Teen’s Tumors Vanish After Prayers to Blessed Solanus Casey in Possible Miracle for Canonization

Bld Solanus was ordained as a simplex Priest, without faculties to preach or hear confessions, because he had not been a good student in seminary.

From LifeSiteNews

By Doug Mainwaring

As 16-year-old Mary Bartold prepared for surgery last August in Michigan, her doctor called and said, 'Both tumors were gone!'

A Michigan teenager experienced an apparent miraculous healing after family and friends appealed to Blessed Solanus Casey (1870-1957) – a humble Capuchin who had served as a porter at Detroit’s Saint Bonaventure Monastery, regarded by many as a holy man and already credited by the Vatican with a healing miracle – to intercede on her behalf.  

Her medically inexplicable healing that left her doctors speechless may provide the final evidence leading to the Capuchin’s canonization.  

Sixteen-year-old Mary Bartold of DeWitt, a sophomore at Lansing Catholic High School, was struck with severe abdominal pain while in class in April 2024. 

“I was just in a lot of pain, mainly my lower abdomen. I was toppled over,” Mary told David Kerr, director of communications for the Diocese of Lansing.   

A CT scan and an ultrasound found two tumors attached to Mary’s ovaries – one three centimeters and one seven centimeters – that would require surgical removal. 

‘I want to be a mom’

Up until that time, medical personnel “thought they were cysts,” Mary’s mom, Susan Bartold, recounted to The Detroit Free Press. “There was an urgency to all of this, suddenly, because they were afraid of ovarian torsion,” a potentially life-threatening condition that could lead to Mary losing her ovaries. 

“For her, all of this made her think, ‘I’m not going to be able to have children,'” Susan Bartold said. “She’s reading into all of these conversations and realizing that there’s a good possibility that she might lose one or both of her ovaries. And all she could say to us was, ‘I want to be a mom.’ And even though we understand that there are other ways to be a beautiful mother, for a 16-year-old … it was really, really hard.”

Mary’s mom explained that she and her husband, Rick, made it a point to work with Catholic physicians at University of Michigan Health in order to make sure that they “understood what was happening and that we were making moral decisions that weren’t led by secular belief.”  

The healthcare team scheduled Mary for surgery on the first available date, August 2.

In the meantime, Mary’s mom, who had long had a special devotion to Blessed Solanus Casey, turned to him to ask him to intercede for her daughter, and asked others to do the same.    

“I asked my husband, Rick, if he would join me in a pilgrimage to the Blessed Solanus Casey Center in Detroit,” Susan Bartold told the Lansing diocese’s Kerr, “to pray at Blessed Solanus’ bones and just ask for his intercession, not only for Mary’s healing but also for peace, that we would be prayerful and intentional in our decisions, and know that we were being guided by God.”

“For me, the pilgrimage to the tomb of Blessed Solanus brought about the greatest of miracles,” Susan said. “It was his intercession that transformed Mary from a young woman who was overwhelmed by fear – fear of her medical condition, fear for her future – into someone who was at peace with the present, trusting in God for the future, and open to the prayers of others.”

“So, my mom asked if I wanted prayers and I, finally, said ‘yes’,” said Mary, “and she then set up a novena to Solanus Casey.” 

Bringing peace to a teen caught in a difficult emergency medical condition where she might lose her ability to have children was perhaps miraculous in and of itself, but it seems heavenly intervention didn’t stop there. 

‘Both tumors were gone!’

The novena to Blessed Solanus Casey took place during the second half of July.  

In preparation for the scheduled August 2 surgery, a final MRI scan was scheduled for early in the morning on July 30. 

“It was rainy. It was pitch black,” Susan recalled. “There wasn’t a moon, nothing. Rick wasn’t in town. So, I was having to white-knuckle it down to Ann Arbor with Mary sleeping in the back of the car.” 

“I realized it was Solanus Casey’s feast day and, so, I said, ‘Solanus, I’m doing this for you!’” Susan said. 

The next day, Mary’s surgeon called the Bartolds. She was stunned. 

“It was probably about noon when Mary’s surgeon phoned. She told me she had looked at the MRI images with multiple radiologists and everything was gone. Both tumors were gone!” Susan said. “The surgeon was ecstatic. I said, ‘Praise God!’ and she said, ‘Praise God,’ which you don’t always hear from the medical community.”

Instead of heading to the hospital for Mary’s now-cancelled surgery on August 2, the Bartolds visited Blessed Solanus Casey’s tomb in Detroit. 

“We went to Mass. We went to adoration,” Mary told the Lansing Diocese’s David Kerr. “I was just so grateful.” 

Speaking of his family’s visit to Solanus’ tomb that day, Mary’s Dad, Rick, recounted, “I just said to him, ‘I hope you become a saint,’ not just because I’m going to get to call Mary a ‘saint maker,’ but because he deserves it – he’s done a lot for the community of Detroit, his story is amazing, you know, and people loved him.” 

As an interesting footnote, Rick said that both Mary’s grandfathers frequented the soup kitchen at Blessed Solanus’ monastery during the Great Depression of the 1930 and may have had contact with him.

‘He deserves to be canonized’

The Vatican ruled in 2017 that Solanus Casey had performed a miracle after Paula Medina Zarate, a retired teacher from Panama, was healed of a genetic skin condition after she prayed at Casey’s tomb in Detroit.  

On November 18 of that year, a beatification Mass attended by more than 60,000 people was held at Ford Field in Detroit.  

Blessed Solanus “focused on the poor, the sick, the marginalized and the hopeless,” Cardinal Angelo Amato, head of the Vatican’s Congregation for Saints’ causes, explained at the Beatification Mass. “He always fasted in order to give others their lunch. For hours upon hours, he patiently received, listened and counseled the ever-growing number of people who came to him.” 

The beloved friar saw people “as human beings, images of God. He didn’t pay attention to race, color or religious creed,” Cardinal Amato said.

Asked how she would feel if her story is the case that takes Blessed Solanus Casey toward canonization, Mary said, “It’s definitely a heavy thing for a 16-year-old, but I wouldn’t want anything else.”

“I would be honored,” Mary said. “He deserves to be canonized, I believe.”