TRUMBULL—St. Catherine of Siena Parish celebrated Divine Mercy Sunday in a unique and special way this year: with a visit of the major reliquary of St. André Bessette.
At all five weekend Masses, the reliquary containing a piece of St. André’s heart, together with rock from beneath St. Joseph’s Oratory and a medallion with the image of the saint, was exposed for veneration. After each Mass, Father Joseph Marcello, Deacon Patrick Toole, and Father Jomon Kalladanthiyil, CSC, who accompanied the relic from Canada, imparted blessings with the Oil of St. Joseph, a sacramental from St. Joseph’s Oratory, which was built because of St. André’s devotion to the foster-father of Jesus Christ.
Both Deacon Toole and Father Marcello have had a devotion to St. André for many years. Prior to the parish’s “Christ at the Center” sanctuary enhancement project five years ago, Father Marcello, Deacon Toole and then-seminarian Father Colin Lomnitzer made a pilgrimage to St. Joseph’s Oratory in Montreal to pray at the tomb of St. André for the project’s success. When the church was consecrated in 2019, Bishop Caggiano sealed a relic of St. André into the altar at St. Catherine’s. There is also an image of St. André in the church’s recently completed stained glass window of ten saints and blesseds from recent centuries, located near the church’s baptismal font.
Hundreds of the faithful came forward for the blessing throughout the weekend, and devotion to St. André was palpable.
“This year’s Divine Mercy weekend was definitely the most beautiful and well-attended Divine Mercy weekend in the history of our parish,” said Father Marcello. “And all of us had a strong sense of St. André coming to visit the church whose renovation and beautification his prayers helped to make possible.”
The major relic of St. André was also present during Divine Mercy Sunday confessions, as well as the Divine Mercy Eucharistic Holy Hour and Chaplet at 3 pm on Divine Mercy Sunday.
“The life of St. André is such a beautiful example of God’s mercy at work in the world,” said Deacon Toole. “With great kindness and humility, St. André received everyone who came to see him, and after they had spent time with him, they returned to their everyday lives uplifted, encouraged, and healed spiritually – and often healed physically as well.”
