(1845-1937)
André Bessette was the eighth of 12 children born to a French-Canadian couple near Montreal. At age 12, his parents had died. He was adopted and he became a farmhand. He later tried his hand at various trades: shoemaker, baker, blacksmith — all failures. He was even a factory worker in the United States during the boom times of the Civil War.
At 25, André applied for entrance into the Congregation of Holy Cross but after a year’s novitiate, he was not admitted because of his weak health. After receiving an extension and the urging of Bishop Bourget, he was finally received. He was given the humble job of doorkeeper at Notre Dame College in Montreal, with additional duties as sacristan, laundry worker and messenger.
“When I joined this community, the superiors showed me the door, and I remained 40 years,” he said.
In his little room near the door, he spent much of the night in prayer. On his windowsill, facing Mount Royal, was a small statue of St. Joseph, to whom he had been devoted since childhood. When asked about it he said, “Someday, St. Joseph is going to be honored in a very special way on Mount Royal.”
Upon hearing someone was ill, he visited to bring cheer and to pray with the sick person. He would rub the sick person lightly with oil taken from a lamp burning in the college chapel. Word of healing powers began to spread.
When an epidemic broke out at a nearby college, André volunteered to nurse. Not one person died. The trickle of sick people to his door became a flood. His superiors were uneasy; diocesan authorities were suspicious; doctors called him a quack.
“I do not cure,” he said again and again. “St. Joseph cures.”
In the end he needed four secretaries to handle the 80,000 letters he received each year.
For many years, the Holy Cross authorities had tried to buy land on Mount Royal. Brother André and others climbed the steep hill and planted medals of St. Joseph. Suddenly, the owners yielded. André collected $200 to build a small chapel and began receiving visitors there. Smiling through long hours of listening, he would apply St. Joseph’s oil. Some were cured, some not. The pile of crutches, canes and braces left behind grew.
The chapel also grew. By 1931, there were gleaming walls, but money ran out. “Put a statue of St. Joseph in the middle. If he wants a roof over his head, he’ll get it.” The magnificent oratory on Mount Royal took 50 years to build. The sickly boy who could not hold a job died at 92.
He is buried at the oratory. He was beatified in 1982 and canonized in 2010. At his canonization in October 2010, Pope Benedict XVI said that St. Andre “lived the beatitude of the pure of heart.”
Adapted by A. J. Valentini from: St. André Bessette | Franciscan Media. (n.d.). Franciscan Media. Retrieved December 30, 2020, from https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-andre-bessette