1867Who is known affectionately as the “Miracle Man of Montreal”?
Saint André Bessette, known as the “Miracle Man of Montreal,” is remembered across Canada each January 7 for a life of humble service and extraordinary faith. Although he began as an uneducated, sickly orphan in Mont-Saint-Grégoire, Quebec, Brother André’s devotion led to the founding of Saint Joseph’s Oratory—the world’s largest shrine dedicated to Saint Joseph. His healing prayers drew such crowds that, at his death in 1937, over a million mourners lined Montreal’s streets in the winter cold. Today, visitors to Mount Royal still find his simple black granite tomb and the hundreds of crutches left behind by those who found hope and healing through his intercession.
