Késsinnimek - Roots - Racines

Sundance's Corner
   by   Louise-Andrée Éthier aka Sundance Aquero Sharp

Brother André - Alfred Bessette

It is March and spring is coming soon! The Kessinniek of the wild life will be opening its petals in the flowers and little birds will be chirping asking for their food. Spring always brings a certain nostalgia of my childhood in Canada for some reason. Perhaps because the air changes, but there seems to be freshness about everywhere, even in the desert where the changes are subtle but nevertheless here.

I lived in Montréal as a child. When my parents decided to send me to English school, they moved to a predominantly English neighborhood. It had a French name though, called Notre Dame de Grace. "NDG" as the English called it. My elementary school was situated next to the great St. Joseph's Oratory which fascinated me. Being an only child, I was used to doing all kinds of things by myself and during my 5th and 6th grade, after school was out at three thirty in those days, I used to climb over the fence and up the side of the mountain where I could get on the path that led to the side door of the oratory. I would go in there and spend all the rest of my afternoon with Brother André. Some of you might remember him, he was the priest who had a little chapel on the mountain top where the huge oratory now exists. The little chapel of Brother André's is still there and it is a wax museum now. In the oratory itself, there was a downstairs cavern type area where hung all kinds of memorabilia. Thousands of crutches, canes, orthopedic collars; medical shoes, cards, mementos of all kinds indicating that these people who had worn these things and depended on them had no more use for them after having been healed by Brother André. They had left these things behind when being healed by the miraculous Brother André. They even had his heart on exhibition in a red vial and I was so fascinated with it that I would go touch it. In fact, I would play a game, I would run all over the place and touch his heart, then run again to touch his heart again. It was meant to be touched, one could place one's hand on the vial and say a prayer for healing. I was mesmerized by his heart. No one ever asked me to leave or not to play there. No one was ever even there at the time I went, I used to be completely alone in that great big church. As children have imaginary playmates and friends, Brother André was mine. I came to know him through the pictures, the memorabilia, his heart and the wax museum. My great grandmother, Memere Girard had a son who had had a terminal lung disease, and it was said she took him to Brother André and his lung was healed. This relative lived to be an old man. My grandmother used to go to the river on Easter morning to get what she called "l'eau de Paques" Easter water which was said to also have miraculous properties. She would bring her jar home and the water was used during the year to make medicines like cough syrups, poultices or used on wounds as a general antiseptic. Both my grandmothers were well versed in natural medicines; the herbs and plants of the area and used them when we were ill. Even I used these same medicines on my own children as they grew up.

Brother André was born Alfred Bessette on August 5, 1845, the eighth child of what was to become a family of twelve children. They were a poor family who lived in the farming village of St. Gregoire about thirty miles from Montréal. He had been a sick baby and it was feared that he would die soon after birth. He hung in there though and lived to be ninety one years old. He was a happy child until his father was killed in a lumbering accident and four years after, his beloved mother contracted tuberculosis and had to put his siblings for adoption and she kept only Alfred due to his frail health and went to live with her sister, Madame Timothee Nadeau.When the end was near she called her children to be by her side before she passed away. She told them that she would watch them from heaven. After his mother's death, he remained with the Nadeau family, and his uncle put him to work on the family farm. He was so frail that his health could not cope with the strenuous farm labor. His uncle then sent him to a cobbler to learn the trade but the child was so clumsy that he was constantly pricking himself with the cobbler's awl. This scenario was repeated over and over again where he tried to do the best he could at a job but his health made it impossible to keep a job.

Brother André would remain in church on Sundays and not go out and play like the other children. It was the only day he had to play but rather he would remain in the church to pray. It was during this time that he met Father André Prevost who became his spiritual tutor. Even in his youth, Alfred practiced severe penance. His aunt had to forbid him to use a leather belt pierced with tacks and worn around the waist, an iron chain and sleeping on the floor. She feared for his health. He was 18 years old in 1863 and he moved to New England for better work opportunities and better climate for his health but became a wanderer.

One day while working in the field, he had a vision of a large stone building with a cross on it. He had never seen this building but he did received a definite mental impression of it's size and proportions; color and windows all of which suggested barracks. Years later, the vision was confirmed when he became the porter of the very building in his vision; the college of Notre Dame in Cote des Neiges.

Brother André returned to Canada offering many trials and sufferings in an effort to discern his true vocation and he went to see Father Provencial, his old friend and supporter. After great consternation, in 1870, Alfred Besette was accepted into the novitiate of the Congregation of the Holy Cross formed in 1857. Father Provencal had sent Alfred to them with a letter indicating " I am sending you a saint". Alfred was nervous as these men were educated and he was still illiterate but Father Provencal soon relieved him of his worry as there was a need in the order for janitors and manual laborers. Alfred's fears were allayed. He was liked by his superiors and respected by his brothers. He progressed in spiritual life and learned to read. In fact, he memorized the Passion of Our Lord as it is contained in each of the four gospels, being able to recite the entire Passion word for word according to whichever Evangelist he wished. In addition to this, he had whole sections of many spiritual books memorized. Despite his frail health and nearly being dismissed from the congregation on account of it, Alfred threw himself at the feet of the bishop humbly declaring that all his only ambition was to serve God in the most obscure tasks! Brother André made his profession on August 22, 1872. His first assignment was as porter of the College of Notre-Dame-du Sacre-Coeur in Cote des Neiges. He held this position for forty years!

It was soon after his assignment at the college that those supernatural phenomena which marked the rest of his life started to happen.

