On 17 October 2026, the anniversary of the canonization of St. André Bessette, Notre Dame Campinas School in São Paulo, Brazil, inaugurated its Saint André Bessette Chapel during a festive Mass. It is the first chapel known to be dedicated to St. André Bessette in Brazil, and it provides the school community a beautiful place for prayer and worship.
“The Saint André Bessette Chapel stands as a privileged space for prayer, spirituality, and community life, in order to foster and strengthen our fraternal bonds, the cultivation of faith, and the experience of the sacraments,” said Fr. Antônio Wanderley, C.S.C., School Chaplain and Pastoral Coordinator. “For our educational community, the chapel dedicated to Saint André Bessette represents the realization of the vision of Blessed Basile Moreau, reaffirming our commitment to holistic formation and to the care of our students, their families, and the entire faith community.”
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Holy Cross religious, staff members, families, friends, and members of the school community in Campinas contributed to the project, whose construction began back in 2018 and was artfully overseen in recent years by Fr. Wanderley.
Fr. Severino Gomes, C.S.C., Associate Pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Jaguaré, presided at the Mass. He also gave the homily, in which he recalled the story of Saint André Bessette, highlighting his simplicity and his loving welcome toward all those who sought him out at the entrance of the school in Montreal. He called on those in attendance to emulate his complete self-giving to the people who turned to them for help.
The chapel has a first-class relic of St. André Bessette, as well as a beautiful statue of the humbly Holy Cross Brother who became the Congregation’s first canonized saint.
Read about the life of St. André Bessette
At the end of the Mass, Fr. Wanderley presented to Mr. Lorenço Jungklaus, Pedagogical Director, a blessing from Pope Leo XIV for the school community, which is celebrating its 65th anniversary. The school was founded in 1961 by Holy Cross Brothers from the United States who came to Brazil as missionaries, first to Santarém in 1951, and then a decade later to Campinas, São Paulo.