Father Solanus Casey
Father Solanus Casey
The Story of Father Solanus
Revised and Updated
Catherine M. Odell
Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division
Our Sunday Visitor, Inc.
Huntington, Indiana 46750
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Copyright © 2017 by Catherine M. Odell. Published 2017.
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Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Division
Our Sunday Visitor, Inc.
200 Noll Plaza
Huntington, IN 46750
ISBN: 978-1-68192-225-6 (Inventory No. T1929)
eISBN: 978-1-68192-226-3
LCCN: 2017953210
Cover design: Tyler Ottinger
Cover photo by Br. Leo Wollenweber, OFM Cap (1950)
Interior design: Sherri L. Hoffman
Interior photos: Archdiocese of Detroit, Fr. Solanus Guild & Capuchins
Printed in the United States of America
About the Author
Catherine M. Odell, a native of South Bend, Indiana, grew up and was educated in the shadow of Notre Dame’s “Golden Dome.” A freelance journalist, curriculum writer, editor, and teacher, she is the author of eleven other books, including Our Sunday Visitor’s Those Who Saw Her: Apparitions of Mary, Faustina: Apostle of Divine Mercy, Praying the Rosary for Intercession, and Angels of the Lord: 365 Reflections on Our Heavenly Guardians (co-authored with Margaret Savitskas). Odell and her husband, Bill, have two grown children and make their home in South Bend. She is a committed organic gardener, baker, walker, and reader.
To my wonderful mother,Marcella Rose Anthony (1911–2005).Like Fr. Solanus,she showed those around her the joy and holiness of being thankful.
Contents
1. The Caseys’ Homestead in America (1865–1882)
2. Growing Up Well-Rooted (1882–1891)
3. Following a New Direction (1891–1898)
4. A Capuchin Vocation (1898–1904)
5. A Priest and Porter (1904–1918)
6. An Outbreak of “Special Favors” (1918–1924)
7. Back at St. Bonaventure’s (1924–1935)
8. Longer Lines and Longer Hours (1935–1945)
9. Brooklyn and the Archangel’s Wings (1945–1946)
10. “Retirement” in Huntington (1946–1956)
11. The Doorkeeper Heads Home (1956–1957)
12. A Legacy of Faith and Charity
Prayer for the Canonization of Fr. Solanus Casey
Words and Wisdom of Fr. Solanus
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
