Father Solanus Casey, known as a miracle worker to “legions” of Deroit locals, was beatified on Saturday.
The Capuchin friar, who died in 1957, co-founded the Capuchin Soup Kitchen.
Although he was a priest who wasn’t allowed to preach, he listened “with his ears and his heart” to the needy.
His prayers and presence comforted visitors suffering from illness and trauma when he was the doorkeeper of St. Bonaventure Monastery between 1924 and 1945.
Casey was beatified because Vatican investigations showed there was no scientific explanation of how a Panamanian woman’s genetic, disfiguring skin disease disappeared in the hours after she prayed at Casey’s tomb.
She was among the tens of thousands at his beatification Mass which was held at the Detroit stadium.
Cardinal Angelo Amato, the prefect for the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints, presided at the mass and led the rite of beatification.
He read a letter from Pope Francis, who described Casey as a “humble, faithful disciple of Christ.” He was given the title of “blessed.”
The church decrees “that the venerable servant of God, Francis Solanus, known in the world as Bernard Casey … a humble and faithful disciple of Christ, tireless in serving the poor … henceforth be called by the name of Blessed.”
A life-size banner of Blessed Solanus was unfurled on the altar platform.
One of the tens of thousands at the beatification Mass said she’d “been waiting for this day for 14 years.”
Lily Flask said she believed Casey’s intercession helped save her husband from heart problems in 2003.
“I prayed every day to him. … I had to be here today.”
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