DETROIT — The Solanus Casey Center and St. Bonaventure Monastery will host nine days of public Masses leading up to the July 30 feast day of Blessed Solanus Casey, the center announced July 21.

The novena of Masses starting today, July 22, will take place both online and in person, and will center on the theme “Opening Our Doors with Blessed Solanus Casey,” a tribute to the beloved Capuchin friar’s role as a “porter,” or doorkeeper. 

Blessed Solanus, who spent 20 years living and serving among Detroit’s poor before he died in 1957, was beatified in 2017 in a Mass attended by 60,000 people at Ford Field.

“This year’s novena encourages all to seek Blessed Solanus Casey’s inspiration to open the doors of our life more widely — to welcome all those God is bringing into our lives,” said a press release from the Solanus Casey Center. “Each day is a feast day of a saint or blessed that will help us focus on a particular aspect of our lives that God is inviting us to reflect on — and open up.”

Daily novena Masses will start at 7:45 a.m. inside the St. Bonaventure Monastery chapel, which will be open to visitors, though masks and social distancing guidelines will be in place. For those not attending in person, each day of the novena will be livestreamed on the Blessed Solanus Casey Facebook page, YouTube channel, Twitter account and at solanuscasey.org.

Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Gerard W. Battersby will celebrate Mass at 9 a.m. on Sunday, July 26, and three Masses will be celebrated on the feast day itself, July 30. Bro. Michael Sullivan, OFM Cap., provincial minister of the Capuchin Franciscan Province of St. Joseph, will celebrate Mass at 7:45 a.m.; Fr. David Preuss, OFM Cap., director of the Solanus Casey Center, will celebrate a noon Mass; and Fr. Edward Foley, OFM Cap., vice postulator for Blessed Solanus’ sainthood cause, will celebrate Mass at 7 p.m.

A full schedule of the novena can be found here.