Saint André Bessette

Alfred Bessette was born in 1845 in a small village in Quebec, Canada, and was orphaned by the age of twelve. Frail in health and barely able to read, he worked as a farmhand and in factories in Canada and New England. In 1870 he entered the Congregation of Holy Cross as Brother André, and was made doorkeeper of Notre-Dame College in Montreal, a job he held for some forty years. "When I joined, they showed me the door, and I stayed there," he joked.

At the door he welcomed the sick and the troubled, prayed with them and asked them to pray to Saint Joseph. So many reported healings that crowds began to come. He always insisted that he did nothing himself: it was Saint Joseph. From a small chapel built in 1904 grew Saint Joseph's Oratory on Mount Royal, today the largest church dedicated to Saint Joseph in the world. He died on January 6, 1937, and about a million people came to pay their respects. Pope Benedict XVI canonized him in 2010.

Pilgrims climb the steps of Saint Joseph's Oratory in Montreal, some on their knees, and leave crutches and canes as signs of thanks. Many families keep a small statue or medal of Saint Joseph at home and rub it with blessed oil when they pray for the sick, as Brother André taught.

In the United States his memorial is kept on January 6; in Canada it is celebrated on January 7.