Above: Crutches left behind at St. Joseph’s shrine.
Built in 1904, St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal began as a primitive spruce chapel sized just 15 by 18 feet. It was conceived by André Bessette, an illiterate son of a carpenter and a pious devotee of St. Joseph whose own lifelong battles with illness prepared him well to intercede on the saint’s behalf as a healer.
André developed a reputation around Montreal for curing the sick, and soon visiting crowds of pilgrims overwhelmed the local trolley station where he met them. So he sought a loan to build a church for St. Joseph, to whom he credited all of his miracles, but nobody would give him the money. Poor André saved it all himself, in 5-cent increments with the proceeds from haircuts he gave to children. His chapel’s construction budget was a mere $200, and it was all built by friends.
Today, after millions in renovations and grand additions, St. Joseph’s Oratory on the slopes of Mount Royale can hold 10,000 worshipers. With a 300-foot tall domed basilica made of copper, it’s Canada’s largest church.
In March of 2019, in the middle of a Friday morning mass, a young man in a baseball cap ran up to the altar and stabbed a certain Father Claude Grou in the chest. Miraculously, the priest survived, later telling a TV reporter, “The Oratory will remain a place where people can be welcomed. A place of prayers, and a place of calm, and a place of peace — even if there are some moments like that.”