Our Lady of Champion, Wisconsin: the first and only approved apparition of Mary in the US (1859)

Summary:

On October 2, 1859, Adele Brise, a 28-year-old Belgian immigrant to the United States and farmer by trade, walked towards a grist mill outside the village of Champion (in north-eastern Wisconsin, on the shores of Lake Michigan), carrying a sack of wheat on her head. Suddenly, as she neared the mill, she saw a "lady dressed in dazzling, almost blinding white". The apparition wore a yellow sash around her waist and a "crown of stars" around her head, and was standing between two trees.

A devout Catholic, Adele had never seen such a beautiful person. But she became frightened and wondered if this unknown woman was a ghost. She stopped walking as the apparition slowly disappeared. Distraught, Adele continued on her errand and returned home, where she told her parents what has just happened. Her father suggested that it must be a poor soul needing prayers.

The following Sunday, October 9, 1859, Adele went to mass at Bay Settlement, taking the same road towards the mill. She was accompanied by her sister Isabel and a neighbour, Mrs Vander Niessen. When she reached the two trees where the Virgin had appeared the previous week, Adele stopped, frightened, and said, ‘Oh, there is that lady again'. The lady in white was there, in exactly the same spot. The two people with her saw nothing. They stood there for several minutes, not daring to say anything, until the visionary said that the apparition had disappeared, leaving a sort of "white cloud" behind.

Adele sensed that something was happening. Before Mass, she confessed to Father William Verhoef, explaining, she would later say, how frightened she had been. The priest told her not to be afraid, because if it was a celestial being, there was nothing to fear. He also encouraged her to ask the apparition who she was and what she wanted.

Reassured, Adele set off again for Champion, with the same two people and a parishioner from Bay Settlement. The Virgin Mary was waiting for them at the very spot where she had appeared twice before. Her dress, on which the visionary noticed stars, fell to her feet. She was still wearing the crown of stars and her "long, pale, wavy hair fell over her shoulders". A supernatural light shone around her. Adele fell to her knees and asked the apparition: "In God's name, who are you and what do you want from me?"

For the first time, Adele heard Mary's voice: "I am the Queen of Heaven who prays for the conversion of sinners, and I want you to do the same. You received Holy Communion this morning and that's good, but you must do more. Make a general confession and offer Communion for the conversion of sinners. If they do not convert and do penance, my Son will be obliged to punish them."

The three people with Adele wondered: she was talking to someone invisible. "Adele, who is it? Why can't we see her as you do?" The seer replied: "Kneel down. The lady says she is the Queen of Heaven."

The Virgin looked at Adele's friends and said: "Blessed are those who believe without having seen." Then the apparition spoke again to Adele: "What are you doing here doing nothing while your companions are working in my Son's vineyard? - What can I do, dear Lady? - Gather the children of this land and teach them what they need to know for their salvation."

Adele didn't understand how was she was supposed to teach them, since she knew so little. The Virgin Mary continued: "Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation. Teach them their catechism, how to sign themselves with the Sign of the Cross and how to approach the sacraments. That is my wish. Go and do not be afraid. I will help you." The apparition then raised both hands to the sky and slowly disappeared.

The family, friends, neighbours and Champion's parish priest knew that Adele was not a mystic. The evangelical quality of the apparition's messages was a convincing sign of the authenticity of the phenomenon. What's more, in the days following the third apparition, Adele began to wander around the village, going from house to house, announcing the Good News. She had certainly changed, but only for the better!

To help his daughter, Lambert Brise built a first chapel in 1861, which was very cramped. That same year, a pious woman donated five acres of land surrounding the chapel, which was then dismantled to make way for a larger building, as the first pilgrims began to arrive. The donation was made in honour of "Our Lady of Good Help". Adele taught catechism to the children, who loved to come and listen to her.

In 1865, a new parish priest, Father Philip Crud, who had been put in charge of the Belgian colony in the county, was deeply impressed by Adele's sincerity, dedication and the success of her mission, and advised her to seek help by surrounding herself with people who could accompany her on her travels. Several people approached the parish priest, and Adele found herself at the head of a team of volunteer ladies. Since she was very prayerful, she became a member of a Franciscan third order to which several of these ladies belonged. Over time, this group of volunteers formed a kind of religious association that would never be considered a religious order, since no one took vows. The members called themselves the Sisters of Good Help, and wore a special, rustic, and humble-looking habit made up of black serge gowns and cloaks, and bonnets.

Father Crud fully believed in the apparitions. He advised that Adele raise the necessary funds to build a convent and a school so that those in need of religious instruction could come to her. Armed with a simple letter of recommendation signed by the priest, Adele asked the inhabitants of the county to help erect these buildings. Against all expectations, donations poured in. The long-awaited school and small convent were built, completing the first phase of the future shrine.

Miracles were reported by numerous reliable witnesses. When the "Sisters" no longer knew how to feed the boarding children, Adele gathered them in the chapel to implore Mary. Each time, the next morning, they found the necessary provisions on their doorstep.

On October 8, 1871, twelve years after the apparitions, the Great Peshtigo Fire - which still holds the record for the most devastating fire in U.S. history - broke out in northeastern Wisconsin, killing as many as 2,400 people and burning 1.2 million acres. The people near Champion fled to the chapel of Our Lady of Good Help where Brise and her companions were praying. When the fire threatened the chapel, Adele refused to leave and organised a procession. They prayed all night, lifting a statue of Mary in the opposite direction of the smoke and flames. Eventually rain came, extinguishing the fire.  Everything was destroyed, except for the wooden chapel, the school and the convent, and the people who had taken refuge in the chapel. A local priest wrote at the time that the shrine's buildings "shone like an emerald isle in a sea of ashes."

Since the 1870s, the pilgrimage, although discreet until the beginning of the 20th century, has never ceased. David L. Ricken, bishop of GreenBay, the diocese to which Champion belongs, conducted a two-year investigation in the 2000s. On December 8, 2000, he proclaimed the Champion apparitions worthy of belief: "I declare with moral certainty, and in accordance with the norms of the Church, that the content of the facts, apparitions and words received by Adele Brise in October 1859 are of a supernatural nature, and hereby approve these apparitions as worthy of belief - although not obligatory - for the Christian faithful." On this occasion, he emphasised that Adele had truly lived, in an exceptional way, the message received from the apparition, until her death in 1896.

Beyond reasons to believe:

The discretion and charitable work of Adele and, after her, of the pilgrims to Champion, which became a national shrine in 2016, make this place a remarkable example of peace and charitable works on American soil.

Going further:

America's Mary: The Story of Our Lady of Good Help by Marge Steinhage Fenelon, Our Sunday Visitor (October 21, 2022)

More information:

• 2010 article by Brian Kelly: "First Approved Marian Apparition in the US, Champion, Wisconsin"
• The Champion shrine website.