July 24: The Wonder-worker

Welcome to the American Catholic Daily Reader podcast. Today is July 24th, and our story is The Wonder Worker. First, people lined up in Yonkers, then in Harlem, Detroit, and Brooklyn. Always those lines led to the same man, Father Solanus Casey, the Capuchin Wonder Worker. Born Bernard Casey in 1870, the future priest grew up in a three-room log cabin with his parents and 15 siblings. With morning and evening prayer said daily, a rosary prayed nightly, and regular chores, life in that Wisconsin cabin wasn't all that different from life in a monastery.

Yet, not until he was 21, and had worked as a lumberjack, hospital orderly, Prison guard and streetcar operator, did Casey consider religious life? At first, he pursued the diocesan priesthood, but the seminary he entered offered classes in only German and Latin. Speaking neither, Cayce fell behind academically. When the rector suggested monastic life, Cayce went to Detroit to study with the Capuchins. He was finally ordained to the priesthood on July 24, 1904, but due to his ongoing academic struggles, his ordination was an Ordinatio Simplex, meaning he could say Mass, but not preach publicly or hear confessions.

Cayce, however, was happy. He was a priest. That fall, Cayce took up his first assignment as sacristan and doorkeeper at Sacred Heart Parish in Yonkers, New York. There, the miracles began. People would come to the monastery with some sort of trouble. Casey, as the doorkeeper, would greet them and talk with them. He would then enroll them in the Capuchin Seraphic Mass Association. With remarkable frequency, healing followed. Some days, the people who lined up to see Casey numbered more than 200. In every city he served, the priest met with them all.

For 53 years, Cayce spent his days talking with visitors and his knights in prayer. By the time of his death in 1957, the Capuchins had filled seven notebooks with accounts of cancers cured, kidneys healed, limbs made whole, and infertility vanquished, all through the intercession of the man whom Pope Francis named Blessed on November 18, 2017.

His beatification took place at Ford Field in Detroit before an estimated crowd of 60,000. Today, we are reminded, through Father Casey's example, that greatness often arises from consistent, quiet devotion rather than public acclaim, and that serving others faithfully can create lasting, transformative effects.

Identify a small, consistent act of service you can perform this week and do it faithfully. Thank you for listening to the American Catholic Daily Reader podcast. Join us tomorrow, July 25th, for another story of faith and courage in America.