St. Bonaventure Monastery and Solanus Casey Center

01 / The story of this place

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Capuchin friars established St. Bonaventure Monastery on Mount Elliott Street on Detroit's east side in 1882, building a community that would go on to found the Capuchin Soup Kitchen and become a center of Catholic charity work in the city. Solanus Casey, a friar ordained with restrictions that kept him from hearing confessions or preaching formal doctrine, served here as porter, greeting visitors at the door across several stretches between 1924 and 1945 and again in the mid-1950s, and became known for his simplicity, his prayers for the sick, and the long lines of visitors who sought him out. Michael Dunn, later a Michigan congressman, briefly entered the monastery in 1958 before leaving religious life. Casey died in 1957 and was buried beneath the north transept of the monastery church; the Catholic Church beatified him in 2017, the first American-born man to receive that honor. The complex today includes both the working friary and the Solanus Casey Center, a museum and chapel built around his tomb that draws pilgrims and visitors from across the country.

1. Capuchin friary founded on Mount Elliott Street in 1882
2. Home base of the Capuchin Soup Kitchen tradition
3. Solanus Casey served here as porter across several decades
4. Casey was beatified in 2017, buried beneath the church
5. Now includes the Solanus Casey Center museum and chapel