Deacon, Detroit native sees inspiration for all Catholics in soon-to-be-Blessed Father Solanus Casey’s charitable heart

Deacon Chris Baker placed the upcoming beatification of Capuchin Franciscan Father Solanus Casey into the context of what he sees going on all around him.

“There are more saintly men and women like him who are doing the work of the Lord right now than we realize or expect,” he said, observing people arriving and leaving through the reception area of the Alphonse J. Schwartze Memorial Catholic Center in Jefferson City.

Deacon Baker, whose duties include welcoming visitors and answering calls at the Catholic Center, grew up in a suburb of Detroit, where Servant of God Fr. Solanus Casey (1870-1957) spent much of his Priesthood.

“Sometimes we can think of sainthood as being something foreign and long ago,” he said. “But when you’ve walked or driven down the same street that you know a saint has walked down, it becomes that much more real. It isn’t an abstraction anymore.”

After a years-long process of prayer and examination of Fr. Solanus’ life and at least one miracle attributed to God through the priest’s prayerful intercession in heaven, Pope Francis has called for the Motor City’s best-known friar to be beatified, giving him the title “Blessed.”

The Beatification Mass will be celebrated on Saturday, Nov. 18, at Ford Field in Detroit, with some 60,000 people attending.

Fr. Solanus will be only the second U.S.-born man to be given the title “Blessed” in the Church — a major step toward being declared a saint.

“There’s a lot we can learn from this man,” said Deacon Baker, who also assists the pastor of Cathedral of St. Joseph parish in Jefferson City. “The call to holiness, the call to sainthood, it’s for everybody.”

Faith and humility

Fr. Solanus was born into a large Catholic family in rural Wisconsin, a son of immigrants from Ireland.

He worked as a lumberjack and as a prison guard before seeking admission to priestly formation for the Milwaukee archdiocese.

He soon found that academics were not his strength. Those in charge of his seminary formation eventually suggested he consider applying to a religious order that could make better use of his gifts.

He entered the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, a branch of the Franciscan Order, and continued his priestly formation.

He was ordained to the Holy Priesthood in 1904, but his persistent lack of academic prowess kept him from being given the faculties to preach doctrinal sermons at Mass or administer the sacrament of reconciliation.

“He answered his priestly calling but did not get to do some of the things we associate with being a priest,” Deacon Baker observed. “Did that stop him from standing in persona Christi (in the person of Christ) for everyone and in every way he encountered them? No. He found many other ways to be in persona Christi.”

In 1924, Fr. Solanus was appointed porter (doorkeeper) at St. Bonaventure Monastery, a bulwark of Capuchin prayer and service to the poor on Mount Elliott Street in eastern Detroit.

“Very quickly,” Deacon Baker noted, “he gained a reputation for spiritual direction, as prayer warrior, a prayer intercessor.”

Word got around, especially during the Great Depression, that anyone needing something to eat, a shoulder to cry on, an ear to pour their troubles into or someone just to pray with, the porter at St. Bonaventure was the man to see.

“It didn’t matter what time of day, rain or shine or snow — and boy do they get snow up there! — any time you rang that bell, and he’d always be present, he’d always be there and respond and be the presence of the Church and really the presence of Christ for anyone in need,” said Deacon Baker.

Fr. Solanus helped establish the Capuchin Soup Kitchen at St. Bonaventure, which currently serves up to 2,000 meals a day.

The late Father Benedict Groeschel, a well-known Capuchin Franciscan friar and Catholic evangelizer and apologist, often spoke of an incident he observed as a young novice at St. Bonaventure.

“One time, he happened to go by the chapel at like 3:30 in the morning and he heard speaking,” said Deacon Baker. “There was Fr. Solanus, who by then was not in the best of health, kneeling on the bare floor, in conversation with the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.

“It made such an impression on (Fr. Groeschel) that he continued to tell that story as an example of Christian faith and humility,” said Deacon Baker.

Fr. Solanus was a fixture of the St. Bonaventure community for over 30 years. He died in 1957.

