Note: To celebrate its 10th anniversary, Northwest Catholic reconnected with some of the people whose stories have resonated with readers over the years.

It was the simple wood coffin of Pope John Paul II in 2005 that sparked something in Marcus Daly. The landscaper and wooden boatbuilder turned that spark into Marian Caskets, the business he and his family began in their Vashon Island woodworking shop.

Daly cuts, sands and glues each wooden coffin and prays for the person it’s for. Most caskets are carved with the Marian cross, the concluding prayer from the Divine Mercy chaplet — “Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, Have Mercy on Us” — and the Divine Mercy message, “Jesus, I Trust in You.”

“Getting to spend all this time this close to a really hard reality that God has allowed, ultimately for our own good, has given me a privileged place to go deeper and deeper and deeper into a mystery,” he told Northwest Catholic (“The coffinmaker”) in the November 2016 issue.

Word of Daly’s simple caskets spread through Catholic circles and in religious and secular media. He began shipping — and sometimes personally driving — his creations all over the country.

That word of mouth led Daly back  to Pennsylvania, his home state.

In 2021, Daly was contacted by a member of a church in Scranton, Pennsylvania, who explained that the pastor’s 11th child, Damian, had died in the 35th week of pregnancy.

“They were in need of a casket for his burial and asked to have a quote from St. Peter Damian engraved on the top,” Daly wrote on his blog in 2022.

As Daly built the small casket, he and his family prayed for the family   in Pennsylvania, he explained.

“We felt a prompt to move our family cross country and establish Marian Caskets’ East Coast workshop,” Daly wrote.

The Daly family now calls both Pennsylvania and Vashon home, and caskets are made in both locations. Daly sees it as a way to help others and “extend our evangelical reach,” he said.

“We are aiming to expand Marian Caskets to the point where we never have to turn down a request for a casket again and where we can employ several young people, giving them practical woodworking skills while they discern God’s call for the fulfillment of their earthly missions,” Daly said.

In addition to caskets, Daly also crafts simple Divine Mercy crosses that can be hung in a home. He said sales from the crosses help keep costs of caskets low for grieving families. Learn more about Marian Caskets at mariancaskets.com

Read more Northwest Catholic 10th anniversary content. To read the complete August/September 2023 issue of Northwest Catholic, click here.