Bernard Casey was born near Oak Grove, Pierce County, Wisconsin, one of 16 children of Irish immigrant parents, Bernard and Ellen Casey. In his twenties he felt called to the priesthood, and attended a high school seminary in Milwaukee before joining the Capuchin monastery of St. Bonaventure in Detroit in 1897.  He was ordained a priest in 1904, but because of difficulties with his academic studies he was ordained only as a simplex priest, unable to hear confessions or preach sermons.
 
Father Solanus served as a porter at friaries in New York, Detroit, and Huntington Indiana where he found his vocation in counseling and advising visitors. Many of those he counseled recovered from illness or found their problems solved, and Father Solanus acquired a reputation for holiness.  His superiors ordered him to keep a record of the petitions for help and advice that he received.  Over the years he recorded over 6,000 petitions of which 700 resulted in cures of illness and favorable resolutions of domestic and business problems.
 
Father Solanus died in Detroit in 1957, and in 1960 friends and devotees  organized the Father Solanus Guild with the object  of securing his canonization.  In 1995 Pope John Paul II declared him venerable, the first step toward canonization.

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[Source: Father Solanus Guild Baulch, Vivian M.; "Father Solanus Casey and his 'favors'." Detroit News, September 22, 1996; Exteon, Benet S. "Solanus Casey: the Story of Father Solanus."]