Brother Andre

André Bessette was born on August 9, 1845, in Mont-Saint-Grégoire, Quebec, into a large French-Canadian family. Orphaned young — his father died when he was a child, his mother not long after — he was raised by relatives and spent his adolescence working as a farmhand, cobbler, tinsmith, and laborer across Quebec and New England. His health was always precarious: he was small, thin, and prone to illness throughout his life.

In 1870, at twenty-five, he applied to enter the Congregation of Holy Cross as a lay brother. He was nearly turned away — his health was poor, he had almost no formal education, and the congregation doubted he could endure religious life. The Bishop of Montreal interceded on his behalf, and he was admitted. He became known as Brother André.

For forty years he served as porter — doorkeeper — at the Collège Notre-Dame in Côte-des-Neiges, Montreal. It was among the humblest positions in the community. Visitors who came to the door with ailments found him willing to sit with them, pray with them, and rub them with oil — directing all petitions not to himself but to Saint Joseph. Reports of healings circulated. More visitors came.

In 1904 he obtained permission to build a small wooden chapel to Saint Joseph on the slope of Mount Royal, across from the college. Pilgrims arrived from across Canada. The chapel grew into a shrine, and the shrine grew into the Basilica of Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal — today one of the largest churches in North America, drawing millions of visitors each year. The walls of the original chapel were lined with crutches and canes, left behind by those who said they had been healed.

He became known as the Miracle Man of Montreal. He deflected the attention consistently. "I do not cure," he said. "Saint Joseph cures."

He died on January 6, 1937, at the age of ninety-one — the feast day that now bears his name. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on May 23, 1982, and canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on October 17, 2010.