The Story of Our Lady of Champion | The Marian Apparition of the US

In the heart of rural Wisconsin lies a place of profound spiritual significance - the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion. This site marks the location of the first and only approved Marian apparition in the United States, a place where Mary appeared to a young nun and gave a message to the world. You may have heard of this Shrine as the National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help, but recently, in April 2023, the name was officially changed to The National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion. This apparition site and shrine is only growing in popularity and now draws pilgrims from across the country and beyond. Keep watching to learn the amazing story of America’s Mary.

The main character in the story of Our Lady of Champion is Adele Brise…

Adele was born in Dion-le-Val, Belgium. And she grew up loving our Lord and Our Lady. She had such a devotion to mission and to catechesis and teaching. She even made a promise to the nuns who helped her receive her First Holy Communion that she wanted to serve them in missions in Belgium, in a place called Champion, Belgium. That whole plan was put on hold when her parents told her that they wanted to immigrate to the United States, to Wisconsin.

The Brise family's early years in Wisconsin were challenging, as they faced harsh winters and difficult wooded terrain, far from the farmland they had been promised.

When Adele was traveling through these dense woods in 1859, she came across a mysterious woman. And she described her as clothed in dazzling white, with 12 stars around her head, a yellow sash around her waist. Adele saw this woman, and she said nothing. And later on, she was on her way to Mass. This is October 9th, 1859. And she was walking with some companions, and she saw the same woman dressed in white, with 12 stars around her head, standing between the same two trees. Her companions couldn’t see what she was seeing. She came and approached her priest, in his wisdom and faithfulness, he told Adele to ask this woman, in God’s name, “who are you? And what do you want of me?” Adele did just that when she saw this mysterious woman in the same spot between the same two trees. And this is when Our Blessed Mother gives her message to Adele.

“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.”

And Adele said, “what more can I do, dear lady?”

The Blessed Mother looked at Adele and she said, “gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation.”

She gave them three: how to approach the sacraments, how to make the sign of the cross, and their catechism. The state of Wisconsin was growing rapidly and there weren’t enough priests to give children or adults proper religious education. So her need, Our Lady’s need for her children to be properly brought into the faith and taught how to approach the sacraments was really great. And so Adele entered into that mission. She went around the countryside teaching the children exactly what Our Lady asked.

As Adele continued on her mission from Mary, she formed a community to help her and they actually set up right where Mary had appeared to her. With the help of this community, she built a little wooden chapel and a wooden schoolhouse on the apparition site. Much good came through both of these buildings and it was clear that God’s blessing and grace was upon that holy ground. This was shown most clearly on the night of October 8th, 1871, the same night as the great Chicago fire. Many people don’t know that an even more devastating fire was blazing in Northeastern Wisconsin.

This was called the Great Fire of 1871 or the Great Peshtigo Fire. In retrospect, when we look at the actual damage that was done, around 1.3 million acres were burned through this fire, and between 1500 and 2500 people lost their lives that night. Adele chose to stay on the grounds of where Our Blessed Mother appeared. She chose to stay and pray, and in others’ faith they fled to the wooden chapel as well. Many of the local surrounding homes took their livestock, their children, all their possessions and fled to this wooden chapel where they believe the Blessed Mother appeared. They put a statue and processed it around the sacred grounds. They prayed rosaries all night long. They described the fire going up to the grounds and around it. In the morning of October 9th, 1871, they describe a rain that came down and put out the fire. There was a priest that was documenting the Great Peshtigo Fire, the Great Fire of 1871, and he described the grounds of the Shrine after this fateful night, he described them as an emerald isle in a sea of ashes. It’s an incredible miracle that took place. It was something that the bishop took into account as he was investigating whether the apparitions were worth of belief.

Long after the fire, Adele and her sisters continued to teach and catechize children there. Later, Adele suggested and got approval for the town of Robinsonville, where the chapel was, to be renamed to Champion after the town in Belgium. The chapel and grounds continued to grow, but in 1896, at age 66, Adele passed away.

"The process for growing a devotion is very organic here at the shrine. It is very humble. It's still humble today. And it's exactly how our blessed Mother wants it. We truly believe that. Every single year, it grows."

The Shrine grounds is humble, yet has a lot to offer pilgrims. At the center of the grounds is the Chapel - built on the exact site of the apparition and the original chapel. This chapel was built in 1942 and is a beautiful Tudor Gothic-style. Underneath the chapel is the apparition oratory, a spot for pilgrims to pray before the statue of Mary and witness a collection of crutches left in thanksgiving by those who were healed at the shrine. The oratory also contains a reliquary with relics from the original trees of the apparition site, Adele, and countless other saints. The grounds surrounding the chapel continue to be developed and now contain a rosary walk, stations of the cross walkway, and multiple outdoor grottos. Directly to the East of the chapel lies Adele’s grave, which is still open for veneration today.

"Many people travel to Our Lady of Champion from close distances, but more and more, we’re seeing people coming from Texas, California, New York, Japan, from Belgium, from Italy. So many just incredible pilgrimage stories. And it’s because they’ve been invited by Our Lady, there’s no other reason for it. That every single person who steps on these grounds, there’s a reason that they’re here. They have a story. Whether they’re looking for spiritual healing or physical healing, our Blessed Mother wants to show them something deeper about Our Lord, her Son, Jesus Christ."

Many pilgrims encounter healings, transformations, or blessings that they attribute to the intercession of Our Lady of Champion and Adele. Some of these stories are especially remarkable. For example, a boy was healed from terminal leukemia before massive surgery and an elderly man named Jack was healed from Asthma attacks he was plagued with for 50 years. There are countless other stories like Jack’s, not all approved “miracles,” but all clear evidence of the devotion to the Blessed Mother at the Shrine of Our Lady of Champion.

Recently, Bishop Ricken of the Diocese of Green Bay, has had a desire to investigate further the life of Adele Brise, the seer of Our Lady of Champion. And so he presented the life of Adele Brise to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on June 14th, 2024, and they unanimously voted to move her cause forward.

This marks the first step in the process of potentially recognizing Adele Brise as a saint in the Catholic Church, a process that requires multiple approved miracles and often takes many years. God willing, her canonization would reflect the growing devotion and significance of Our Lady of Champion in the United States and around the world.

From the staff of Our Lady of Champion: "If this story has inspired someone, has stirred in their heart an opportunity to visit Our Lady of Champion, I just want to give a heartfelt welcome to you. And an invitation that you are welcome here and that we hope to welcome you with open arms and show you that you can have a personal experience with Our Lady; that ultimately she can bring you to the heart of Jesus Christ. That’s her only goal."

The Shrine of Our Lady of Champion stands as a testament to faith, hope, and the enduring presence of Mary in the lives of believers. Whether seeking spiritual renewal, physical healing, or simply a moment of peace, visitors to this sacred site continue to find solace and inspiration. As the devotion and attention to Our Lady of Champion grows, consider making your own pilgrimage out to the site to see the United States’ very own Marian Apparition.