June 30, 2024

Young and Catholic pilgrims grow deeper in devotion to St. Joseph at Canada shrine

REGIONAL 
By Sharon Roulier

 

SPRINGFIELD – A weekend pilgrimage to St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal, brought healing, peace and a deepening of faith to 16 members of Young and Catholic, a young adult initiative in the Diocese of Springfield.

The June 22-23 pilgrimage included Mass, opportunity for reconciliation and a guided tour of the oratory.

The oratory is a minor basilica and national shrine and is Canada’s largest church, with one of the largest church domes in the world. Founded in 1904 by St. Andre Bessette in honor of his patron saint, St. Joseph, the oratory is the product of many architects and thousands of workers in a process spanning six decades.

More than 2 million visit the shrine each year.

“It turns out young adults love going on pilgrimage,” said Joe Austin, director of the office of Missionary Discipleship of the Diocese of Springfield. “The pilgrimage to the oratory was very special. It is a place where many, from all walks of life, find healing and peace, and we definitely experienced that this weekend.”

Austin said the pilgrims learned the story of St. Andre Bessette, walking in his footsteps during the tour.

St. Andre Bessette was born Alfred Bessette in Quebec on Aug. 9, 1845 and orphaned by the time he was 12. He had to work to support himself and had little formal education, but from an early age he had a lively faith and a strong devotion to St. Joseph. After a few years trying to find work in the United States, he returned to Quebec. There, his childhood pastor encouraged him to consider a vocation to religious life. He sent Alfred to the Congregation of Holy Cross with a note that said, “I am sending you a saint.”

Upon entering the novitiate, Alfred took the name André, which was the name of his childhood pastor. Given his frail health and lack of a formal education, Brother André was assigned as doorkeeper of Notre Dame College in Montreal. He continued this assignment as a professed brother. Among his many duties, he greeted visitors and tended to their needs.

Many people began to experience physical healings after praying with Brother André, and his reputation as a healer began to spread. So many people flocked to see him that the congregation allowed him to see sick people at a trolley station across the street. Through it all, Brother André remained humble, often seeming confused that people would lavish such praise on him.

His desire to increase devotion to St. Joseph inspired him to found a shrine to his favorite saint across the street from Notre Dame College. He saved the money he earned from giving haircuts at five cents apiece, eventually earning the $200 he needed to construct a simple structure. This shrine opened on Oct. 19, 1904, and in 1909, Brother André was released from his duties as doorkeeper and assigned full-time as the caretaker of the Oratory of St. Joseph.

The Oratory attracted large numbers of pilgrims, and plans were made to construct a large basilica. Brother André’s full-time ministry for the rest of his life was to receive the long lines of sick visitors who flocked to the oratory to see him. He became known as the “Miracle Man of Montreal,” and thousands of miraculous healings were attributed to his intercession over the following decades.

Brother André Bessette died Jan. 6, 1937, at the age of 91. During the week that his body lay in state outside of St. Joseph’s Oratory, an estimated one million people braved the bitter Montreal winter to pay their respects. The basilica was eventually completed and remains a major pilgrimage site, attracting more than 2 million visitors a year. The side chapels are filled with the crutches of people who have reported being healed through St. André’s prayers.

On Oct. 17, 2010, St. André Bessette became first saint of the Congregation of Holy Cross when he was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI. On this day, the church recognized that God chose a very simple man for a remarkable life of service. He had previously been beatified by Blessed John Paul II on May 23, 1982.

The Young and Catholic pilgrims gathered before Sunday Mass in the Votive Chapel at the shrine where miraculous healings have been reported.

“We consecrated ourselves and the entire Young and Catholic movement to St. Joseph,” said Austin. “It was a profound moment and I am excited for all the ways he will guide our movement to a deeper relationship with Christ and his church.”
For David and Jaquelyn Bagg and their two young children, parishioners of Our Lady of the Valley Parish in Easthampton, the pilgrimage had a special significance, as the family has a strong devotion to St. Joseph.

Jaquelyn Bagge said she and her husband were married in June 2021, the Year of St. Joseph and had both made a consecration to St. Joseph at that time.

“David’s middle name is Joseph, so to say the least, he is a patron and model for our family,” said Jaquelyn. The couple are parents to 2-year-old Joaquin and 5-month-old Eulalia, who both made the pilgrimage to the Canada shrine.

The Catholic faith is not just a part of our lives, it is our identity and we strive to show our children what it is to be a Catholic today,” said Jaquelyn.  “Often we go to adoration as a family and attend first Friday Masses.”

“For the trip, we drove our minivan with two others and reached the border just behind the rest of the group,” said Jaquelyn.

Upon arrival at the shrine, the group attended a Mass in the crypt church followed by lunch. “Later there was a group tour booked and it was nice to walk the grounds. Joaquín knelt to pray at all the various spots repeating “Holy Trinity!” said Jaquelyn. “It is a joy for us to see the faith through his eyes. Even when it seems they’re interrupting or causing us to be distracted, I try to keep in mind how God calls us to be like children so that we may enter the kingdom of heaven someday.”

The pilgrims also viewed St. Andre’s relic heart and tomb, his living quarters above the original chapel and learned of the story of his life and work of the Congregation of Holy Cross.

“I feel it is also important to make these things familiar to our children so that, in this way, they will always feel at home in their faith,” said Jaquelyn.

Marya Makuc, youth minister at  St. Ann’s in Lenox, St. Vincent de Paul, in Lenox Dale and St. Patrick Parish in West Stockbridge, said she had been to St. Joseph’s Oratory before,  but this was the first time she was able to visit as a pilgrim. She attended the pilgrimage with her sister, Nadia Makuc.

Marya said she was moved by the group’s consecration to St. Joseph, noting that it was an opportunity for the members of the pilgrimage to grow deeper in understanding of the spiritual fatherhood of St. Joseph.