October 30, 2010

Springfield Diocese residents share family memories of St. Andre Bessette

 

REGIONAL

(Photo by Rebecca Drake)

By Rebecca Drake

WARE – Long before Pope Benedict XVI’s Oct. 17 canonization of Holy Cross Brother Andre Bessette, some parishioners of the Springfield Diocese believed in the miraculous cures attributed to the founder of St. Joseph’s Oratory of Mount Royal in Montreal, Canada.

Ware resident Rachelle Mace, the youngest of the 17 children of William and Herminie Vadnais, said her father was cured of a crippling ailment by Brother Andre, who is believed to have been William Vadnais’ first cousin.

William Tierney of Pittsfield recalls a long ago meeting between his mother and Brother Andre, who had come to a tuberculosis hospital in Pittsfield to visit patients there.

And Anne Crum of Westfield says Brother Andre visited her grandfather, the late Pierre Bessette, in North Agawam. The two were believed to be third cousins, Crum said.

(CNS photo/Tony Gentile, Reuters)

Known for his piety, humility and miraculous cures, Brother Andre is the first saint for the Congregation of the Holy Cross. He was born in Quebec on Aug. 9, 1845 and died on Jan. 6, 1937 at the age of 91. More than a million people paid tribute to him between his death and burial and St. Joseph’s Oratory continues to welcome some 2 million visitors each year.

Touched by the ‘Miracle Man of Montreal’

Mace’s older sister, Theresa Laplante, of Belchertown, said her father may have had rheumatoid arthritis. The self-taught carpenter was born in Canada in 1896 and met and married his wife in Gilbertville, Mass. The couple moved 16 times in 11 years, and eventually settled in Ware.

Mace said one of her sisters, Blanche, had died at the age of 8 after being hit by a truck in Springfield, but all 16 remaining children lived with their parents in a large farmhouse in Ware. The family belonged to the former Mt. Carmel Parish in Ware, and most of the children were graduates of the former Mt. Carmel School.

According to Mace, it was her mother, the family’s most zealous champion of the faith, who urged her father to go see Brother Andre in Canada and pray with him for healing. “My mother was a believer,” Mace said, and when her parents went to Canada to see Brother Andre, Herminie Vadnais had no doubt that her husband would be cured.

“Brother Andre told him (my father) to put down his crutches and walk with him,” Laplante said, recalling the family story of her father’s healing. “And he left his crutches in Canada.”

Mace, a member of All Saints Parish in Ware, said that both of her parents demonstrated great faith throughout their lives, in spite of hardships and ailments. Her mother had both of her legs amputated due to poor circulation and diabetes, but, “She was a happy woman… I never saw her without a smile on her face,” Mace recalled.

“When you live on a farm, work is never, never done,” said Mace. And while they did not have great material wealth, she said, “They were good parents.”

William Vadnais died in 1979 and Herminie in 1985. In addition to Brother Andre, the Vadnais family tree also includes a priest and a bishop, Mace said.

(The late William Vadnais of Ware, pictured at right, is believed to have been cured by Brother Andre.)

 A blessing in the Berkshires

More than 80 years ago, when Pittsfield parishioner Tierney was 2 years old, his mother was stricken with tuberculosis and confined to a TB hospital in Pittsfield for two years. In a letter sent to the Springfield Diocese’s former newspaper, The Catholic Observer, in 2004, Tierney wrote: “Brother Andre came to Pittsfield to see a lady who was sick, and he also came to see my mother. Years later, my mother told me what he said: ‘If you get better, Mrs. Tierney, you can thank St. Joseph.’

“Not only did my mother get well,” Tierney wrote. “She had three more children and lived to be 98 years old!”

Brother Andre in Agawam

“Brother Andre used to visit my grandfather in North Agawam,” recalled Crum, whose maiden name is Bessette. “I heard as a child that he (Brother Andre) was such a holy man that people were cured… and he never, ever once said, ‘Pray to me,’ but always to St. Joseph.”

Crum, who has been to St. Joseph Oratory many times, will be driving to Canada with a friend on Oct. 29 and plans to attend an Oct. 30 Mass of Thanksgiving for the canonization of St. Andre Bessette. The Mass will beheld in the basilica at St. Joseph Oratory and Crum will be seated in a special area reserved for family members of the new saint.

According to research done by members of Crum’s family, all of the Bessettes in North American can trace their heritage back to John and Anne (Lesiegneur) Bessette, who were married in July 1668 in Quebec. Bessette descendants who are present for the Oct. 30 Mass in Montreal will be acknowledged at the foot of the crypt of Brother Andre, Crum said.

She said she has heard from a friend who is a Sister of St. Anne that “the whole city of Montreal is in celebration mode.” She noted the letter she received confirming her attendance at the Oct. 30 Mass suggested that worshipers bring a white scarf or handkerchief to wave during the celebration.

“This is huge,” Crum said, of her upcoming trip to Montreal to honor St. Andre. “This is where he was; this is where he lived.”