanus, it was God — specifically the Mass — who was responsible for the thousands of healings attributed to his intercession. The friar’s refusal to accept that it was anyone other than his Creator who was responsible for the miraculous cures that so often followed his Wednesday afternoon healing services at St. Bonaventure Monastery or upon his enrolling a guest in the Seraphic Mass Association was almost as predictable as the favors themselves.
Capuchin Fr. Solanus Casey reads Scripture in this 1945 file photo. Below the photo, he writes, “Only in heaven can we be fully and really converted. Therefore — including the above poor Fr. Solanus — pray for the conversion of sinners, and that God send laborers into His harvest. Fr. Solanus, OFM Cap.” (Photos courtesy of the Solanus Casey Center)That isn’t to say Fr. Solanus thought each and every report was a miracle; only that if it was, it was God and only God who was due thanks.
“He thought of himself in relation to the reported cures as an onlooker,” wrote James Patrick Derum in his 1968 biography, “The Porter of St. Bonaventure’s.” “Had anyone suggested to him that some of the reports might have resulted from the excited fancy of the afflicted one, or that doctors might have misdiagnosed a case, he undoubtedly, in his gentle and easy manner, would have admitted such possibilities. But he would never have doubted the power of prayer and of the Mass, nor that many of the reported cures were the result of that power.”
For Fr. Solanus, “such signs of God’s love were to be expected,” Derum wrote, and he was never surprised when someone reported an answer to prayer.
When such favors became a regular occurrence, his superiors ordered Fr. Solanus to keep notes.
“We have a number of volumes with these short notes,” said Bro. Richard Merling, OFM Cap., director of the Father Solanus Guild and co-vice postulator for his sainthood cause. “They would read, ‘So and so was into the office today and they reported their mother is doing much better after they enrolled in the Mass association.’ Or ‘So and so was on their deathbed and they’re up and running today.’ Just little notations of wonderful little favors that were being reported back to him.”
The notes were simple, often followed by an exclamatory remark, such as “Deo Gratias!” or “Thanks be to God,” a sign of the friar’s own joy and amazement.
Fr. Solanus’ belief in the power of the Mass was a driving force behind his counsel to people, which included his insistence that they, too, should avail themselves of its graces.
“He would encourage people to go to Mass and receive the Eucharist. It wasn’t just some magical thing that he signed them up for; it was a way of linking them into the Mass and receiving Communion and growing your own faith before asking God to answer your prayer,” said Fr. Larry Webber, OFM Cap., the other vice postulator. “It was a way to encourage people to show some gesture of faith on their own.”
To Fr. Solanus, helping others started with showing them the love God had for them. Throughout his life, this took many forms, through his tireless counseling — even when he himself grew weary — his refusal to say “no” to anyone who asked for his help, and his own steadfast prayer.
“There are two things people always repeat about him: ‘Thank God ahead of time’ and ‘Blessed be God in all His designs.’ There was this tremendous confidence and trust in God’s will, and that was very much a part of him,” Fr. Webber said. “He spent a great deal of time in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament at night for people who had come to him during the day. He also had a tremendous devotion to the Blessed Mother, which was very important to him. He trusted in her as well as the intercession of the saints.”
Though it’s often reported that Fr. Solanus himself had many physical ailments, he did record on at least one occasion his own “favor,” which he attributed to the intercession of the future St. Therese of Lisieux, the “Little Flower.”
In an unfinished letter written in 1950, Fr. Solanus tells of losing most of his hearing as a young friar in 1909.
“I had returned a certain Thursday evening from the specialist with a throbbing earache after a very painful treatment and very delicate and dangerous propositions,” Fr. Solanus wrote. “Five years before that, I had read the life of Sister Therese Martin, till then seemingly quite unknown; and had greatly profited thereby, happy in the communion of saints as I felt, on having met another heavenly little friend.
“Well, in my anxiety that night I made a ‘mental proposition’ to her that if she would help to save my hearing I’d read her life again,” Fr. Solanus continued. “I was even then confident that she could help me, and that being already in Heaven she would.
The office doors to St. Bonaventure Monastery, where Fr. Solanus served for two decades as porter, is seen in this photo from James Patrick Derum’s book, “The Porter of St. Bonaventure’s.” (File photo | "The Porter of St. Bonaventure’s")“With no further trouble that night I slept well, and next morning at the first douche of water on my face, there was like a bubble broke in my bad ear and I thought, ‘Thank God! My drum is not broken.’ Before 24 hours my hearing was perfect; and, what is further notable, I’ve had practically no trouble with my hearing ever since.”
Fr. Solanus later reported he had read St. Therese’s autobiography “fifteen times since” and “have had at least that many favors.”
Fr. Solanus’ deep spirituality was well-known among his brother friars, who often would find him asleep on the floor in the choir chapel before the Blessed Sacrament, Bro. Merling said.
“It was a custom for us in prayer at the time to raise our hands outstretched on the floor,” Bro. Merling related. “Most friars, given that it was a custom, would spend two or three minutes like that, but he would spend hours. He had that great confidence and trust that God was there with him.”
In the presence of his Lord, there was little that could shake Fr. Solanus’ happy demeanor, Bro. Merling said, even a night of slumber on the hardest of beds.
“The next morning, it was always joked that the friars would awaken him and say, ‘Father, you shouldn’t have been sleeping on those hard boards.’ And he would always say, ‘It’s OK; I slept on the soft side of the boards,’” Bro. Merling said. “He had a sense of humor with things.”
The Life of Fr. Solanus Casey
This article is the first of six about the life and ministry of Fr. Solanus Casey.
- Irish immigrant family instilled virtue, love of God in young Fr. Solanus
- A struggling student heeds a woman’s advice: ‘Go to Detroit’
- A ‘simple’ friar meets people where they are: at the monastery doors
- God sends a healing prophet: Fr. Solanus and the power of the Mass
- For Fr. Solanus, Jesus and the saints were a powerful combination
- Fr. Solanus’ last days: An ‘aura of holiness’ and suffering lifted to God
