"Sitting on the south side of the city's namesake mountain, St. Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal (L’Oratoire St‐Joseph du Mont‐Royal) is a little off the beaten path of Montréal's most visited sites, but the views of Montréal alone are almost enough to justify the journey. One of the city’s most impressive religious buildings, the basilica has a history that began with André Bessette, a lay brother who became famous for his miracle cures (which he credited to Saint Joseph). In 1904, he built a small chapel on the site of the oratory, but it soon attracted more worshippers than could fit in the building and in 1924 construction of the basilica began. It would finally be completed in 1967. (Meanwhile, Bessette died in 1937 and was canonized in 2010 as Saint André of Montréal.) Today pilgrims from around the world flock to the enormous church, many in search of the miracle cures that first attracted worshippers to Bessette’s original chapel."
