SPECIAL DEVOTION TO SAINT JOSEPH AND MANY MIRACLES IN HIS NAME
Blessed Andre Bessette, who once worked in the former Phoenix Mill located in West Warwick, canonized by Pope Benedict XVI.. Several healing miracles have been attributed to the Quebec native, who died in 1937 and who has still has many distant relatives living in Rhode Island.
When Bessete was 20, he joined many young Quebecois, including several of his brothers and sisters, who sought work in New England’s thriving textile mills. He returned to his homeland in 1867, following the establishment of the Canadian Federation. Despite frail health and a lack of formal education, the young man was presented to the Congregation of the Holy Cross in Montreal by his parish pastor, Father Andre Provencal, who noticed the young man’s piety and devotion. Bessette was accepted into the novitiate and given the name Brother Andre.
For more than 40 years Brother Andre served as a porter at Notre Dame College, administered by the Holy Cross Congregation, and performed other jobs for the religious community, such as giving haircuts to the students attending the school.
The young brother had great confidence in St. Joseph, the foster father of Jesus, and recommended this devotion to all those who sought his counsel, many of whom suffered from physical or mental afflictions or needed spiritual encouragement. Because he wanted St. Joseph to be honored, Brother Andre began construction of a small chapel near the school on Mount Royal in 1904.
As his reputation spread, throngs of pilgrims visited the chapel and met with Brother Andre and soon proclaimed that they were cured of their illnesses. Historians report that the brother made oil from the remnants of church candles, bottled the substance and encouraged those whom he met to rub the oil on their bodies as they prayed to St. Joseph for healing.
Eventually the small chapel could not accommodate the vast number of pilgrims who came to meet Brother Andre and to pray with him. St. Joseph’s Oratory was built and remains a popular destination for those who travel to Montreal to seek St. Joseph’s and Blessed Andre’s intercession.
Throughout his life, Brother Andre visited relatives and friends throughout Rhode Island and in Fall River, Mass, where he frequently worshiped at St. Anne’s Shrine, then operated by the Dominican Fathers from the Canadian province who ministered to the French- speaking communicants who had settled in the area and worked in the city’s textile mills..”
Bishop Louis E. Gelineau who grew up in Burlington, Vt., recalled that when he was a young boy, his parents, who were very religious, traveled to Montreal to visit Brother Andre.
“They felt that they were in the presence of a saint.” Bishop Gelineau said. “I remember their excitement.”
Julien Bessette, a distant cousin of the future saint and parishioner of Precious Blood Church, Woonsocket, recalled that two of his uncles had met Brother Andre when they were teens.
“My grandmother told them, “You’re seeing a saint,’” Bessette recalled. “Brother Andre was known as “‘The Miracle Man of Montreal.’”
Prayer to Saint André for Healing
Saint André,
I come to you in prayer for healing.
(state your intention)
You were no stranger to illness.
Plagued by stomach problems,
you knew suffering on a daily basis,
but you never lost faith in God.
Thousands of people have sought your healing touch
as I do today.
Pray that I might be restored to health
in body, soul and mind.
With St. Joseph as my loving Protector,
strengthen my faith and give me peace
that I might accept God’s will for me
no matter what the outcome.
Amen.
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