5/11/2023 0 Comments Fathers by Andre J.D. GerardAmong his many duties, he greeted visitors and tended to their needs. He continued this assignment as a professed brother. Given his frail health and lack of a formal education, Brother André was assigned as doorkeeper of Notre Dame College in Montreal. Upon entering the Novitiate, Alfred took the name André, which was the name of his childhood pastor. Alfred, however, was not discouraged, with the assistance of the Archbishop of Montreal, received entrance into the Holy Cross Novitiate on December 27, 1870. He had been baptized right after birth because they had been afraid that he might not live more than a few days, and he was sickly all his life. Initially, Holy Cross did not accept Alfred because of his poor health. He sent Alfred to the Congregation with a note that said, “I am sending you a saint.” There, his childhood pastor encouraged him to consider a vocation to religious life. After a few years trying to find work in the United States, he returned to Quebec. He had to work to support himself and had little formal education, but from an early age he had a lively faith and a strong devotion to St. Alfred Bessette was born in Quebec on August 9, 1845, and he was orphaned by the time he was 12.
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