André Bessette

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
St. André Bessette

André Bessette, CSC (born August 9, 1845 as Alfred Bessette in Mont-Saint-Grégoire , Québec , † January 6, 1937 in Montreal ) was a religious popular among French-Canadian Catholics, to whom many healings were attributed. He was canonized on October 17, 2010.

Life

He was born as Alfred Bessette in Mont-Saint-Grégoire, Quebec, about 40 km southeast of the city of Montreal. He was in very poor health as an infant. His family was large and poor; the father was a forest worker and died when Alfred was 9 years old. Three years later, the mother died of tuberculosis . The now orphaned child was brought up by relatives, but his vocational training failed repeatedly due to his ailing condition. Alfred wandered from job to job for over 13 years. He was penniless and almost uneducated, and he was barely able to read and write.

At the age of 20 he moved to New England in the United States to work in a textile factory, but soon returned to his homeland.

Spiritual calling

Brother André (around 1920)

In 1872 Bessette entered the Congregation of the Holy Cross (Montreal) as a lay brother . His home pastor, who had mediated this step, wrote to the novice master: “I am sending you a saint.” The superiors initially decided against Bessette's admission because he appeared unfit for health to them, but Archbishop Ignace Bourget of Montreal intervened. At the age of 28, on February 2, 1874, the Solemnity of the Presentation of the Lord , Brother André was allowed to take his vows.

His field of activity was the gate in the Notre Dame seminar in Côte-des-Neiges , Québec. In addition to the gate service, he was assigned the duties of caretaker, messenger and cleaner. He was known for the gate service. He liked to joke that when he arrived at the monastery, he was shown the door and that he stayed there for 40 years.

His amiable manner and deep piety were known. He venerated St. Joseph very much and spoke often about his favorite saint, the foster father of Jesus. He recommends the Joseph service to the sick. The charism of healing that was ascribed to him was always related to the worship of Joseph. Brother André denied all his life that he had brought about any healing himself; all be to St. Attributed to Joseph.

In order to promote the cult of Joseph, Bessette began to raise money for the construction of a Joseph chapel in 1904. The building project and the enthusiasm for the veneration of St. Joseph grew steadily, so that in 1924 construction work on a basilica , which was to be named St. Joseph's Oratory , could begin. The pilgrimage church shapes the cityscape of Montreal today because the building is located in an exposed location southwest of Mont Royal and is visited by over two million people annually.

Statue of Brother André in the grounds of the St Joseph Oratory in Montréal

When Bessette died in 1937 at the age of 91, a million people said goodbye to him at his coffin.

Bessette's tomb is in the church, which he helped build, under the main chapel of the Joseph Oratory. However, his heart is kept separately as a relic in the same oratory. The heart was stolen in March 1973 and recovered in December 1974.

Brother André was beatified by Pope John Paul II on May 23, 1982 . Pope Benedict XVI issued a decree on December 19, 2009 recognizing a second miracle wrought by Brother André. André Bessette was from Pope Benedict XVI. canonized on October 17th, 2010 in St. Peter's Square. His feast in the liturgy is on January 6th.

literature

  • Josef-Ludwig Sattel: St. Josef the helper and comforter and his servant brother Andreas (Hacker-Taschenbuch 46, 2nd edition 1974) ISBN 3-87283-019-8
  • Josef-Ludwig Sattel: Brother Andreas, servant of St. Josef (Jestetten 1994) ISBN 3-87449-248-6

Individual evidence

  1. ^ How Alfred Bessette became Saint André ( Memento of November 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved August 31, 2014.
  2. ↑ Text, image and voice in An Unlikely Hero , TV report by the CBC from May 23, 1982 - 2 min 26 s.
  3. ^ Brad Olsen: Sacred Places, North America: 108 Destinations . 2nd Edition. Consortium of Collective Consciousness Publishing, San Francisco 2008, ISBN 978-1-888729-19-1 , pp. 312 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed January 14, 2017]).
  4. ↑ Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal - The Tomb and the Heart of Saint Brother André. Retrieved February 23, 2012 .
  5. ↑ Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal - The Heart of Brother André. Retrieved December 20, 2009 .
  6. ↑ Brenda Branswell, Pope Benedict XIV attributes miracle to Brother André, in: The Gazette (Montreal) of December 19, 2009.
  7. ^ Sermon by Pope Benedict XVI. at canonization
personal data
SURNAME Bessette, André
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bessette, Alfred (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Lay brother of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, saint
DATE OF BIRTH August 9, 1845
PLACE OF BIRTH Mont-Saint-Grégoire , Québec
DATE OF DEATH January 6, 1937
Place of death Montreal