As for Brother André, the public nature and frequency of the miracles he worked made them impossible to dispute. He cured many of the students at the college, so many that he developed a reputation as a great miracle worker.

One day as the pious porter was scrubbing the floor in the parlor of the college, a lady came to see him, having heard of his reputation. She was so afflicted with rheumatism that she could walk only with the assistance of two men supporting her holding each arm. Not even looking up from the floor, Brother André said to the men assisting her, "Let her walk" and the woman walked unassisted. Many such miracles occurred and when it was said that these miracles were wrought by the prayer of this brother, he would rebuke his brothers for saying this as he never claimed that he worked single miracle. Yet masses came to the school and filled the halls where this porter priest worked and many of the parents of the students became alarmed at all the attention of ill people with contagious diseases crowding the school. Brother made enemies of these parents, and doctors who said he was a fake healer, and fury began to rise. Soon, he was mobbed by a mob of hostile enemies complaining to his superiors and even to the public health officials. The enemies of Brother André failed and it was proven that these works were from God.

In the midst of all he excitement, brother André's heart was focused on only one ambition; the erection of the Montréal shrine to St. Joseph. Years before, A saintly Bishop Bourget had written in the decrees of the Second Plenary Council of Québec:

St. Joseph then, must have a church which will in a certain sense supply the service of all the others, and in which he may receive every day the public honors due to his eminent virtues...We wish to consecrate whatever is left to us of strength of life in the task of having him honored in such a church and of making that church a place of pilgrimage whither the faithful come to visit him.

The building of the shrine was a complex thing. What started out as a fifteen by eighteen foot chapel in 1904 became a minor basilica in 1955 and was completed, interior and all in 1966. In Brother André's lifetime, the shrine became big enough to warrant a full time guardian, a job which Brother André was appointed in 1909.From the moment that he conceived the idea to the day he died, the Oratory of Saint Joseph was a sacred task which Brother André pursued with burning zeal.

The miracles wrought at the Oratory wee many and spectacular. It was this kind of work that the Guardian of the Oratory wrought thousands of conversions. At night Brother André frequently visited hospitals, oftentimes returning with crutches to add to the growing collection in the Oratory which I spoke about earlier.

Interestingly, Brother André who was given the grace to heal others, he was constantly sick himself. He could eat little more than a mixture of flour and watered down milk or sometimes bread soaked in the same. To him, these sufferings were an opportunity for achieving greater sanctity. In the ninety-first year of his life, Brother André finally went home to God. The name of his Holy patron, St. Joseph was the last words parted from his lips.

The exposition of his body lasted a week. Great numbers of people returned to God; the confessionals were filled with people streaming his poor little coffin. More than one million people came to pay their respects in great sorrow. His remains lie in a black sepulcher in he back of the Oratory, the shrine he dedicated his life to for St. Joseph. In the front of the Basilica towers a statue of St. Joseph holding the child Jesus.

In my childhood, I did not know these things but I certainly felt a presence. My son who is a musician happened to participate in a music festival in Montréal a few years ago and he called me from there and said "Hi Mom, I am in your city of birth!" I was all excited. He then asked me where he should go visit while he was there. Since he was working, he didn't have but one afternoon free to do sightseeing, so I sent him to St. Joseph's Oratory. He called me from there on a cell phone. I think he also felt the energy as he was very elated and impressed with the size of the Oratory on the mountain. I could feel it in his voice. In my mind's eeye, I could see him there clearly as if teleported. I knew that my old school had been torn down in the early 70's so, I did not mention my school. He brought back some souvenirs and sent me some post cards with Brother André on them. Again, with the word Kessinnimek we have come full circle with another generation standing in the ground where the roots (racines) had taken form. Neither he nor I knew that Brother André was our cousin! I just found out while writing this article when I searched for biographical material on Brother André, only to notice his name was Alfred Bessette. Realizing that I had a Bessette line, I wondered if we might be related. In searching out more biographical material, I found some names and recognized them to be familiar. I immediately emailed our cousin Normand with the information and would you know, we found the line to match and Brother André is indeed my cousin. Well, how do you like that? Is this not Kessinnimek in action? Wow is all I can say. There are no words to express my sentiments in this area. Being chronically ill and having a lot of troubles, with my health, I understood better what Brother André meant when he stated that our Father in heaven does not always heal the believers as quickly as he does the non-believers and I think Brother André knew this very well becuase our suffering always makes us more saintly, that is if we love God. He is purifying and preparing our souls to enter his home and therefore, those of us who are ill need to understand this as best we can because we do not always understand why we are ill and why we have to suffer. It gives suffering dignity and a purpose; hence making it more tolerable. Hopefully, it makes us aware just a little of the suffering of our Lord on the cross and appreciate Him more. It is so easy to become complacent and numb. Suffering is a method of strengthing the soul and keeping us alert because life in the hereafter will be long and full of adventure. We must be ready for it.

It was the thought of spring that took me on this journey; and what the smell of the coming springtime struck in my ancestral memories. It reminded me again of childhood and the circle of life. Kessinnimek! My regards to all the readers, my prayers are with all of you especially those who are hurting or suffering.If you write your name in the guest book, I will write your name on my prayer list where I keep a statue of Mother Mary, Jesus and Kateri. We are not alone.

Zôbi widôbaid & Métañdossañtz8añgan, All My Relations!
Louise-Andrée Ethier AkA: Sundance Aquero Sharo.Yuma, Arizona.

(Ed. note: Frère André's genealogy can be found at www.leveillee.net/ancestry/bessettealfred.htm)

Copyright © 2003 - 2008 Norm Léveillée

Created 1 Feb 2003