Saint André Bessette

Today is the Feast Day of Saint André Bessette, the doorkeeper who became a saint. Brother André dedicated his life to Saint Joseph and to people suffering from spiritual and physical illness. He convinced the Holy Cross community in Montreal in the early 1900s to build Saint Joseph's Oratory. Today, the oratory houses the many crutches, canes, and wheelchairs left behind by healed pilgrims who prayed to Saint Joseph upon Brother André's request.

Because of his ill health, members of Holy Cross did not initially want Brother André as a member of the Congregation. His novice master begged the community to allow him to stay because of his intense prayer. He professed vows and was assigned as porter at Notre Dame College in Montreal, the only formal ministry he held his entire life. He began to welcome the sick and the fragile, the ill and the outcast. His door became his entry into people's deep suffering and isolation.

Brother André persevered in his devotions. He told people who were ill to pray to Saint Joseph, to rub oil on their wounds, to believe in the miracles of Christ Jesus. He experienced God's healing of thousands of people. He became known as the "miracle worker of Mount Royal." Because he could not read, André memorized the Beatitudes and other passages of Scripture that offer hope to people in pain. He believed that faith alone was the answer to real human suffering. When 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.”

In his little room near the door, he spent much of the night on his knees. On his windowsill, facing Mount Royal, was a small statue of Saint Joseph, to whom he had been devoted since childhood. When asked about it he said, “Some day, Saint Joseph is going to be honored in a very special way on Mount Royal!”

When he heard 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. “Saint Joseph cures.” In the end he needed four secretaries to handle the 80,000 letters he received each year.

Brother André died on January 6, 1937. More than a million pilgrims streamed to Montreal for his funeral. In those days before jet planes, the Internet, and cell phones, the real communication of faith and gratitude spread rapidly among believers. Brother André Bessette was canonized in Rome on Sunday, October 17, 2010.

Saint André Bessette and Saint Joseph, pray for us.