Msgr. Beaulieu – Saint André Bessette

Saint André Bessette

Known as Brother André, this seemingly ordinary Holy Cross brother was declared venerable in 1978 and beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1982. Pope Benedict XVI approved his decree of sainthood on February 9, 2010, with the formal canonization taking place on October 17, 2010.

He was born Alfred Bessette on August 9, 1845, in Saint-Grégoire d’Iberville, Quebec, a small farming town about 25 miles south of Montréal. Brother André was one of 12 children. However, by the time he was 12 years old, his father, a lumberman, had been killed in a work accident and his mother had died of tuberculosis. Physically diminutive, chronically ill, uneducated and clumsy with his hands, the young Bessette nevertheless worked as a farmhand, shoemaker, baker, and blacksmith in Quebec for six years before seeking work in what was then the thriving textile mills of New England. For four years he worked in factories and farms in Connecticut, Massachusetts and West Warwick Rhode Island.

What became typical, after a friend and his family moved to North Grosvenor Dale, Connecticut, Br. André would visit them annually when he passed through that Connecticut town after visiting relatives in Sterling or New Bedford or sundry other places during the summer months. Br. André was very familiar with the New England area because, as a young man, he had worked in the cotton/woolen mills of Fall River, Massachusetts, just north of New Bedford, as did thousands of French-Canadian immigrants in the early part of the 20th century. Following the establishment of the Canadian Confederation in 1867, he returned to Quebec.

From his earliest childhood, he was quietly but conspicuously prayerful, an inclination which seemed only to intensify during his hardscrabble years as an itinerant laborer. After returning to Canada, he confessed an interest in formal religious life to Father Andre Provencal, his local parish priest, who sent him to a nearby community of Holy Cross brothers with a letter assuring its superior that “I am sending you a saint.” As a poorly-educated 25-year old novice he was put to work as a porter, or doorman, at Montreal’s College of Notre Dame, an assignment in which he continued for the next 40 years. In addition to welcoming visitors, he served as janitor, launderer, and sacristan, ran errands and provided the students with inexpensive haircuts.

Throughout these years his reputation for humility and kindness grew, as did the numbers of visitors he received. Most of them were poor and sick, to whom he offered not only his compassion and what material assistance he could provide, but also moral and spiritual advice. Many of his visitors attributed miraculous cures to him, but he would insist, sometimes with their annoyance, that any such cures were attributable to the prayers of Saint Joseph.

Brother André’s particular affection for St. Joseph, in addition to the need to accommodate the throngs of people seeking his help, advice and prayers, led to the foundation of Saint Joseph’s Oratory, at first a small structure constructed on Mount Royal with funds from meager donations along with Brother André’s barbershop income. The now  massive basilica attracts some 2 million pilgrims each year. Brother André was entombed in the Oratory after his death on January 6, 1937. Between his death and burial, more than 1 million pilgrims came to pay their respects.

Brother André, pray for us!