The miracle that led to Brother André's canonisation

Synthèse :

Alfred Bessette, the future Brother André in religion, was born in 1845 in Quebec, into a poor and very large family, such as was common at the time: the eighth of thirteen children, he became orphaned at the age of 12. His father, a carpenter and lumberman, was killed by a falling tree when the child was nine. Three years later, his mother died of tuberculosis and he was left in the care of an aunt. Frail, small in stature, often ill, uneducated and almost illiterate, Alfred set off for the United States, where he worked in a variety of unsuitable occupations. When he returned home in 1867, the parish priest of Saint-Césaire, where he had grown up, took him under his wing and enrolled him in the Holy Cross congregation, describing him as a "saint". After an extended novitiate, the congregation decided to keep this strange character, who took the name of Brother André, with them. In February 1874, at the age of twenty-eight, he made his final vows.

He was appointed school porter. Later, he would make a joke of it, saying that when he arrived in the community he was "shown the door" and that he kept it for almost forty years! In reality, he was the handyman, and in particular acted as nurse to the schoolchildren. This is how his reputation as a miracle worker began to spread: the poor and sick of the neighbourhood came to him for treatment. Brother André prayed with them, gave them a medal of Saint Joseph and a few drops of the olive oil that burned in front of the statue of the saint in the school chapel, and advised them to rub it on themselves with confidence. Many of them declared themselves cured.

Faced with the influx of people and the criticism that began to emerge, the school management asked him to go and practise his cures in the tram shelter across the street. Finally, Brother André, who always took people to pray before a statue of Saint Joseph in a niche nearby, asked to be allowed to build a small oratory. Permission was granted, and donations in money and kind poured in. In 1904, the shrine was inaugurated. It had to be extended four times as the number of pilgrims grew. Finally, in 1913, the decision was made to build a vast shrine to Saint Joseph. What was to become one of the largest churches in the world was built in several stages, and was not completed until 1967. This is St Joseph's Oratory in Montreal, which has become the world centre for devotion to Jesus' foster father.

Brother André's message was very simple: pray to God, in particular through the intercession of Saint Joseph; love your neighbour, and relieve him of his suffering as much as possible.

Brother André died in 1937: for a week, more than a million people marched past the body of the little Brother healer, to thank and honour him.

The long process leading to his canonisation began shortly after his death, in 1940. However, it was not completed until 2010. At issue were the slanders spread about the "rubber", as he was called by malicious tongues, accusing him of abusing olive oil for his cures. The Archbishop of Montreal logically set up an ecclesiastical tribunal to study the case. In 1960, the case was brought to Rome by John XXIII. His tomb was opened and his mummified body was found intact.

After the recognition of a first miracle - the inexplicable cure of liver cancer suffered by an American, Mr Audino - Brother André was beatified by John Paul II in 1982. Over the years, no fewer than ten million people signed petitions to obtain his canonisation, which requires a second miracle according to Church law.

In 1999, a ten-year-old child (whose family requested anonymity) was hit by a car: he suffered two skull fractures and an internal cerebral haemorrhage. He was plunged into a deep coma for three weeks, and was not expected to recover. But at the very moment when a member of the family asked Brother André at Saint Joseph's Oratory for his cure, the child came out of his coma and made a full recovery. A major examination of this case of unexplained healing was carried out by doctors and specialists, who produced an eight hundred page report.

On 17 October 2010, Pope Benedict XVI canonised Brother André, making him the second saint of Quebec.

Aller plus loin :

Brother Andre by Jean-guy Dubuc, Ave Maria Press; illustrated edition (January 1, 2010)

En savoir plus :

• On the website of Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal, the article "How Alfred Bessette became Saint Brother André"
• National Catholic Register article "‘Miracle Man’ to Be Canonized"
• God's Doorkeepers: Padre Pio, Solanus Casey and André Bessette by Joel Schorn, Franciscan Media (September 1, 2006)