André Bessette

Upon returning to Canada, he entered the novitiate of the Congregation of Holy Cross in 1870 under the name Brother André, and pronounced his perpetual vows in 1874. Appointed porter of Notre-Dame College in Montreal, he spent nearly forty years there. He welcomed the sick, prayed with them, and advised them to rub their suffering limbs with oil from the lamp of Saint Joseph. Faced with the influx of pilgrims and numerous healings, he had a small chapel built on Mount Royal in 1904, which would become Saint Joseph's Oratory.

Brother André always refused the title of miracle-worker, attributing all healings to Saint Joseph. He passed away on January 6, 1937, at the age of 91. More than a million people filed past his remains at Saint Joseph's Oratory. His cause for canonization opened in 1940. In 1963, his body was discovered intact and mummified. He was declared Venerable by Pope Paul VI on June 12, 1978.

Brother André was beatified on May 23, 1982, by John Paul II, following the miraculous healing in 1958 of Giuseppe Carlo Audino from liver cancer. On October 17, 2010, Benedict XVI solemnly canonized him, making him the first male saint born in Canada. The canonization miracle concerns the sudden and complete healing in 1999 of a young Canadian boy who had fallen into a coma after a serious road accident.

The spirituality of Saint André Bessette rests on an absolute trust in Providence and a filial devotion to Saint Joseph. His legacy endures at Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal, which welcomes two million pilgrims per year and preserves his heart, exposed for veneration. In 2016, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops declared him the patron saint of caregivers in Canada.