Photo © G. Merta at St. Mary's, Big River, River Falls, WI

St. Mary's is seeking interested individuals to promote Fr. Solanus Casey's cause for Canonization and to help develop a shrine within the parish for Fr. Solanus for the increase in devotion to him and his love for God. Contact the pastor if interested. 

Bernard Francis "Barney" Casey was born November 25, 1870, near Prescott in a small town named Oak Grove, WI. The original home is long gone, but a beautiful wood carved statue has been placed at the location. The land is now privately owned and not open to the public. The Casey land encompassed 80 acres along the Mississippi River.
 
Casey was baptized in the mission church of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Prescott, WI.  In 1912 a new church building replaced the original building in which the baptism took place.
 
When Casey was still young his family moved to Trimbelle, near Ellsworth, WI.  Here his family attended St. Mary’s - Big River Catholic Church. The original church he attended is still here. It was here he spent his formative childhood years. It was here that only half of his family could attend Mass on a given week. Casey was the sixth child in a family with ten boys and six girls.  (Two of those sisters died young while in Oak Grove of diphtheria and are thought to be buried somewhere in St. Joseph Cemetery in Prescott.)  There wasn't enough room in the family wagon for all to go the Mass at the same time.  A rotation system was used. Even during the cold winters, the parents took turns bringing the children to Holy Mass at St. Mary’s.
 
The family next moved to Burkhardt, WI.  Casey made his First Holy Communion in 1883, at the age of 13, nearby at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Hudson, WI.  When they built their new church, the community donated one of the old stained glass windows, which had a Host and Ciborium on it, to the main guild office in Detroit.
 
After completing school in Burkhardt, Casey moved to Stillwater, MN taking various jobs including as a prison guard.  He was trying to earn money to help his family move to better land in Superior, WI. The place where he received the Sacrament of Confirmation was at St. Michael’s Parish in Stillwater, MN.
 
The Casey family did make it to Superior, WI where he began working as a streetcar operator in 1890 at the age of twenty. He witnessed the terrible murder of a young woman as he was driving the streetcar. It deeply affected him and solidified how terrible sin and hate were. The experience led him to pursue the priesthood at St. Francis De Sales High School Seminary in Milwaukee in 1892.  He found the studies there difficult and went the path of the Capuchin Order instead, taking the name Solanus.  He would later be ordained a deacon and then a priest in 1904 at St. Francis Church in Milwaukee, WI.
 
From 1904 -1924 Casey served parishes in the New York area.  From 1924 - 1945 he came to Detroit, MI.  He spent his years in humble service to God as a porter (or “Door Keeper”) and providing food for the poor and spiritual help to those who came to him, in the Detroit area.  He died and is now buried at St. Bonaventure Church, Detroit, MI where he spent the last 21 years of his life. The Solanus Casey Center is now located there. This center is now working on the Cause for the Canonization of Fr. Solanus. His reputation for great virtue, holiness of life, and kindness were well known.
 
Father Solanus Casey was named Venerable on July 11, 1995, by Pope John Paul II.
 
November 18^th, 2017 was his Beatification in Detroit, MI