Making the journey all the way from North St. Paul, members of St. Peter’s Catholic Church took a multiple day pilgrimage, walking from the Twin Cities all the way to Prescott’s St. Joseph Catholic Church, continuing on to St. Mary’s Big River later.

The pilgrimage’s purpose was to visit some of the sites where Blessed Solanus Casey spent his life.

According to the St. Joseph and St. Mary’s Big River websites, Solanus Casey was known for deep faith, compassion for the suffering, simplicity, gratitude and trust in God’s plan. In 1890, Solanus Casey witnessed a murder of a young woman while working as a streetcar operator in Superior. Witnessing the tragedy caused him to become a priest, serving at churches in New York and Detroit. Pope John Paul II named Casey Venerable in 1995 and was Beatified in 2017 for miracles attributed to his intercession.

“It’s a method just to walk, and then in the silence and the physical activity of that, you just open yourself to God and try to hear him,” St. Joseph Deacon Jerry Rynda said. “Each day they’d walk, they’d take time to pray.”

The group left North St. Paul on June 27, making it to Stillwater on the first day, where Solanus Casey was confirmed. They then went to St. Croix Beach. On June 29, they journeyed 17 miles to get to Prescott. The pilgrimage finished June 30 at St. Mary’s Big River. Each step of the way they heard presentations about Solanus Casey’s time spent at each of the churches, prayed together and did group activities.

“It was just exciting. When you get youth, there was about 18 young people there, there’s a lot of energy with that. Just to see their devotion was good,” Rynda said. “Whenever you get to know men and women who have lived holy lives, it’s always inspiring.”

Rynda said the Solanus Casey’s sisters are buried in the St. Joseph Cemetery. There is a wood carved statue of Casey in Oak Grove at the site of his original home.

“Once they’re declared blessed, there needs to be another confirmed miracle. I thought I heard at one time that there was one, so it’s just waiting for the process of investigation to be completed for that, and that’s all done in Rome,” Rynda said. “Father Solanus Casey, in his lifetime, was just used by God in a wonderful way.”

A year prior to his death in 1957, Casey attended the opening of the Solanus Casey Center in Detroit, a location for pilgrimage, reconciliation, healing and peace.