Wednesday, January 11
My closest association with a bona fide saint (aside from a potential kinship to St. Janssen) is with Ven. Solanus Casey, a Franciscan who lived during the first half of the 20th century. Fr. Solanus helped feed my grandfather during the Depression. In a different time and place, my uncle would serve Mass for Fr. Solanus, and often the venerable gave him candybars as thanks.
For this reason, I've always liked Fr. Solanus. Today, however, I ran into a Capuchin who had quite a lot to tell me about Ven. Casey.
By far the most cool story was the multiplication of the ice cream cones. A woman came into Fr. Casey's office (a priest simplex because of his difficulty with languages, Solanus served as porter) with two ice cream cones for them to share. He thanked her, but, putting the cones in a desk drawer, said they would save the ice cream for later. Because it was a warm summer day and the desk was not refrigerated, she was understandably baffled by this behavior. A few hours later, however, four other people entered the room bearing some good news. "Let's celebrate with an ice cream party!" rejoiced Fr. Casey. He went to his desk draw and pulled out, not two, but six ice cream cones--which had remained perfectly cool and unmelted.
"It pleases Jesus and Mary greatly when we celebrate in this way," he explained.
![[SMMMHDH]](http://www.mgilleland.com/music/smmmhdh.png){kind=small}
