Blessed André, the child.

Alfred Bessette (later known as Brother André) came from very humble beginnings, much like those of Jesus. He was born on August 9, 1845. The baby was so frail and sickly, his parents were afraid he would not live; and so, Alfred was baptized the moment he was born. He was conditionally baptized (when there is doubt concerning a previous baptism) the following day in the church. With the loving care and prayers of a very pious mother, our future Blessed lived to an old age! But, like other great saints before and after him, Brother André would have serious bouts with debilitating illnesses to the day he died. 

His parents Isaac Bessette and Clothilde Foisy were young when they married. The little family had virtually no money; Isaac was, like St. Joseph before him, a carpenter. We believe that Brother André’s first exposure to St. Joseph and the great devotion he had for the foster father of Jesus, came from his own saintly father. Isaac married Clothilde when she was only 17 years old. As she was from the Parish of Saint Joseph in Chambly, she taught her son Alfred about Jesus’ earthly father at an early age. When questioned later on in life, Brother André would tell everyone about the great devotion and love he had for St. Joseph came from his mother who taught him from the cradle to know and love this great saint, and his own father represented St. Joseph on earth for young Alfred. 

Alfred loved to pray from the time he was a little boy. He later spoke of those special moments when the family gathered to pray together, how he would sit close to his mother and finger the beads on her rosary as they recited the mysteries. The two people who meant so much to little Alfred were taken away from him at an early age. First, his father died in an accident, and then six years later, he lost his mother to a dreaded, debilitating illness - tuberculosis. Family life as he knew it, would never be the same. Alfred had no mother and father; he had his heavenly Mother and father, Our Lady and St. Joseph.