- What happened
- On the night of October 8, 1871, the great fire that began near Peshtigo swept through the forests of northeastern Wisconsin, the deadliest wildfire in American history. According to the Shrine's account, people from the surrounding countryside fled to the chapel, where Adele and her companions were praying; they carried the statue of Mary in procession, prayed the Rosary and sang hymns through the night, until rain put out the flames. The fire scorched the outer fence, but the chapel, the school, the convent and the five acres around them were spared.
- How to read it
- The people of the region have long remembered that night as a mercy received through Our Lady's intercession. It is a cherished memory, reported by the Shrine; it was not the ground of the bishop's judgment, and it is told here as what witnesses reported.
Pillar II · Apparitions · United States, 1859
Our Lady of Champion
In October 1859, in the forests of northeastern Wisconsin, a young Belgian immigrant named Adele Brise saw a Lady clothed in dazzling white standing between two trees. She called herself “the Queen of Heaven who prays for the conversion of sinners” and gave Adele a work for the rest of her life: to teach the children of that wild country the faith. In 2010 it became the first Marian apparition approved by a bishop in the United States.
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At a glance
| Place | Champion, northeast of Green Bay, Wisconsin, in the Diocese of Green Bay: a woodland trail, at a spot between a maple and a hemlock, where the chapel now stands |
|---|---|
| Dates | Three apparitions in October 1859: the first on the trail, on a day not recorded with certainty; the second and third on what is believed to be Sunday, October 9, 1859, on the way to Mass and on the way home |
| Seer | Adele Brise (also spelled Brice, the spelling the Shrine now uses), born January 30, 1831, at Dion-le-Val, Belgium, who came to Wisconsin with her family in 1855. She was about 28. She never learned to read or write. She spent the rest of her life teaching children the faith and died at the chapel on July 5, 1896. Bishop David Ricken opened the cause for her canonization by decree on January 30, 2026, naming her a Servant of God; the diocesan inquiry held its opening session on February 27, 2026. |
| Church judgment | Approved by the Bishop of Green Bay, David L. Ricken, in his Decree on the Authenticity of the Apparitions of 1859 at the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help, read at the Shrine on December 8, 2010, the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, after an investigation in which three Marian scholars studied the documents and the accounts were judged “free from doctrinal error.” The decree states: “I declare with moral certainty and in accord with the norms of the Church that the events, apparitions and locutions given to Adele Brise in October of 1859 do exhibit the substance of supernatural character, and I do hereby approve these apparitions as worthy of belief (although not obligatory) by the Christian faithful.” It was the first approval of a Marian apparition in the United States. Recognized before the 2024 norms. |
| Feast | None in the universal or United States calendar. Since 2023 the Shrine keeps an annual Solemnity of Our Lady of Champion on October 9, confirmed by the Holy See's Dicastery for Divine Worship and celebrated at the Shrine only. |
| Pilgrimage | The National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops designated it a National Shrine in 2016, announced on August 15, 2016, as the National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help; it took its present name in 2023. |
| Weight | Approved private revelation: in the decree's own words “worthy of belief (although not obligatory).” Catholics may accept it with prudent devotion but are not bound to believe it (CCC 67). |
What happened
Adele Brise's family had come from Belgium in 1855 to farm in Wisconsin, where the lives of the Belgian settlers were hard and the nearest church was ten miles away. Adele walked there every Sunday. One day in October 1859, on a woodland trail, she saw a Lady in white standing between two trees, a maple and a hemlock. The Lady stayed silent.
On Sunday, October 9, Adele was walking to Mass with her sister and a friend when she saw the Lady again in the same place. Her companions saw nothing. On the way home the Lady appeared a third time. She was dressed in dazzling white, with a yellow sash at her waist and a crown of stars about her head, her long hair golden and wavy, in a light so bright that Adele could hardly look at her face. Adele fell to her knees and asked: “In God's name, who are you and what do you want of me?”
The conversation that followed is quoted below from the account published by the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion. Since Adele could not write, it comes from her own oral telling, recorded by those who knew her; the Shrine notes that some details vary between sources. Bishop Ricken's decree quotes its central words.
