Early today, a frail but legendary Quebecquer, often called ‘God’s Doorkeeper,’ was canonized at Saint Peter’s in Rome.
My mother introduced me to the story of Frère André when I was about age 4, at evening prayer, while I also learned to pray the Rosary. She also had shown me a strong ‘visual aid,’ the Calendar of St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal.
Question to ‘older‘ --ahem, mature -- Catholics:
Do you remember the calendars with the ‘fish’ icons on the Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, along with lots of holy pictures and lists of saints’ days?
The Oratory, which had taken more than 25 years to build, was then nearing completion, and I heard about the efforts of the quiet little man who had spearheaded the project.
He served as Porter at at Collège Notre Dame, at the foot of Mount Royal, in Montreal.
Before his death at 91 in 1937, he had spent many decades ‘rattling the cages’ of the Catholic hierarchy by receiving pilgrims from Canada and the U.S.A. -- sometimes as many as 700 per day -- who came to him to seek a cure their ailments. He took no credit for the many cures which surrounded him, but only urged the faithful to build a shrine to Saint Joseph, the Patron Saint of French Canada.
The Church across Canada and around the world rejoices today, and my late mother is surely smiling down on Saint Brother André, and saying, ‘Frère André, job well done!’
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