Saint Josephs Oratory

The Oratory of Saint Joseph on Mount-Royal is a very big attraction in Montreal and it all started of with one humble man who was supposed to have healed the weak, Frere Andre. Here is his story. His name at birth was Alfred Bessette, he was born August 9, 1845. He was really weak at birth and his parents baptized him the day after he was born because they were scared he wouldn't survive. He and his family were very poor and in 1849 moved to Farham so hopefully his father could make a better wage as a lumberjack. His mother was widowed at 40 and had to take care of ten kids because his father was killed by a falling tree,Alfred was only 9. Alfred's mother died of tuberculosis three years after his father died. The family was separated and Alfred, only 12 had to face life as it really is, cruel. Alfred traveled from job to job, but because he was so frail he often got replaced. After a while he followed the rush of French-Canadians to America and worked for 4 years in a textile mill. In 1867 he came back to Canada. He wanted to be a Novitiate of the Congregation of Holy Cross in Montreal but they questioned him because of his poor health. Eventually they made him Brother Andrew (or Frere Andre) and gave him a responsibility at Notre-Dame College. He worked at Notre-Dame college for 40 years as the doorman, and eventually he became very weak, he prayed to st Joseph during that time and people started coming to him when they were injured or weak. It started in his small office and the tram station across the street but eventually he built a shrine for Saint Joseph. The shrine became to small and he and his friends built something a little bigger. when that became to small others started helping, but when they needed to raise money and couldn't they came to Frere Andre. Frere said to put a statue of Saint Joseph in the middle and if he wanted a roof he would raise the money, a month later the money was raised. Now Saint Josephs oratory is one of the biggest and Frere Andre is buried in the middle. The church has a wonderful story and a wonderful view over the city, if you're ever in Montreal you should visit it.

i got this information from
http://www.saint-joseph.org/
By Georgia Cowan-Essig