“Even before his death, people were crediting his prayers to miraculous healings,” Deacon Baker noted.

“A legendary figure”

Deacon Baker has family roots in eastern Detroit, which for decades was mostly Polish and Italian and heavily Catholic.

St. Bonaventure Monastery, with its impressive Gothic architecture, has been an anchor and a lighthouse of faith, hospitality and charity in that area since 1882.

“Growing up in southeastern Michigan, we all knew about the Capuchins, the soup kitchen at the friary, and by extension, Father Solanus Casey,” said Deacon Baker. “He was a legendary figure, not only among the Catholics of Detroit but practically everybody else. Even people who had no connection to the Catholic Church whatsoever, knew the legend of Fr. Solanus.”

People were convinced of his sanctity, long before the formal process began in 1983 to determine whether the Church should declare “the Porter of St. Bonaventure” a saint.

“I grew up hearing about all of this, and long before the path to sainthood was discussed, if you were to ask anyone from where I grew up, they’d tell you that Solanus Casey was ‘our saint’ — or was gonna’ be,” said Deacon Baker. “It was like, the rest of the Church might eventually recognize what the People of God in Michigan had already determined: that here was a man of heroic virtue, a great example of Christian piety and service and simple faith.”

Deacon Baker doesn’t know whether anyone in his extended family ever got to meet Fr. Solanus during his 30-year tenure as porter.

“But everyone knew he was there,” said Deacon Baker. “They may not all have needed to talk to him. But they knew if they did, he would be there.”

The neighborhood around St. Bonaventure has changed a lot since Fr. Solanus’ death, but the friars still live in community there, caring for the poor and marginalized.

“The witness and the ministry of those Capuchin Franciscans is very much alive and very much vibrant,” said Deacon Baker. “It’s still what it always has been — an outpost of the faith among people who need it.”

Fr. Solanus’ earthly remains are at rest in a crypt in the monastery chapel.

“The same streets”

Shortly after taking up his duties in the reception area of the Catholic Center in 2014, Deacon Baker placed a framed image of Fr. Solanus on a bookshelf behind his desk.

“Who better to have looking over my shoulder as the porter, the doorkeeper of this place, whether it be on the phone or in person, to keep me on the straight and narrow, to keep me focused on my mission and ministry in this role, than soon-to-be-Blessed Father Solanus Casey!” he said.

Deacon Baker sees in the humble friar a suitable model for every Christian.

“We all need to find those roles that enable us to be the face of Christ for others and to see the face of Christ in them,” he said. “And whatever role you’re in, you have the opportunity to transform it, to make it holy.”

Deacon Baker is looking forward to making a pilgrimage to Fr. Solanus’ burial place the next time he goes to see his family in Detroit.

“I’ve been there, and I hope to go there again,” he said. “And it will be particularly special to visit and be present after this piece of recognition for him by the Universal Church.”

He hopes Fr. Solanus’ beatification and his own familiarity with the place where the priest’s ministry unfolded will help him remember to stay on the lookout for other saints-in-training — the unassuming people who in ordinary ways are exhibiting heroic virtue and leading souls to Christ, in this day and age.

“He walked along the same streets that I’m walking along. He looked at the same skyline I’m seeing,” said Deacon Baker. “He was just a man. But God made him blessed. And He’s still working in all of us.”

www.solanuscasey.org

Prayer seeking canonizaton of Blessed Father Solanus Casey

O God, I adore You. I give myself to You.

May I be the person You want me to be,

and may Your will be done in my life today.

I thank You for the gifts You gave to Father Solanus.

If it is Your Will, bless us with the canonization

of Blessed Solanus so that others may imitate

and carry on his love for all the poor and suffering of our world.

As he joyfully accepted Your divine plans,

I ask You, according to Your Will,

to hear my prayer for . . . (your intention)

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

“Blessed be God in all His designs.”

Imprimatur: Adam Cardinal Maida,

Archbishop Emeritus of Detroit, March 31, 2007

Contributing to this article were Catholic News Service and Mike Stechschulte, managing editor of The Michigan Catholic, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Detroit.