Bessette, C.S.C. (9 August 1845 – 6 January 1937), known simply as Brother André was a lay brother of the Congregation of Holy Cross, credited with thousands of reported miraculous oil healings associated within his deep devotion to Saint Joseph.
Born Alfred on August 9, 1845 in Mont-Saint-Grégoire,(Québec, he was so frail when he was born that the curé baptized in emergency at his birth. From a working-class family, his mother, Clothilde Foisy Bessette, saw to the education of her children. Alfred found himself orphaned at the age of twelve after the early deaths of his parents.
His parish priest, noting his piety and devotion, presented him to the Congregation of Holy Cross. writing a note to the superior, “I’m sending you a saint.” Initially rejected because of his frail health, Archbishop Ignace Bourget of Montreal intervened on his behalf, and in 1872, Alfred was accepted, and entered the novitiate of the congregation, 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.
André was given the task of porter at Notre Dame College in Côte-des-Neiges, Quebec“When I joined this community, the superiors showed me the door, and I remained 40 years,” he said.
He was deeply devoted to Saint Joseph and recommend Saint Joseph’s intercession to the afflicted. On his many visits to the sick in their homes, he would rub the sick person lightly with oil taken from a lamp burning in the college chapel and recommend them in prayer to Saint Joseph. People claimed that they had been cured through the prayers of the good Brother and Saint Joseph, and they were grateful their prayers had been heard. Brother André steadfastly refused to take any credit for these cures. Because he wanted Saint Joseph to be honored, in 1904 Bessette began the campaign to erect a chapel to honor Saint Joseph.
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. “Saint Joseph cures.” In the end he needed four secretaries to handle the 80,000 letters he received each year.
As his reputation spread, controversy inevitably arose. 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.
In 1924 construction of a basilica named Saint Joseph’s Oratory began on the side of the mountain, near his chapel. André Bessette died in 1937, at the age of 91. A million people filed past his coffin. Brother André was beatified by Pope Saint John Paul II on May 23, 1982. On October 17, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI formally declared sainthood for him, the first saint of the Congregation of Holy Cross.
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