> When Alfred Bessette came to the Holy Cross Brothers in 1870, he carried with him a note from his pastor saying, "I am sending you a saint." The Brothers found that difficult to believe. Chronic stomach pains had made it impossible for Alfred to hold a job very long and since he was a boy he had wandered from shop to shop, farm to farm, in his native Canada and in the United States, staying only until his employers found out how little work he could do. The Holy Cross Brothers were teachers and, at 25, Alfred still did not know how to read and write. It seemed as if Alfred approached the religious order out of desperation, not vocation. > Alfred was desperate, but he was also prayerful and deeply devoted to God and Saint Joseph. He may have had no place left to go, but he believed that was because this was the place he felt he should have been all along. Continue reading: https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=18 > *[Catholic Online](https://www.catholic.org/) needs your help. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations from people like you. Please, consider [making a donation.](https://ycvf.org/products/donate.* > *[Catholic Online](https://www.catholic.org/) (a 501(c)(3) corporation) is a Project of [Your Catholic Voice Foundation](https://ycvf.org/), a Not-for-Profit Corporation. Your Catholic Voice Foundation has been granted a recognition of tax exemption under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Federal Tax Identification Number: 81-0596847. Your gift is tax-deductible as allowed by law.*