“I was just in a lot of pain, mainly my lower abdomen. I was doubled over,” recalls Mary, who was reduced to tears by the experience. In fact, she was forced to go home. 

Medical tests soon followed. The results were shocking. Mary had two tumors. One was three centimeters. The other was seven centimeters. Surgery to remove both was required. The family opted for medical care at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor. At the same time, Mary’s mom, Susan, turned to an old friend for supernatural support: Blessed Solanus Casey. 

“I asked my husband, Rick, if he would join me in a pilgrimage to the Blessed Solanus Casey Center in Detroit,” says Susan Bartold, “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.” 

A native of Wisconsin, Father Solanus Casey (1870-1957) was a Capuchin priest who served as the porter, or doorkeeper, at St. Bonaventure Monastery in Detroit for over two decades. Despite his lowly status, Father Solanus occupied a lofty place in the affections of the city’s Catholics due to the many favors ascribed to his intercessory prayer. Following his death, the favors continued. Father Solanus was beatified at Detroit’s Ford Field Stadium in 2017 after a miraculous healing attributed to him was approved by Pope Francis. 

“For me, the pilgrimage to the tomb of Blessed Solanus brought about the greatest of miracles,” explains Susan, “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’,” says Mary, “and she then set up a novena to Solanus Casey.” 

The novena — nine days of prayer — was prayed in the days prior to Mary’s scheduled operation on Aug. 2nd. Susan had issued the call to prayer far and wide. Following some routine pre-op scans, Mary was suddenly asked to undergo one further MRI at six o’clock on the morning of Tuesday, July 30th. Just three days before surgery.

It was also the feast of Blessed Solanus Casey. 

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

The early morning scan was duly completed. The telephone call came the next day, July 31st. The anniversary of Blessed Solanus’ death in 1957. 

“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!” says Susan with tears in her eyes. “The surgeon was ecstatic. I said, ‘Praise God!’ and she said, ‘Praise God!’, which you don’t always hear from the medical community.” 

As for Mary herself, she was “very grateful but still very confused” upon hearing the astonishing news that the tumors were gone. “I was worried that there had been a mistake, that I still had the tumors, that something would happen, a health complication of some sort.” 

There was no mistake. Mary was cured. 

With surgery now canceled, the Bartold family opted to use their free day to visit Blessed Solanus’ tomb in Detroit. “We went to Mass. We went to adoration,” says Mary. “I was just so grateful.” 

Mary’s father, Rick, also wells up in tears as he recounts the incredible events of last July including the pilgrimage of thanksgiving to Blessed Solanus’ tomb. 

“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,” says Rick, who notes that both Mary’s grandfathers frequented the soup kitchen at Blessed Solanus’ monastery during the Great Depression of the 1930s. 

To be canonized as a saint by the Church, Blessed Solanus now needs the Vatican to ascribe one more miracle to his heavenly intercession. Could Mary’s healing be the miraculous occurrence that gets Father Solanus over the line to sainthood?

“That’s definitely a heavy thing for a 16-year-old,” says Mary, “but I wouldn’t want anything else. I would be honored. It’s a big thing but he deserves to be canonized, I believe.”