Michigan

Since 1845, along the River Raisin in the southeastern Michigan town of Monroe, the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) have distinguished themselves as educators, activists, and Catholic pioneers. At the congregation's peak, the motherhouse dispatched nearly 1,600 nuns to more than 100 schools across metropolitan Detroit and several states. For 175 years, the sisters taught the three Rs and the meaning of faith to nearly 700,000 students and established important metro Detroit institutions such as Marygrove College, Immaculata and Marian High Schools, and St. Mary Academy. Widely known by their initials, the IHMs have extended their reach worldwide. Monroe IHM members have served in key roles at the Vatican, as leaders of organizations representing Catholic sisters in the United States, as missionaries in Third World countries, and as groundbreaking activists and theologians. The Monroe IHMs today also attract lay women and men who dedicate themselves to the congregation's values and goals by becoming IHM Associates.

Whenever there was a knock at the Capuchin Monastery door, Fr. Solanus Casey answered. The Capuchin friar's prayers brought comfort and healing to visitors he greeted at friaries in Michigan, New York, and Indiana. On September 12, 2012, inside St. Bonaventure Monastery in Detroit, where Casey's remains are interred, a miracle happened. Minutes after a pilgrim knelt at Casey's tomb, signs of her lifelong genetic skin disease disappeared. Pope Francis declared the healing a miracle, and nearly 70,000 people filled a Detroit football stadium on November 18, 2017, for Casey's beatification ceremony, when the Catholic Church honored him with the title of "Blessed." The Wisconsin-born Casey, a onetime prison guard who died in 1957 at the age of 86, is now one step and one more miracle away from becoming a saint. The photographs in Blessed Solanus Casey illustrate the arc of his life and legacy, including images from his early years and ministry to the poor, of those who say they have been healed by his prayers, and of the stirring Catholic rituals accompanying the friar's path to possible sainthood.

Explore the fascinating history of Detroit's Gesu Catholic Church and Schoolthrough the images and stories of the people who were there.

In a reconfigured farmhouse just a mile outside of the city limits of Detroit, a Jesuit priest and 25 men, women, and children gathered to celebrate Sunday mass on March 19, 1922.

The Reverend John McNichols named the Catholic mission church Gesu, the Italian word for Jesus.Gesubecame one of Detroit's landmark parishes. Its history illustrates the Motor City'sboom, bust, resilience, and resurgence. It was the home parish of four Detroit mayors, powerful members of Congress, auto industry titans, sports legends, artists, authors, and actors. At its peak in the mid-1960s, GesuSchool enrolled 1,600 students. Because of Detroit's decline and its racial and economic struggles, Gesuis one of only four Catholic elementary schools that remain in the city. But as Detroit rebounds, Gesu Schoolis growing again.

Author Patricia Montemurri is an award-winning Detroit journalist whose in-laws were the church's architects and stained-glass designers.Gesu'shistory unfolds here through vintage photographs from the parish archives, the Sisters Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the University of Detroit Mercy, the Walter P. Reuther Library, the Michigan Catholic, and the albums of Gesuparishioners and graduates.

Originating with the first French settlers who landed on the banks of the Detroit River in 1701, the Catholic Church has evolved into one of Detroit's most influential institutions. In this new publication, the prodigious expansion of the Archdiocese of Detroit is brought to life in a fascinating retrospective featuring over 200 vintage images.

In the 20th century, the rapid ascent of the automobile industry after World War One and the tremendous increase in Detroit's population triggered a parallel growth in the Archdiocese of Detroit. Witness the lean years of the 1930s when the Depression gave rise to Detroit's most famous cleric, Father Charles Coughlin, the "radio priest" of Royal Oak. March to the battlefront in the 1940s as Monsignor Joseph Ciarrocchi used the printed word as his weapon in America's fight against fascism. Relive the prosperous 1950s as the post-war baby boomers made their presence felt in every parish school. Finally, reflect on Catholic Detroiters during the turbulent 1960s.