What would be the perfect destination to commemorate a new life stage? The obvious answer for me was Champion, Wisconsin, to lay my eyes and plant my feet on the site of the first Marian apparition in the U.S. to garner both universal and local church approval.
However, the day after dropping off my youngest in college (transition into empty-nesting), instead of jetting off to Champion, I ended up at home in bed sick.
As soon as I recovered enough to sit upright, I blew my nose and booked my flight to Wisconsin for the weekend of October 8th — the first opening in my schedule.
While waiting for my welcome-to-empty-nesting trip, I devoured books and articles about Our Lady of Champion.
In learning more about the specific dates and events around the apparition, a knee-slapping, praise-the-Lord discovery came. My visit to Champion, Wisconsin would coincide with the anniversary of Our Lady’s appearance to seer, Adele Brise, on Oct 9, 1859.
Without knowing the dates, I had scheduled my pilgrimage for the anniversary of the apparition!
Then another knock-my-socks-off coincidence: the shrine would celebrate its inaugural solemnity Mass on the day I would be there. This added discovery was like finding out about an inheritance from a long-lost relative at the same time as making a hole-in-one.
I pilgrimaged to the grounds of Our Lady’s Shrine in Champion from Atlanta to ogle the sights and absorb the scents of Our Lady of Champion Shrine with the abandon of a Mother Mary fan girl spending her lottery winnings all in one place.
I clapped my hands and shed tears at my fortune of attending the first-ever Solemnity Mass there on October 9, 2023.
Surprised to find many people have neither heard of Our Lady of Champion nor knew about the apparition and miracle, I wrote some details for others to enjoy:
Adele Brise
On the day of her First Holy Communion, Adele Brise made a solemn promise to Mother Mary to join an order of sisters and become a teacher. When her parents announced their family was moving to America from their home in Belgium, Adele knew she couldn’t join the order of sisters in Belgium as she had promised Our Lady.
Soon after, Adele Brise came with her family around 1856 and settled in the Robinsonville (now called Champion) area of Green Bay in northeast Wisconsin with other Belgian hopefuls searching for fruitful soil and prosperous land.
On Sunday, October 9, 1859, as Adele walked to church (with her sister and a neighbor) she saw a mysterious woman who had a yellow sash around her waist and a crown of stars around her head. At church, Adele relayed to Fr. Verhoef, the local priest, the encounter; he made a suggestion.
On Adele’s way back home, when she saw the woman again, she did as Fr. Verhoef suggested and asked the lady, “In God’s name who are you and what do you want of me?”
The Apparition
The woman said she was the Queen of Heaven who prays for sinners. She told Adele to make a confession and to pray and offer communion for the conversion of sinners. At that moment, Adele recognized her as Mary, the Mother of Jesus.
Mary reminded Adele of the promise she had made to Our Lady at her First Holy Communion in Belgium – Adele’s promise that she would consecrate herself as a sister and work as a teacher.
Because Adele had barely a third-grade education and was blind in one eye, Adele felt sure her promise to Our Lady was lost. But Mother told her, “Gather the children and teach them about Jesus and what they need to know for salvation”; pray for everyone so that they might know and love Jesus. Mary’s parting words to Adele were, “Go and fear nothing. I will help you.”
The Mission
After her encounter with Our Lady, Adele trekked as many as 50 miles through dense untamed Wisconsin forest offering to do chores for Belgium and other households for the opportunity to teach their children the Catechism.
Later, Adele established the Sisters of Good Help (a tertiary Franciscan order) to teach the children in her local Belgian settlement. She went on begging tours to raise funds for a boarding school and other needs.
With great difficulty and through failing health, she eventually built a home for the sisters and a school (called St. Mary’s Boarding School) where children could come and live and learn for the school year.
Following the apparition, Robinsonville was renamed to Champion after the town in Belgium from where Adele’s family had emigrated. Originally known as Our Lady of Good Help, the names of the apparition site and school were changed to Our Lady of Champion in keeping with the titles of Our Lady apparitions throughout the world (all named after the geographic locale of her appearances).
Through grit and grace, Adele overcame the challenges of barely being able to read, failing health, and resource shortages to fulfill Mother Mary’s mission entrusted to her. Her fortitude earned her and her sisters the esteem and admiration of the surrounding clergy and the pioneers of the settlement.
The Miracle
Exactly 12 years after the Blessed Mother appeared to Sister Adele, a fire broke out in the lumber community of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, about 50 miles northwest of Champion (on the opposite side of Green Bay). The fire climbed 200 feet high and wind spread the flames across the waters of Green Bay to the settlement where Sister Adele and her schoolchildren and sisters lived.
As the fire neared, the local community came to the chapel built in honor of Mary’s appearance, and the group processed around the property asking for Mary’s help.
The following day, rain came and quenched the fire. Though everything for 1,875 square miles around the chapel’s 5-acre property burned (by way of comparison, the Great Chicago Fire burned 3 ½ square miles), the flames never touched the land where Mary had appeared. The fire charred one side of the property’s fence, but the fire stopped there. The other side of the same fence and the Shrine grounds were unharmed.
Inaugural Solemnity
Presided by Bishop Ricken of Green Bay, the first Solemnity Mass in commemoration of the apparition and miracle was celebrated on a windy, yet bright day on October 9, 2023, with other bishops and many priests concelebrating. During the homily, Bishop asked why we were there in the exact spot where the Queen of Heaven touched down.
Just as Our Lady had charged Adele Brise to pray for the conversion of sinners, we ought to pray and work as Adele did for our ongoing conversion and the conversion of others.
Like Sister Adele, Our Lady asks us to share our faith with children and others so they can approach the Sacraments with faith and understanding. The Bishop emboldened the Mass attendees; Mary’s words to Adele Brise are also for us: Go and fear nothing. I will help you.
Our Lady of Champion, Pray for us!
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Image courtesy of the author.
This post was originally published on The Greatest of These is Love and is reprinted with permission.
