March 26, 2014

By Suzanne Pietropaoli
Staff writer

Malone - The “Wonder Man of Mount Royal” once walked the streets of Malone as he visited relatives and friends here. Nearly a century later, Brother Andre is still remembered with awe and affection in the town whose four Catholic churches will become St. Andre Bessette Parish on July 1, 2014. 

On Feb. 28, at a potluck dinner at Holy Family School, parishioners shared family stories of their remarkable new patron saint.

Family encounter
Johnna Bashaw relates her family’s encounter with the man who is now a saint:

“The year was 1934.  My grandmother, a very little lady, had just given birth to her ninth child, my uncle, who was a very big baby.  She hemorrhaged so severely that the doctors thought she wouldn’t make it.  Brother Andre happened to be at the hospital, and the nurses asked him to pray for my grandmother.  He went to her, blessed her with St. Joseph’s oil and gave her medals.  He had not even left the hospital when she stopped bleeding.”

For a baby’s arms and legs
Born in 1932, Margaret Lancto was herself healed through St. Andre’s intercession. 

“When I was 15 months old, we were at my grandparents’ house and I fell.  My legs went sideways, my mother told me, and I cried all night.  The next day I could not straighten my arms or legs. For two weeks I was in Malone hospital with my limbs on pulleys, but did not improve. 

“Dad decided they should go to St. Joseph’s Oratory. Dad made the steps on his knees, praying that I would be healed. Mom was a bit afraid of Brother Andre, but Dad spoke French and told him the problem. 

“Brother Andre gave Dad blessed oil and medals, and told him to rub the oil on my knees and elbows.  Before long I was better - and here I am!”

Healed my sister
“Brother Andre healed my older sister,” Lisa Stacey explains.  “She was two years old, sitting in her highchair, when she began to vomit blood.  At the hospital they discovered that her spleen had ruptured, so they sent her to Albany.  Dad went to the Oratory, put his hand on Brother Andre’s coffin, and prayed: ‘Please make her well, or take her.’ 

“She is alive today, so I call that a miracle.”

Childhood healings
Grace Rule’s stories, too, speak of childhood healings.

“When I was a little girl, my seven-year-old sister suffered with bedwetting. Nothing seemed to help.  My dad finally said:  ‘We need to take that child to Brother Andre!’  Mom had to stay home, but Dad took us.  ‘Can you do anything with this child?’ he asked Brother Andre.

“Blessing her with oil and giving her a medal, Brother Andre said that my sister would be just fine—and she was.

“I grew up thinking Brother Andre could solve all problems. One of my sons was allergic to milk when he was a baby.  He had blisters in his mouth, and mastoiditis with terrible ear pain.  He could not sleep, so neither could I. 

“When my husband finally got a day off, we took the baby to the Oratory.  I sat him on Brother Andre’s casket and cried my eyes out: ‘Brother Andre, you’ve got to help me! I can’t stand this anymore!’

“We went home and the baby was fine. He still hears perfectly, more than 50 years later.”

For Father Downs
Father Jack Downs of Raymondville, a special guest at the gathering, also experienced a dramatic healing.
“After having rheumatic fever at age seven,” he recalls, “I was left with residual pain in every joint.  The doctors were powerless, but suggested that the dry climate in Arizona might help. Then, when I was 12, a new pastor came to our parish in Keeseville.

“Father Cornish was a longtime personal friend of Brother Andre, and he prevailed upon my parents to take me to Montreal.  It was a big group, and the rain was awful; there was an accident along the way.  The next morning it was still raining, but I had no pain. 

“When I was accepted for the seminary, the doctor warned me that with my history, I would have to be careful of my heart; I have buried four of my classmates. 

“Years later, at the Lahey Clinic, a doctor asked how I had coped over the years with the severe pain in my joints. I told him that I had not had joint pain since I was 12. 

“Then I got thinking: maybe I should praise God for this! I’ve always had great devotion to Brother Andre, and I would not be here today if not for the intercession of this saint.”

