Америкалық дін қызметкері Бернард Фрэнсис Кейсидің өмірі мен қызметі

American Capuchin friar and priest

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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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". (Under the 1917 Code of Canon Law, a simplex priest could not preach at Mass or take confessions.) He celebrated his first Mass on July 31, 1904, in Appleton, with his family present.

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. 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). 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. 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. An estimated 20,000 people filed past his coffin before his funeral and burial in the cemetery of his Detroit monastery. 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.

His beatification cause commenced in Detroit in 1976 with an investigation involving witness interrogatories and documentation compiling. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints validated this phase on November 7, 1986; around 1995, it received the Positio dossier from postulation officials. The theological advisors approved the dossier on April 7, 1995; the cardinal and bishop members of the congregation did so on June 20, 1995. On July 11, 1995, Pope John Paul II, in a private audience with congregation prefect Alberto Bovone, confirmed that Casey had lived a life of heroic virtue and titled him Venerable. For a person to be beatified unless they are a martyr ordinarily, a miracle (normally, healing) must be approved following confirmation that science could not explain it. Numerous cases were investigated, including one considered by the congregation on April 3, 1998, which was later dismissed. The Archdiocese of Detroit investigated another purported miracle; its favorable report was completed and forwarded to Rome in 2015. This received congregation validation on October 12, 2015; approval by a panel of medical experts on September 22, 2016; and theological consulters' approval on January 19, 2017. The congregation approved the miracle on May 2, 2017, and Pope Francis did so two days later, meaning that the late friar would be beatified. On November 18, 2017, the beatification occurred at Ford Field in Detroit in front of an estimated crowd of 70,000. The Mass and beatification rite was led by Cardinal Angelo Amato, the prefect for the congregation. Casey now has the title "Blessed" and is one step closer to sainthood. Casey's confirmed miracle involved curing Paula Medina Zarate's ichthyosis, a genetic skin condition.

A new residence hall at Franciscan University of Steubenville is named Bl. Solanus Casey Hall. The Solanus Casey Center in Detroit, Michigan, is run by the Capuchin Friars of Detroit, and houses a museum adjacent to St. Bonaventure Monastery. The Solanus Casey Center in Seattle, Washington, is a resource center for the homeless run by the St. James Cathedral.