André Bessette, C.S.C. (born Alfred; 9 August 1845 – 6 January 1937), commonly known as Brother André () and since his canonization as Saint André of Montreal, was a

lay brother Lay brother is a largely extinct term referring to religious brothers, particularly in the Catholic Church, who focused upon manual service and secular matters, and were distinguished from choir monks or friars in that they did not pray in choi ...

of the

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and a significant figure of the

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among

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s. He is credited with thousands of reported healings associated with his pious devotion to

Saint Joseph According to the canonical Gospels, Joseph (; ) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. Joseph is venerated as Saint Joseph in the Catholic Church, Eastern O ...

. Bessette was declared venerable in 1978 and was beatified by

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in 1982.

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News
"Brother André to become saint," February 19, 2010
accessed February 19, 2010

Pope Benedict XVI Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as p ...

approved the decree of sainthood for Bessette on 19 February 2010, with the formal

canonization Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christianity, Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon ca ...

taking place on 17 October 2010. He is the first Canadian living after

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to be canonized.

Early life

He was born Alfred Bessette in Mont-Saint-Grégoire,

Canada East Canada East () was the northeastern portion of the Province of Canada. Lord Durham's Report investigating the causes of the Upper and Lower Canada Rebellions recommended merging those two colonies. The new colony, known as the Province of ...

(Québec), a small town situated southeast of

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

. His father, Isaac Bessette, was a carpenter and lumberman, while his mother, Clothilde Foisy Bessette, saw to the education of the children. Bessette was the eighth of 12 children, four of whom died in infancy. At birth, Bessette was so frail that the

curé A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' () of souls of a parish. In this sense, ''curate'' means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy who are ass ...

baptized him "conditionally" in an emergency ritual the following day. In 1849, with employment scarce and his family living in poverty, Bessette's father moved to Farnham, Quebec to work as a lumberman, but was shortly thereafter killed by a falling tree. Bessette was nine years old, and his mother, at 40, remained with ten children in her care. Clothilde died of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

within three years, and Bessette became orphaned at the age of twelve. Following his mother's death'','' Bessette was placed under the care of Timothée and Rosalie Nadeau of

Saint-Césaire, Quebec Saint-Césaire () is a city in the Canadian province of Quebec, located within the Rouville Regional County Municipality in the province's Montérégie region. The population as of the Canada 2011 Census was 5,686. Demographics In the 2021 ...

. While with the Nadeau family, Bessette attended catechetical lessons taught by his parish's pastor, André Provençal. It was during these lessons that Bessette developed his two lifelong devotions:

and the

Passion of Christ The Passion (from latin language, Latin , "to suffer, bear, endure") is the short final period before the death of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, described in the four canonical gospels. It is commemorated in Christianity every year during Holy ...

. In June 1858, at age 12, Bessette was confirmed by Bishop

Jean-Charles Prince Jean-Charles Prince (13 February 1804 – 5 May 1860) was a Canadian Roman Catholic priest, teacher, seminary administrator, editor, and Bishop of Saint-Hyacinthe, Lower Canada from 1852 to 1860. Life Jean-Charles Prince was born 13 Februa ...

of the Diocese of Saint-Hyacinthe. When Bessette was 14, the Nadeaus sent him to school. However, Bessette was soon removed from school, having only learned to read and sign his name, both with difficulty. Timothée Nadeau intended to train Bessette as a labourer, seeing no need for an orphan to be educated. Bessette soon left the Nadeaus and was brought in by Louis Ouimet, the mayor of Saint-Césaire. While living with the Ouimet family, Bessette had a series of short-lived occupations, working as a farmer, tinsmith, blacksmith, wheelwright, cobbler, and baker, all of which Bessette was too physically weak to sustain. Searching for work, Bessette moved to Moosup, Connecticut at the age of 18, where he joined several of his relatives in work at textile mills across Connecticut and Rhode Island. Bessette returned to Canada in 1867 following the Canadian Confederation.

Call to devotion

The

pastor A pastor (abbreviated to "Ps","Pr", "Pstr.", "Ptr." or "Psa" (both singular), or "Ps" (plural)) is the leader of a Christianity, Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutherani ...

of his parish, André Provençal, noticed the devotion and generosity of the young man. He decided to present Bessette to the

, writing a note to the superior, "I'm sending you a saint." Although he was initially rejected by the order because of frail health, Archbishop

Ignace Bourget Ignace Bourget (; October 30, 1799 – June 8, 1885) was a Canadian Roman Catholic priest who held the title of Bishop of Montreal from 1840 to 1876. Born in Lévis, Quebec, in 1799, Bourget entered the clergy at an early age, undertook several ...

of Montreal intervened on his behalf, and in 1872, Bessette was accepted and entered the

novitiate The novitiate, also called the noviciate, is the period of training and preparation that a Christian ''novice'' (or ''prospective'') monastic, apostolic, or member of a religious order undergoes prior to taking vows in order to discern whether ...

of the

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, receiving the religious name of Brother André, by which he was known for the rest of his life. He made his final vows on February 2, 1874, at the age of 28. After, Bessette became a

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at Collège Notre-Dame in

Côte-des-Neiges Côte-des-Neiges (, ) is a neighbourhood of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located at the geographic centre of the Island of Montreal on the western slope of Mount Royal and is part of the borough of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. His ...

