I welcome with great joy Pope Benedict XVI’s recent announcement of sainthood for Montreal’s Blessed Brother André.

Brother André Bessette was a man rich in spiritual passion, humility, self-denial and love for the cause of God and of man. He was a an inspiration and a model witness to the life of Christ.

A humble porter, he showed great devotion to St Joseph, the patron saint of Canada. Through his cheerful dedication to the poor, the unfortunate, the sick and the crippled, he taught us how to envision great things and how to look with hope toward the future.

Though poor in health throughout his life, he is credited with healing thousands of others. It is difficult to say at what point in his life work began and ended, and at what point prayer started and ended. The two seemed to flow so naturally one into the other. When Brother André died in 1937 over a million people attended his wake and burial.

God makes saints and the church recognises them. If God endows his creatures with heroic sanctity, then it well behoves believers and all men of goodwill to examine God’s message as revealed through the virtues of these select persons. Today’s young people have a great desire to be heroic. Let them look to St André.

Paul Kokoski

pkokoski@mountaincable. net