Our Lady of Good Help
America · United States
What happened
In Champion, formerly Robinsonville, in the Diocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin, a young Belgian immigrant, Adele Brise, claimed that in October 1859, the Virgin Mary appeared to her three times, the decisive apparition being on October 9. According to the account transmitted by the shrine, the Virgin appeared between two trees—a maple and a hemlock—surrounded by a luminous glow, dressed in white, with a yellow sash and a crown of twelve stars. When Adele asked who she was, she replied, "I am the Queen of Heaven, praying for the conversion of sinners." She asked her to pray for this conversion and entrusted her with a mission: "Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they must know for salvation." When Adele objected because of her lack of education, the Virgin encouraged her: "Go and fear nothing. I will help you." These formulas are the secure core of the tradition founded on the testimony of the seer, not a signed document from 1859. What is historically verifiable is that Adele dedicated the rest of her life to that mission, walking to the scattered farms of the region to catechize the children and gathering a community of faith around the chapel.
The message of the Virgin
Champion's message has two inseparable axes: the call to the conversion of sinners through prayer, and the mandate to teach the faith to children. The Virgin Mary asked that the little ones be instructed in the catechism, in how to make the sign of the cross, and in how to approach the sacraments: "Teach them their catechism, how to make the sign of the cross, and how to approach the sacraments; that is what I want you to do." It is a simple and profoundly catechetical message, focused on the transmission of faith to new generations in a frontier land still lacking sufficient religious instruction.
The sanctuary today
The site of the apparitions is now the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion, known for over a century as the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help, in Champion, about sixteen miles northeast of Green Bay. It welcomes pilgrims and keeps alive the memory of Adele Brise's catechetical mission, who founded a small school there next to the chapel. In 2016, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) officially designated the site a National Shrine, confirming its importance in the life of the Church in the country.
The Church's recognition
On December 8, 2010, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Bishop David L. Ricken of Green Bay declared the Champion apparitions worthy of belief, following a diocesan process involving theological and Marian experts. The official wording of the decree states “with moral certainty and in accordance with the norms of the Church that the events, apparitions, and locutions given to Adele Brise in October 1859 exhibit the substance of a supernatural character,” approving them as “worthy of belief (though not obligatory)” for the faithful. It was the first and, until then, only Marian apparition officially recognized by the Church in the United States at the actual site of the apparition, according to modern norms.
A grace that touches the heart
The most memorable event in the area is the Great Peshtigo Fire of October 8, 1871, one of the deadliest fires in American history, which devastated much of northeastern Wisconsin. Tradition recounts that as the fire advanced, the faithful took refuge with Adele Brise in the chapel, carrying the Blessed Sacrament and an image of the Virgin Mary, and prayed the Rosary throughout the night, even holding a procession around the property. The fire consumed everything around it but stopped at the boundary of the sanctuary's consecrated grounds, which remained unharmed. What is historically certain is that the sanctuary was in the fire zone and was not destroyed while the surrounding region burned, and that the community attributed its salvation to the intercession of the Virgin Mary; the exact details of the procession belong to pious tradition. Equally moving is the loyalty of Adele, poor, without much education and blind in one eye, who nevertheless went from farm to farm teaching catechism to children, offering to work in the fields with the settlers so that she could instruct the little ones during breaks.
Link with the Rosary
The Rosary accompanied Adele's prayer and that of the Champion community from the beginning—and especially on the night of the Peshtigo fire—and it continues to be the prayer with which pilgrims entrust to Mary the conversion of sinners and the faith of children, as she herself requested.