Childhood and studies

Bernard Francis Casey (nicknamed "Barney") was born on November 25, 1870, on a farm in the town of Oak Grove, Pierce County, Wisconsin, the sixth of sixteen children born to Irish immigrants Bernard James Casey and Ellen Elizabeth Murphy. He was baptized on December 18, 1870. ^[4]

He contracted diphtheria in 1878, permanently damaging his voice, leaving it wispy and slightly impaired; two of his siblings died from the disease that year. The family later moved to Hudson, Wisconsin.^[5] In 1878, he began school at Saint Mary's, but this was cut short in October 1882 when the family relocated again, to Burkhardt in Saint Croix County. In 1887, he left the farm for a series of jobs in his home state and nearby Minnesota, working as a lumberjack, a hospital orderly, 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.^[6] At first, he desired married life, but the mother of a girl to whom he had proposed suddenly sent her off to a boarding school.

While working at his last job on the trolleys in Superior, Wisconsin, he witnessed a violent act that caused him to evaluate his life and future. Some reports say that he saw a drunken sailor standing over a bleeding woman with a knife in his hand. He then acted on a call to the priesthood.^[7] 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.^[8] Classes there were taught in either German or Latin, neither of which he knew. In due course, he was advised that he should consider joining a religious order if he wanted to become a priest due to his academic limitations. He returned home before deciding to make his application.

While reflecting before a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, he heard her spiritual voice telling him to "go to Detroit".^[6] He then applied to the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin in that city. He was received into it on January 14, 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 July 21, 1898.^[7] He struggled through his studies but received ordination to the priesthood on July 24, 1904, from Archbishop Sebastian Messmer at Saint Francis of Assisi Church in Milwaukee. Because he had not performed well enough in his studies, he was ordained as a "simplex" priest.^[9][10] (Under the 1917 Code of Canon Law, a simplex priest could not preach at Mass or take confessions.)^[11] He celebrated his first Mass on July 31, 1904, in Appleton, with his family present.^[12]

Ministry

He served for two decades in a succession of friaries in New York. His first assignment was at Sacred Heart Friary in Yonkers. He 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.^[13]

He was recognized as a healer and gifted spiritual counselor. In August 1924, he was transferred to the Saint Bonaventure convent in Detroit, where he worked until 1945. During this time, he mostly served as the simple porter (or receptionist and doorkeeper).^[5] Each Wednesday afternoon, he conducted well-attended services for the sick, and through these services, he became known for his great compassion and simple holiness. People considered him instrumental in cures and other blessings.^[14][8] He loved to kneel before the Eucharist in the quiet of the night.

During his time at St. Bonaventure's, Casey was involved in the formation of the Capuchin Soup Kitchen.^[15] The soup kitchen was founded in 1929 to provide food for Detroit's poor during the Great Depression. Casey is considered one of the founders of the soup kitchen, which is still in operation today.^[16]

As a violinist, he loved playing Irish songs for his fellow friars during recreation time but was not a gifted instrumentalist. He had a poor singing voice, attributed to having suffered from diphtheria as a child. This disease took the lives of two of his sisters. Often Solanus could be found playing his violin in the chapel for the tabernacle.^[5][6] He ate little. Until his late seventies, he joined the younger religious in games of tennis and volleyball.^[7]

Declining health and death

The friar's tomb from 1987 to 2017; it now has a plexiglass dome.

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, Indiana, where he lived until a 1956 hospitalization in Detroit.^[13][8] In 1957, he was rushed to the hospital for food poisoning; upon his release, friars noted that he was walking much more slowly and scratching his legs; it turned out that his skin was raw and infected, prompting a return to the hospital. The doctors diagnosed him with erysipelas or possibly psoriasis, which was beyond treatment, and they considered limb amputation, but the ulcers began to heal.

On July 2, 1957, he was readmitted to the hospital for the final time due to skin deterioration. He was given oxygen therapy. Casey's sister, Martha, came to visit him after being notified of the seriousness of his condition; the two prayed the rosary together.

He died from erysipelas at 11:00 am on July 31, 1957, at Saint John Hospital in Detroit, with only his nurse at his side. A commemorative plaque was placed outside the door of the room. His last words were reportedly: "I give my soul to Jesus Christ."^[17] An estimated 20,000 people filed past his coffin before his funeral and burial in the cemetery of his Detroit monastery.^[18] On July 8, 1987, his remains were exhumed and reinterred inside the chapel at Saint Bonaventure Monastery, which eventually became part of the Solanus Casey Center; his remains showed no signs of the skin disease that afflicted him at the end of his life. His remains were clothed in a new habit before reinterment in a steel casket at the north transept. A range of miraculous cures has been attributed to his intercession during his earthly life and death.^[14] although Rome has officially recognized only one.

Relic scapular containing a piece of brown cloth touched to the tomb of Fr. Solanus Casey