St. André Bessette was a Canadian professed religious of the Congregation of the Holy Cross. Revered as the "Miracle Worker of Montreal," André was born in Saint-Grégoire-d'Iberville, near Montreal, Canada. In 1863, he moved to the United States, where he worked for four years as a laborer and then returned to Canada, where he applied to the Congregation of the Holy Cross and was accepted as a lay brother in 1870.

His poor health put his vocation in doubt, but he was allowed to serve as a porter, or doorkeeper, at Holy Cross college at St. Cesaire. His first miraculous cures date to this initial stage of his religious life. He had a sincere desire to establish a unique haven of workshop on Mt. Royal, in Montreal, and started fundraising. André served as a barber for the college students in order to put aside money for his proposed shrine. Successful in raising sufficient money, he laid the cornerstone of the present basilica on August 31, 1924. The original structure on the site was a wooden chapel called St. Joseph's Oratory.