Page 12 - Michael Journal 2020 March

to all with kindness, and his chauffeur... making his way cerned. He scheduled an appointment with Brother
through the crowd, remarked: Andre’s superiors, many of whom were not convinced
‘How wonderful; it is like a scene from the life of the divine origin of the miracles. During the meet-
of Our Lord: everyone rushed forth to beg for favors ing, the bishop asked whether Brother Andre would
and cures.’ cease his activities if told under obedience. The reply
‘Perhaps so’ replied the Brother, ‘but God is sure- came, “He would obey blindly.” To this the bishop
said, “Then let him alone. If this work is from God, it
ly making use of a very vile instrument.’ ”
will live; if not, it will crumble away.”
On another occasion, when the porter was in the Not only was the Bishop won over by the por-
infirmary, he saw a student sick in bed. He told the ter’s virtue; even the public health officials, who were
boy, who had been ordered to rest by the school doc- forced to investigate the goings on at the college,
tor, to get up. “You’re not sick, you lazy bones! Go came back from their meeting with him impressed
and play with the others.” This the boy did, in per- at his common sense and stability. The enemies of
fect health and good cheer. The story of the incident Brother Andre failed, and Bishop Bruchesi’s state-
soon spread around the college. Teachers, the doctor, ment was proven true: the work was from God and
students and parents alike marveled at the miracles it did live.
wrought by the confident prayer of the young brother.
We say that the miracles were wrought by the
prayers of the brother. Perhaps, if he were here, he
would rebuke us for saying this. He never claimed that
he worked a single miracle. In his humility he gave all
the credit to Saint Joseph, in whose power Brother
Andre had infinite confidence. In fact, any attempt to
credit him with miracles brought a stern reprimand
from the normally kind religious. One day a visitor said
to him, “You are better than Saint Joseph. We pray
to him and nothing happens, but when we come to
see you we are cured.” The brother was so incensed
at the slander of the Holy Patriarch that he screamed,
“Get out of here. It is Saint Joseph who cured you,
not I. Get out! Throw him out!” The incident shook
the frail constitution of the holy man so much that he
spent three days sick in bed.
If miracles are proof of the True God and His True
Religion, then the miracle workers chosen by God are
going to have enemies, just as God Himself did when
He dwelt amongst us. It didn’t take long, then, for
Brother Andre to acquire enemies of his own.
Many parents who sent their boys to the school
were alarmed at the activities of its brother porter.
Large numbers of sick were coming to the school
where their children not only went to classes, but
boarded as well. These pathetic masses — many of
whom had contagious diseases — crowded about the
train station across from the college. In their quest to
see Brother Andre they constantly filed in and out of In 1980, the Pilgrims of St. Michael erected a
the very building where the students were housed. chapel in honor of St. Joseph on the grounds of their
The just concerns of the parents, coupled with ill feel- headquarters in Rougemont, QC. It is modelled after
ings (perhaps jealousy) of many at the college, spelled the chapel built on Mount Royal in 1904.
trouble for the porter. And worse yet, many phys-
icians, whose hatred of religion was deposited upon The Oratory of Saint Joseph
the little man they styled a “fake healer,” added their In the midst of all of the excitement, the brother’s
venom to the rising fury. Soon Brother Andre had a heart became fixed on one holy ambition: the erec-
mob of hostile enemies complaining to his superiors, tion in Montreal of a shrine to Saint Joseph.
the bishop, and even the public health officials.
Brother Andre was not the first to conceive such
The Bishop of Montreal — at this time, Bishop an idea. Years before, in 1855, the saintly Bishop Bour-
Bruchesi — dismissed the multitudes who came to get had written in the decrees of the Second Plenary
complain to him. But this did not mean he was uncon- Council of Quebec: u

www.michaeljournal.org MICHAEL March/April 2020 13