, Quebec'','' and also served as sacristan, laundry worker and messenger''.'' While working at the college, Bessette began to minister to the sick. Biographer Leonard Foley wrote that "his great confidence in

inspired him to recommend the saint's devotion to all those who were afflicted''.''" The brother also rubbed the sick with oil taken from one of the college's lamps. People claimed that they had been cured through the prayers of Bessette and Saint Joseph, and they were grateful their prayers had been heard. Bessette steadfastly refused to take any credit for these cures, even during an epidemic. Bessette's desire to see Saint Joseph honoured led him in 1904 to launch a campaign to build a

chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...

for that purpose. Stinson Remick Chapel - Bessette

As tensions increased at the college with so many of the sick coming to see the porter, the school officials decided that Bessette could no longer continue with his ministry. He was permitted to receive the sick in the nearby tramway station rather than the college. As his reputation spread, Bessette became quite a controversial figure. There were many religious in the Congregation of Holy Cross, teachers and parents of students at the College who supported him but many others opposed him and even considered him dangerous to the well-being of the school's reputation because they regarded him as a charlatan. Others were concerned for the good health of the children, fearing the possibility of contagion in the school spread from diseases carried by the sick who frequented Bessette. In 1924 construction of a

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...

named Saint Joseph's Oratory began on the side of the mountain, near Bessette's

Death and path to canonization

Bessette died on January 6, 1937, at the age of 91. One million people filed past his coffin. The remains of Bessette lie in the church he helped build. His body lies in a tomb built below the Oratory's Main Chapel, except for his heart, which is preserved in a

reliquary A reliquary (also referred to as a ''shrine'', ''Chasse (casket), chasse'', or ''phylactery'') is a container for relics. A portable reliquary, or the room in which one is stored, may also be called a ''feretory''. Relics may be the purported ...

in the same Oratory. The heart was stolen in March 1973, but was recovered in December 1974 with the help of criminal lawyer Frank Shoofey. A cause for Bessette's

beatification Beatification (from Latin , "blessed" and , "to make") is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their name. ''Beati'' is the p ...

was opened on July 20, 1950. He was beatified by

on May 23, 1982. The miracle cited in support of his beatification was the healing in 1958 of Giuseppe Carlo Audino, who suffered from

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

. Saint André is commemorated in most of the world by an optional memorial on January 6. His memorial is celebrated in Canada on January 7. On December 19, 2009,

promulgated a decree recognizing a second miracle at Bessette's intercession, and on October 17, 2010, formally declared sainthood for him. Bessette was the first saint of the

, the same religious order that founded the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac (known simply as Notre Dame; ; ND) is a Private university, private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, United States. Founded in 1842 by members of the Congregation of Holy Cross, a Cathol ...

Legacy

Many educational buildings were later named for Bessette, including: * Andre Hall at St. Edward's University in

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* Brother André Catholic High School in

Markham, Ontario Markham () is a city in Regional Municipality of York, York Region, Ontario, Canada. It is approximately northeast of Downtown Toronto. In the Canada 2021 Census, 2021 Census, Markham had a population of 338,503, which ranked it the largest in ...

* École élémentaire catholique Frère André in

London, Ontario London is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River (Ontario), Thames River and N ...

* Saint Andre Bessette Secondary School in

* Saint André Catholic Elementary School in

Brampton, Ontario Brampton is a city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario, and the regional seat of the Regional Municipality of Peel. It is part of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and is a List of municipalities in Ontario#L ...

* St. André Bessette Catholic High School in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta * St. André French Immersion Catholic Elementary School in

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Other educational namesakes include the St. Andre Scholars program at Notre Dame College Prep in

Niles, Illinois Niles is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, located in the townships of Maine Township, Cook County, Illinois, Maine and Niles Township, Cook County, Illinois, Niles, directly neighboring Chicago's far northwest border. Per the 2 ...

. Statues of Bessette stand at Holy Cross College and the

in Indiana. Several churches have also been named for Bessette, including ones in Ecorse, Michigan,

Laconia, New Hampshire Laconia ( ) is a city in Belknap County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 16,871 at the 2020 census, up from 15,951 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Belknap County. Laconia, situated between Lake Winnipesaukee and ...

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, and

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(now closed). There are also missions named for him in Cadiz, Philippines,

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...

, and York Region, Ontario.

Bibliography

* Joel Schorn, ''God's Doorkeepers: Padre Pio, Solanus Casey and André Bessette'': Servant Publications, (September 30, 2006), * Laurent Boucher, c.s.c., ''Brother André: the miracle man of Mount Royal'': Montreal, 1997, 329 p. * Lafrenière, Bernard, c.s.c., ''Brother André. According to the Witnesses'', Montreal
St. Joseph 's Oratory
1997, 212 p. * Henri-Paul Bergeron, ''Brother André, Apostle of Saint Joseph'': Montreal 1958 * Katherine Burton, ''Brother André of Mount-Royal'', US: The Ave Maria press, 1942, 310 pages

Media

* ''Brother André still with us'': Le Centre Saint-Pierre and Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount-Royal, 2004 (1 DVD – 62 minutes) * ''The Greatness and Beauty of Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal'': Montreal, Les Productions de la Montagne and Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal, 1995 (1 DVD, color, 26 minutes) * By

Jean-Claude Labrecque Jean-Claude Labrecque, (June 19, 1938 – May 31, 2019) was a Film director, director and cinematographer who learned the basics of filmmaking at the National Film Board of Canada. Career Jean-Claude Labrecque was born in Quebec City, Quebec, a ...

: '' Brother André'': Montreal, Les Productions de la Montagne, 1987 (Movie, on 1 DVD, color, 88 minutes) * '' God's Doorkeeper: St. André of Montreal'', 2010 * Bible

References

External links

Blessed Brother André Bessette, C.S.C.
— Short Biography on the Holy Cross Brothers site. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bessette, Andre 1845 births 1937 deaths People from Montérégie People from Montreal Congregation of Holy Cross Beatifications by Pope John Paul II Canonizations by Pope Benedict XVI 19th-century Christian saints 20th-century Christian saints Canonized Roman Catholic religious brothers Canadian Roman Catholic saints