Andr%C3%A9 Bessette

Andr Bessette, C.S.C. , more commonly known as Brother Andr , and since his canonization as St. Andr of Montreal, was a lay brother of the Congregation of Holy Cross and a significant figure of the Roman Catholic Church among FrenchCanadians, credited with thousands of reported miraculous healings. He was declared venerable in 1978 and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1982. Pope Benedict XVI approved the decree of sainthood for Blessed Andr on February 19, 2010, with the formal canonization taking place on October 17, 2010.

He was born Alfred Bessette in MontSaintGrgoire, Quebec, a small town situatedkilometres southeast of Montreal. Bessette was the eighth ofchildren . He was so frail when he was born that the cur baptized him conditionally the following day, completing an emergency ritual performed at his birth. He was from a workingclass family his father, Isaac Bessette, was a carpenter and lumberman, and his mother, Clothilde Foisy Bessette, saw to the education of her children. In 1849, with employment scarce and his family living in poverty, Alfreds father decided to move to Farnham where he hoped to earn a living as a lumberman. Tragically, he lost his life in an accident, crushed by a falling tree, when Alfred was only nine years old. His wife found herself widowed at the age of forty with ten children in her care. She died of tuberculosis within three years, and Alfred found himself orphaned at the age of twelve.

Source: Wikipedia