Saint Joseph’s best friend and tireless disciple, Saint Andre, always said, "Go to Joseph. You have a powerful friend in heaven. He will never let you down."
Brother Andre Bessette, born August 9, 1845, drew his last breath at 12:50 AM on January 6th, 1937. It was the feast of the Epiphany, but because of the holiday, no paper was published that day. The radio spread the news like the wind, and early that morning, all knew that the holy man who had founded Saint Joseph's Oratory had passed away.
Before setting the date and time for the funeral, two rather unusual decisions were made earlier that morning. One was to preserve his heart; the other was not to embalm his body.
Preserving someone's heart is not very much a part of North American culture. Why did Archbishop George Gautier request that his heart be preserved? He was following a European custom. In Italy and France, among other places, the hearts of famous people were preserved. In its biblical sense, the heart is the dwelling place of generosity, love, affection, commitment, and all that is inspiring in someone's life. So, the Italian and French preserved the hearts of their kings, their great army generals, and the great benefactors of the nation. The archbishop decided there were even better reasons to preserve Brother Andre's heart when people realized how much he had loved them.
Since then, the superiors of the oratory have considered several times putting the heart back into the coffin where it belongs, but people did not agree, so it has stayed in the museum, under subdued light, and people stop there for a moment of meditation or silent prayer. In March of 1973, it was stolen for some unknown reason, but after a year and a half, an anonymous phone call led the police to where it was. So today it is back in its place in the museum.
Every day, people pray there, as they do near his tomb next to the crypt church. Many speak to Brother Andre as though he were alive. In the mail, they regularly note phrases like, ‘I went to see brother Andre, and I said to him, please do something. I can't cope with this situation any longer. Help me. People speak to him as they would to a dear friend living with God.
The other decision made early in the morning of January 6th was not to embalm Brother Andre's remains. They decided that Brother Andre should lie in state for six days and nights until the 12th, in an open coffin in a warm church crowded with people. Now, Brother Andre had repeated so many times in the wake of Father James Dujarie and Father Basil Moreau, ‘God will provide,’ We believe in Providence. Providence will see to it. Since this had been the way of thinking characteristic of Brother Andre all along, they decided that God would keep His body. The decision proved to be right. It was easily kept until the Interment on the 12th of January.
On the morning of January 6th, when Brother Andre had just died, a crowd gathered in front of the hospital. Brother Andre was dead, and all wanted to see him one last time. It lasted all morning and afternoon. At 3:00 PM, a black wooden casket had been purchased, and his remains were brought back to the oratory in a hearse. A large crowd had gathered near the hospital, ready to follow in procession along the snowy streets while church bells tolled in mournful tones to mark his passing. A few hundred of the students of Saint-Laurent College who were still on their Christmas recess decided to go despite the rain and cold winds. The endless procession followed the hearse in silence at a slow pace between two rows of people who had gathered on either side of the street. It took them 1 1/2 hours to walk the three miles to Saint Joseph's Oratory.
Outside, the drizzle had changed into a freezing rain blown by an increasingly strong cold wind. But people kept coming from the 6th through the 12th of January during the worst of a typical Canadian winter. Andre’s Fireman friends served round the clock as ushers and let people in one door four by four and out through another door after they had filed past the wooden coffin.
One of Brother Andre's best friends, Arthur Gantz, decided to follow the crowd just like everyone else, and it took him 4 hours to walk from the bottom of the hill to the coffin of Brother Andre. On January 7th, the front page headline of the daily paper read 1,000,000 People will file past Brother Andrew's coffin. The journalist had observed that 110 people per minute walked in and out of the crypt church of the Oratory. He multiplied this by the number of minutes six days and nights. And decided that 1,000,000 people would come.
Since the flow of people only increased, we now know that this figure was reached on the morning of the 12th. The crowd was so large that it became obvious that most would never make it inside the church. The firemen carried the coffin outside so that all would have at least a final glimpse of his face from afar. Nothing similar had ever been seen before.
Indeed, Brother Andre had welcomed thousands of people in his office, but by visiting 10 to 15 families every night for more than 25 years, he had entered most of the houses in the city. He had talked to everyone. He had entered the intimacy of their illnesses, their quarrels, their poverty and pain, their joys and sorrows. Now they realized how much he had loved them. And they would not go without at least paying the last visit to a most dear friend. The cold winter only made their gratitude more obvious. No wind, no freezing rain, no snow, or anything else could keep them at home. Special trains had to be scheduled from Canadian provinces as well as from New York, and the six New England states where he had visited people for two or three weeks every spring and fall. With the flow of visitors, Montreal's transit system was jammed, and many more trolley cars had to be added to the main lines as well as to the one running in front of Saint Joseph's Oratory.
At least 30 newspapers in the United States published the news of Brother Andrew's illness before his death. We don't know how many articles were published following his death, but the Oratory Archives have saved 860 clippings from papers not only in Canada. In the United States, all the major cities like Figaro and Paris, the Times in London, and all the major news agencies sent a reporter to write about Montreal's little brother Andre, and articles were published worldwide. Newsreels were regular fare in movie theaters in 1937, and the movie makers had come and covered the event to make pictures available in all major cities.
One of the most important aspects of Brother André’s life was hospitality, which may be defined as the radical acceptance of others. To truly listen to people’s anguish, their stories, and their suffering became his holy hospitality. People felt heard by Brother André, even though their encounters with him were often brief. They experienced a recognition from another human being that their lives mattered. When doctors and healthcare workers gave up on people’s healing, Brother André accepted them. He put a spiritual arm around them. He comforted them with his integrity and his prayerful heart. Hospitality for André became his life, and true acceptance of people became his spiritual story.