DETROIT  — A priest known for his steadfast devotion to the needy cleared a threshold on the way to possible sainthood Saturday as the Roman Catholic Church beatified Solanus Casey, who is credited with the miraculous cure of a woman with a chronic skin disease.

More than 60,000 people attended a Mass in Detroit where Father Solanus, as he was known, has an extraordinary following, decades after his death in 1957. Many insist their prayers to him have led to remarkable changes in their lives. Some of their stories were told on the screens at Ford Field.

Pope Francis said Father Solanus met the requirements to earn the rank of “blessed,” especially after Paula Medina Zarate of Panama was instantly cured while she prayed at his tomb in 2012.

Zarate had a formal role at the Mass, placing a cross in front of a portrait of Father Solanus near the altar. Italian Cardinal Angelo Amato read a decree by the pope, who described the priest as a “humble and faithful disciple of Christ, tireless in serving the poor.”

Father Solanus can be made a saint in the years ahead if a second miracle is attributed to him.