Province's third-annual contest offers cash prizes for original work exploring Blessed Solanus' life, ministry and sanctity
DETROIT — Scholars are invited to submit their original work for the third annual Blessed Solanus Casey Essay Prizes, a national competition held by the Capuchin Franciscan Province of St. Joseph in recognizing graduate-level scholarship that deepens understanding of Blessed Solanus Casey's life, ministry and sanctity.
The 2026-27 contest is open to any graduate student in any discipline currently enrolled at an accredited college or university in the United States. Submissions are due by June 1, 2027, and the winners will be announced in July after a review by a jury of clergy, religious, and lay scholars steeped in the spirituality and legacy of Blessed Solanus Casey.
This year’s competition offers cash awards of $2,500 for first place, $1,000 for second place and $500 for third place.
In the contest's first year, the Capuchins awarded a cash prize to only a single first-place winner, Bro. Gregory Armstrong, OFM Cap., of the Oblate School of Theology. For the 2025-26 year, the province expanded the cash prize to three winners: Kaile Kilner and Barry Mark Okeyo of the Catholic Theological Union, and Dr. César A. Cruz of the Pacific School of Religion. The winning essays of all previous winners are available to read online.
“These three essays each found fresh insights about a man many assumed had already been fully understood,” former vice-postulator for Blessed Solanus Casey's canonization cause, Fr. Edward Foley, OFM, said of those 2025-26 winners. “That kind of scholarship is exactly what these prizes were intended to foster."
"Devotion to Solanus keeps growing, and we want the scholarship to grow with it," said Fr. Larry Webber, OFM Cap., vice-postulator of the cause for canonization of Blessed Solanus Casey. "Last year's winners found new things to say about a holy man many assumed was already fully understood. We invite graduate students from every discipline to take up that work."
Submissions should be 2,000-6,000 words, including footnotes, and accompanied by a 100-150 word abstract. Only previously unpublished work is eligible, and essays must be submitted as a Microsoft Word document with a curriculum vitae or resume in a separate document.
The jury will judge the entries on three criteria:
- Innovative: The essay breaks new ground rather than repeating established information.
- Grounded in the sources: The essay draws on Solanus's own writings and is conversant with the secondary literature. All of his writings, an extensive index to them, and a working bibliography are available at solanuscasey.org, along with the 2025 and 2026 winning essays.
- Relevant today: The essay shows the contemporary significance of one or more aspects of Solanus Casey for U.S. society and/or Christianity in the United States.
For more information about the essay contest, visit The Capuchin Franciscan Province of St. Joseph’s website.
