August 14, 2005
A Miniseries
I will be away for a few weeks later this month giving retreats and getting a vacation in a remote log cabin in California, which friends have lent me for a week each summer for many years. Father John Lynch and David Burns, who were with me in Florida at the time of my accident, will accompany me. Since I have to dictate my weekly messages for the friars’ website, I have decided to do a miniseries on interesting people who have been proposed for canonization, most of whom I have known personally. They include Cardinal Cooke, Father Walter Ciszek, S.J., Dorothy Day, Catherine Doherty (Baroness de Hueck), and Father Solanus Casey, O.F.M. Cap. I will also include Mother Henriette Delille and a few others, whom I did not know personally but whose lives are well known to me.
Each week I will give a brief introduction to the person and a possible website address that may be pertinent for further information.
Father Solanus Casey (1870–1957) was a retired priest when I went to novitiate in 1951. He was undoubtedly one of the holiest people anyone ever knew, an extremely humble man who spent his days in prayer. In addition, he had a good sense of humor and particularly liked to play the fiddle for us. His favorite song was “Pop Goes the Weasel.”
At the age of seventeen I was profoundly affected by the opportunity to serve and observe this holy man. Many people came daily to the monastery to visit him and ask for his blessing. He seemed almost completely unaware that he was the object of so much special attention. I recall once that a busload of people showed up, which was against the rules. They sat in the bus all day and blew the horn every five minutes. Finally Father Solanus was allowed to go out at a quarter to five to greet them. Having greeted everyone, he was obediently at his place in the friary at exactly five o’clock. How much humility that must have taken! Yet he seemed unmoved by the whole thing.
Father Solanus’s cause is now quite advanced, and he has received the title Venerable. You might like to get in touch with the Father Solanus Guild (www.solanuscasey.org).
One of my greatest blessings has been to know saintly people, including Blessed Teresa of Calcutta and Cardinal Cooke. Father Solanus will always have special meaning for me, and it is unfortunate that the times do not recognize the sanctity of such a humble, self-effacing person. However, I have no doubt that in time his holiness will become known throughout the Catholic world.
Watch for our column next week, when we look at another friend of God.
Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR
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