St. Andre Bessette - Jan 6
There is pretty much a saint for every day of the year, and that's not unusual.
But today's saint, Andre Bessette, has a connection to my parish church. He had a particular devotion to St. Joseph, and our parish is St. Joseph. The other thing is he got the St. Joseph Oratory in Montreal built, and we had a new building put up fairly recently (as these things go).
For saints associated with getting church buildings built, usually you have a statue or painting of them holding a small version of that church. I wasn't able to find an example of St. Andre Bessette holding the oratory, but I did find a stained glass window design where he was holding the door where he used to be the porter.
This is just leading up to a picture of the statue we have, which is of St. Andre Bessette, holding a copy of our church building.
I can't remember if I wrote about him before, but one of the notable things about him is that he was sickly throughout his life. As a result, he missed most formal schooling and couldn't read or write. That's how he ended up as a porter for the order. (Also, I think it's very amusing the statue is right next to the church's thermostat)
So he was never very well. But he was known through his life for having a power of healing.
When one reads hagiographies, you often find that -- saints associated with healing who are themselves very ill, and who are never healed throughout their lives. Just thought that was interesting.
Even though he was unwell himself, he did live to a rather old age -- age of 91. Anyway, happy death day, St. Andre!
But today's saint, Andre Bessette, has a connection to my parish church. He had a particular devotion to St. Joseph, and our parish is St. Joseph. The other thing is he got the St. Joseph Oratory in Montreal built, and we had a new building put up fairly recently (as these things go).
For saints associated with getting church buildings built, usually you have a statue or painting of them holding a small version of that church. I wasn't able to find an example of St. Andre Bessette holding the oratory, but I did find a stained glass window design where he was holding the door where he used to be the porter.
This is just leading up to a picture of the statue we have, which is of St. Andre Bessette, holding a copy of our church building.
I can't remember if I wrote about him before, but one of the notable things about him is that he was sickly throughout his life. As a result, he missed most formal schooling and couldn't read or write. That's how he ended up as a porter for the order. (Also, I think it's very amusing the statue is right next to the church's thermostat)
So he was never very well. But he was known through his life for having a power of healing.
When one reads hagiographies, you often find that -- saints associated with healing who are themselves very ill, and who are never healed throughout their lives. Just thought that was interesting.
Even though he was unwell himself, he did live to a rather old age -- age of 91. Anyway, happy death day, St. Andre!