What Our Lady asked
Pray for sinners
“I am the Queen of Heaven who prays for the conversion of sinners, and I wish you to do the same. You received Holy Communion this morning and that is well. But you must do more. Make a general confession and offer Communion for the conversion of sinners.”
Turn back to God
“If they do not convert and do penance, my Son will be obliged to punish them.” A sober warning, and a conditional one: it is spoken so that sinners may be converted, and Adele is asked to pray for that.
Teach the children
“Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation.” When Adele protested that she knew so little herself, the Lady answered: “Teach them their catechism, how to sign themselves with the sign of the Cross, and how to approach the sacraments.”
Fear nothing
“That is what I wish you to do. Go and fear nothing, I will help you.” To the companions who could not see her, she said: “Blessed are they that believe without seeing.”
She also asked Adele a searching question: “What are you doing here in idleness while your companions are working in the vineyard of my Son?” As a girl in Belgium, Adele and her friends had promised Our Lady to become teaching sisters, a promise the move to America had made impossible. The Lady gave her the work instead, in the place where she was.
Adele's mission
Adele obeyed for thirty-seven years. She went from home to home, as far as fifty miles, offering to do household chores in exchange for the chance to teach the children their prayers and catechism. Other women joined her, and in 1864 they formed a community of the Third Order of St. Francis. Her father built a small log chapel at the place of the apparitions in 1859; a school and convent followed in 1864, and in 1869 the school opened as St. Mary's Boarding Academy.
What the Lady asked of Adele is what the Church asks of every catechist. “Catechesis is an education in the faith of children, young people and adults which includes especially the teaching of Christian doctrine” (CCC 5).
Champion and the Book of Revelation
Champion does not interpret Scripture for us. It echoes it.
- The crown of stars. “A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” (Revelation 12:1). Adele saw a Lady in dazzling light, with a crown of stars, who called herself the Queen of Heaven.
- A place prepared in the wilderness. “The woman herself fled into the desert where she had a place prepared by God” (Revelation 12:6), and “the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle” to reach it (Revelation 12:14). The Lady came to a clearing in a “wild country,” among poor settlers with few priests, and made a place of prayer there.
- The rest of her offspring. The dragon makes war on “the rest of her offspring, those who keep God's commandments and bear witness to Jesus” (Revelation 12:17). The Lady's answer was to teach children the commandments, the sign of the Cross and the sacraments.
- The prayers of the holy ones. “Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a gold censer” with “the prayers of all the holy ones” (Revelation 8:3). The Queen of Heaven “prays for the conversion of sinners,” and asks us to pray with her.
- Believing without seeing. “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed” (John 20:29). Adele's companions saw nothing, and the Lady blessed them in the Lord's own words.
Read with careChampion's approval came from the diocesan bishop, which is how the Church normally judges an apparition; it is sometimes called “Vatican-approved,” which is not accurate and not needed. The warning in the message is conditional and gives no date; it asks for prayer and conversion, not fear. The approval concerns the apparitions of October 1859 and nothing later. As with every approved apparition, Champion adds nothing to the faith (CCC 67).
For reflection
Who are the children near me?
Adele was not sent far away, but to the children of her own neighborhood. Who near me needs to learn to pray, to make the sign of the Cross, to come to the sacraments? “Go and fear nothing, I will help you.”
Sources
- David L. Ricken, Bishop of Green Bay, Decree on the Authenticity of the Apparitions of 1859 at the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help (December 8, 2010), as published by the Shrine; formula of approval as given in the Diocese of Green Bay's press release, reprinted by EWTN and the Diocese of Cleveland (December 8, 2010)
- National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion (official site), About the Apparition and History and heritage
- National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion, “U.S. Marian apparition site changes name to National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion” (April 20, 2023)
- Catholic News Agency / EWTN News, “It's official: Our Lady of Good Help in Wisconsin is a national shrine” (August 18, 2016)
- Kate Quiñones, “Sainthood Cause Opens for Adele Brice”, EWTN News / National Catholic Register (February 2, 2026); On Mission Media, report on the opening session of the diocesan inquiry (February 27, 2026)
- Catechism of the Catholic Church 5, 67