Fr. Solanus Casey’s priesthood was steeped in sacramental life, writes vice postulator, despite what popular legacy might suggest
CHICAGO — The popular story of Blessed Solanus Casey is well established.
The son of Irish immigrants born in Wisconsin, he struggled with his studies in seminary in Milwaukee, where classes were taught in German and Latin, and was inspired by the Blessed Virgin Mary to go to Detroit to join the Capuchin Franciscans.
Despite his struggles, his Capuchin superiors decided to ordain him a priest, but didn’t give him the faculties to give absolution or preach dogmatic homilies. Instead, over the years, he tended the monastery doors, where he became known as the "Porter of St. Bonaventure," always available to give counsel to the doubtful, pray with those in need and encouraging everyone to “thank God ahead of time.”
And while that story of Blessed Solanus is largely accurate, a popular misconception tends to overshadow the sacramentality of his life, particularly regarding the baptisms he performed as a priest.
That’s why Fr. Edward Foley, OFM Cap., vice postulator for Blessed Solanus' canonization cause, wrote an article in the Winter 2025 edition of American Catholic Studies titled “Solanus Casey the Baptizer: Dispelling Myths About an American Blessed,” which highlights the sacramental aspect of his priestly ministry, particularly the 300 people he baptized during his time in Yonkers and New York City.
Fr. Foley spoke to Detroit Catholic about why he chose to focus on this aspect of Blessed Solanus’ ministry.
“I was doing some other research on Solanus, not just the popular knowledge that everybody knows, but some more serious research on Solanus Casey,” Fr. Foley said. “I had conversations with some of the people out in the Capuchin province in New York, St. Mary’s Province, which used to be part of (the Province of St. Joseph), before it was divided in 1952. The first years of his priestly ministry were out in New York.”
In combing through the archives of the Archdiocese of New York, Fr. Foley came across records of baptisms performed and marriages witnessed by Blessed Solanus during his time at Sacred Heart Parish in Yonkers, Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in New York and Queen of Angels in New York.
“It took me about a year to read through all the baptismal records, and I could document that he performed somewhere around 300 baptisms,” Fr. Foley said. “He did these baptisms when he was out in New York, but didn’t do it anywhere else in the record. So, I thought it needed to be published.”
Fr. Foley’s research indicates Blessed Solanus performed 295 baptisms at Sacred Heart Parish between 1904 and 1918, including 94 in 1908, when Fr. Solanus accounted for 82 percent of all baptisms at the parish, and five baptisms at Our Lady of Sorrows Parish from 1918 to 1921.
The baptismal records from Queen of Angels during Fr. Solanus' time are lost, so Fr. Solanus could have baptized even more people, Fr. Foley speculates.
Fr. Foley and fellow researchers are working to document the baptisms online so people can research whether a family member was baptized by the American blessed, and to give people a more complete picture of Fr. Solanus’ priesthood.
Fr. Solanus was ordained a priest, but was designated a simplex priest, Fr. Foley adds.
Fr. Foley stresses that nobody is ordained a “simplex priest”; rather, all priests can hear confessions, give absolution, celebrate Mass, and preach dogmatic homilies, but they don’t automatically have permission.
“It’s a technicality, but there’s a difference between having the ability to hear confessions and having the permission,” Fr. Foley said. “So even though I have the ability, for example, to hear confessions and to witness marriages, I cannot simply wander into any diocese and decide to preside at a wedding without the permission of the bishop, and those are called faculties.”
In the case of Fr. Solanus, as a religious priest, his faculties would come from superiors in the Capuchin Franciscan order.
“His superiors decided that, partly because of some language difficulties with his struggles with Latin and German, but there was also a little concern about what you would call his analytical skills,” Fr. Foley said. “So, his superiors were concerned if he would actually have the theological capacity to appropriately hear confession with all of the implied laws and theology, which is the same reason why he was never technically allowed to give what you might call a dogmatic sermon, a Sunday sermon.”
Stories of Fr. Solanus preaching small sermons — fervorinos — have been documented, including in Fr. Michael Crosby’s “Thank God Ahead of Time: The Life and Spirituality of Solanus Casey,” in which Fr. Crosby describes such sermons, including at his parents’ 50th wedding anniversary.
In addition, Fr. Foley said, Blessed Solanus was the official witness to more than 55 marriages, the last one being in May 1940 at St. Bonaventure Monastery.
By diving into the records and digging up the proof that Blessed Solanus baptized babies, witnessed marriages, preached short homilies and even heard confessions, it shows how much of the sacramental life Fr. Solanus lived as a priest, Fr. Foley said.
“Part of the joy in researching Solanus is that he is always surprising you,” Fr. Foley said. “He did preach, he did preside at hundreds of baptisms. He did preside at seven weddings and was the official witness at 55 others; even his biographer said he heard confessions, but he didn’t give absolution.”
Fr. Foley explained that after Blessed Solanus heard their confessions, he would instruct the people to go to Fr. Herman Buss, OFM Cap., explaining that they spoke to Fr. Solanus, and Fr. Buss would give absolution.
“I don’t think this part of his life is often acknowledged, but Fr. Solanus lived a sacramental life,” Fr. Foley said. “He celebrated Mass every day. He prayed the Liturgy of the Hours every day. When you go through this writing, you see his grasp of Scripture with the number of citations he gets from Scripture. The number of citations he gets from Scripture is enormous, and this was because those were the Scriptures that were at Mass and at the Liturgy of the Hours.
“We see him as this great counselor, the person who met people at the door, but Solanus lived a sacramental life, and he directed other people to go to the sacraments,” Fr. Foley said. “He pointed people over and over again to the sacraments. He wanted people to go to Communion; he wanted people to go to confession. And it’s a wonderful sacramental spirituality we need to appreciate about Solanus.”
