A jubilee pilgrimage of hope through the Solanus Casey Center

Home to Detroit's own saint, the Solanus Casey Center welcomes thousands of pilgrims each year to pray, learn and rest

The Archdiocese of Detroit has designated 12 local pilgrimage sites for Catholics to visit during the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope. Each month during 2025, Detroit Catholic will highlight one of these sites to encourage Catholics to take advantage of the extraordinary graces offered during the jubilee.

DETROIT — On Nov. 18, 2017, tens of thousands packed Ford Field to witness the beatification of Detroit’s own saint-to-be, Blessed Solanus Casey. The humble porter who lived at St. Bonaventure Monastery in Detroit and died July 31, 1957, touched countless lives while on earth, and he continues to do so to this day.

The home of the Capuchin friar remains open to daily visitors who come for Mass, confession, to pray at his tomb and to explore the Solanus Casey Center, built in 2002, which features a newly renovated museum dedicated to his life, a bookstore and a bakery and café. The center sees approximately 10,000 visitors a month, and the nearby Capuchin Soup Kitchen, cofounded by Blessed Solanus in 1929, serves 1,000 meals a day.

It is fitting that the Solanus Casey Center is one of the 12 pilgrimage sites designated by the Archdiocese of Detroit for the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope. Curious visitors walk through the doors off the courtyard on Mt. Elliot Street, reminiscent of the doors Blessed Solanus portered, and instantly begin walking a hopeful path toward sainthood.

“Father Solanus is our right model and our help to grow in this theological virtue (of hope) and become a pilgrim of hope,” Bro. George Kooran, OFM Cap., wrote in a reflection on behalf of the Solanus Casey Guild on June 2. “Once (Solanus) wrote: ‘Thank God for hope, the soul of our happiness here…’ Since hope does not disappoint us, anyone who has hope should be a happy and contented person. ‘Confidence in God’ according to him, is ‘the very soul of prayer.’”

Bro. Benoy Joseps, OFM Cap., who began serving as the center’s director in June, said pilgrims continue to flock to the center not because the center is grand or established, but because of the humble saint himself.

“Solanus Casey had his own personal difficulties — once upon a time, he was not allowed to say Mass. But even from those difficulties, he never looked back; he never got disappointed,” Bro. Joseps told Detroit Catholic. “Sometimes we might have to face trials in our lives, but there is a God who always gives us blessings and stands for us, and in the end, we will have great blessings from the Lord. People believe that through Solanus, they get these blessings from God because Solanus always sits at the door and invites people to come and receive (God's) blessings.”

In addition to coming to the museum and Mass, approximately 120 people come every day for confession or counseling, Bro. Joseps said, and the chapel hosts visitors for healing services every Wednesday and Sunday at 2 p.m.

“This is a great opportunity during this jubilee year of hope,” Bro. Benoy said. “Many people come and attend the healing service, and many of them get great hope, great healing during this time.”

Visitors found consolation and hope by visiting Blessed Solanus at the monastery's door during his lifetime, and that hope can still be found today, Bro. Joseps said.

“Solanus was a person who always stood for the poor and sick, and he was always at the door to receive the people,” Bro. Joseps explained. “People who had really lost hope would come to Solanus and find solace in him — a peace in him — with his words and his prayers. People can still find it. People will find great hope here; they always say they feel that serenity and tranquility here, and when they leave, they leave with the hope that they are someone, and someone is always there to take care of us.”