A blessed black cross
Bruce Russell’s story spans several generations.

“My paternal grandmother, Mary Jane Rice Russell, took a trip long ago to the Oratory in Montreal to go up the stairs on her knees and to pray some petitions to St. Joseph and Mother Mary.

“When she returned, she told us what she had seen, of the miracles taking place there.  She had also acquired what would become her prize possession: a simple black cross, seven or eight inches high, blessed at the shrine. It would remind us, she said, of all God would do if we prayed to him through our favorite saints. 

“She took that cross to sick relatives, asking that they return it when they were well enough.

“Time passed on, and so did Mary Jane. She left the cross to her second son, and he and his wife carried on the tradition of lending it to the sick.

“When our son was a sophomore in college, he suffered a closed head injury so severe that it fractured all the enamel on his teeth.  When we finally got him home to recover, his aunt and uncle arrived with the black cross and the usual instructions. 

“Several months later, my wife Claire and I were happy to drive to their house and return the cross.

“Our son is now 52 and the father of our three grandchildren.  His uncle and aunt have passed that black cross on to their  son and his wife who continue to share it with the sick - who continue to return it when they have been healed.”

More than healings
But healings were not Brother Andre’s only concern.

Jim Coughlin related a story told by a relative in which the saint’s intercession was sought, and obtained, by a religious sister working at Gabriel’s Sanatarium. 

Her prayer, duly answered, was that she could improve her English to be able to communicate better with her patients.

Dan Benware shared the story of his prayers for a peaceful death for his dad, who suffered with a form of cancer expected to end in violent hemorrhages.

“My wife and I went to the Oratory two weeks before Dad died to pray for this intention, and we brought St. Joseph’s oil back for Dad. Later I anointed him with it. Then he motioned Mom forward, in her wheelchair, and he anointed her.  Then he wept quietly. 

“Within 24 hours, Dad experienced an extremely peaceful death. His funeral was on the feast of Brother Andre, at St. Joseph’s Church, celebrated by Father Joseph Giroux.”

Another kind of help
Mary Vincent spoke to another kind of help received from Brother Andre and St. Joseph.

“In 1989, she says, I had just bought a house needing lots of cosmetic work. As a single mom, working full time, I really struggled to get things done. But I realized along the way that someone was helping me - nails were going in perfectly, things that should not have worked did. Somehow I sensed that it was St. Joseph, and someone else.

“There was just one thing - they would not help me if I worked on Sundays, which of course I wanted to do, since my weeks were so busy.  But whatever I did on Sundays failed, and had to be corrected the next day.

“Then all this material about St. Joseph and Brother Andre came my way.  I read and learned all I could about them, because I was pretty sure they were my ‘helpers.’ 

“Two months after the work was finished, I was able to go to the Oratory to say thank you.  I also put blessed oil on a skin spot that has never bothered me since.”

More memories
Lilian Yando’s association with Brother Andre has deep roots.

“My mother grew up in Montreal, where she used to sing at St. Joseph’s on Sundays.  Later she married and lived in Malone, but once a month our whole family went to the Oratory.  We did the wooden stairs on our knee.  My mother always made sure that we were blessed by Brother Andre!” 

Margaret Child Arquette has similar memories of frequent visits, wooden stairs - and of a man who loved children.

“Brother Andre was so kind to little kids,” she says.  “My mother was a friend of his, and we went often to the Oratory. After the stairs and the prayers, Mom would visit with Brother Andre and I would be running around. Mom was annoyed, but whenever I got near him, he would pat me on the head. I still remember his kindness.”

Pilgrimage planned
The event was emceed by Father Scott Seymour, pastor at St. Alexander’s in Morrisonville.  At evening’s end, Malone Catholic Parishes pastor Father Joseph Giroux reminded participants of the parish pilgrimage to St. Joseph’s Oratory scheduled for June 1.

“We will charter as many buses as it takes to bring people to know this great saint who has become part of the fabric of our lives,” Father Giroux said.