Saint Joseph's Oratory of Mont Royal

In 1904, Saint André Bessette (Brother Andre), began the construction of St. Joseph, a small chapel on the slopes of Mont Royal near Notre Dame College. Soon the growing number of the congregation made it too small. In 1917 a larger church was completed that had a seating capacity of 1,000. In 1924, the construction of the basilica of Saint Joseph's Oratory was commenced; it was finally completed in 1967, becoming Canada's largest church and welcoming over 2 million visitors annually.

The basilica is dedicated to Saint Joseph, to whom Brother André credited all his reported miracles. These were mostly related to some kind of healing power, and many pilgrims flooded into his Basilica, including many non-Catholics. On display in the basilica is a wall covered with thousands of crutches from those who came to the basilica and were believably healed. In 1982, Pope John Paul II deemed the miracles to be authentic and beatified Brother André and In October 2010 Pope Benedict XVI canonized him as a saint.

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