| National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion | |
|---|---|
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 National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion | |
| 44°35′26.3″N87°46′24.8″W / 44.590639°N 87.773556°W /44.590639; -87.773556 | |
| Location | Champion, Wisconsin |
| Country | United States |
| Denomination | Catholic |
| Website | championshrine.org/ |
| History | |
| Status | National shrine |
| Founded | 1861 |
| Administration | |
| Diocese | Diocese of Green Bay |
| Our Lady of Champion | |
|---|---|
| Location | Champion, Wisconsin, United States |
| Date | October 1859 |
| Witness | Servant of God Adele Brice |
| Type | Marian apparition |
| Approval | December 8, 2010[1] BishopDavid L. Ricken Diocese of Green Bay |
TheNational Shrine of Our Lady of Champion, formerly dedicated as theShrine of Our Lady of Good Help, is aCatholic shrine toMary, mother of God located within theDiocese of Green Bay in theUnited States.[2] Thechapel is in theChampion section of thetown of Green Bay, about 16 miles (26 km) northeast of downtownGreen Bay proper. It stands on the site of the reportedapparition of Mary to a Belgian-born woman,Adele Brice, in 1859.
The apparition was formally approved on December 8, 2010, by BishopDavid L. Ricken, becoming the first Marian apparition approved by theCatholic Church in the United States. Bishop Ricken also approved the chapel as adiocesan shrine, recognizing its long history as a place ofpilgrimage and prayer.[3] On August 15, 2016, theU.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops designated the shrine as anational shrine.[4] In recognition of this, the shrine's name was changed to The National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help.[4]
On April 20, 2023, the name of the shrine was changed to The National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion.
Adele Brice was born inBelgium in 1831. Together with her parents, she immigrated to Wisconsin in 1855. In early October 1859, Adele reported seeing a woman clothed in dazzling white, a yellow sash around her waist, and acrown of stars on her flowing blonde locks. The lady was surrounded by a bright light, and stood between two trees, a hemlock and a maple.[5] Brice was frightened by the vision and prayed until it disappeared. When she told her parents what she had seen, they suggested that apoor soul might be in need ofprayers.[6]
October 9, 1859, Brice saw the apparition a second time while walking to[7]Mass in the community ofBay Settlement. Her sister and another woman, Marie Theresa VanderMissen (1822–1898), were with her at the time, but neither saw anything. She asked theparish priest for advice and he told her if she saw the apparition again, she should ask it, "In theName of God, who are you and what do you wish of me?"
Returning from the Mass, she saw the apparition a third time, and this time posed the question the priest had told her to ask. The apparition replied, "I am theQueen of Heaven, who prays for the conversion of sinners, and I wish you to do the same."[8] Brice was also given a mission to "gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation."
Brice, who was aged 28 at the time of the apparitions, devoted the rest of her life to teaching children. She initially traveled on foot from house to house, but later opened a small school. Other women joined her in her work and formed a community of sisters according to therule of theThird Order Franciscans, although Brice never took public vows as anun. Brice died on July 5, 1896.[9]
The original chapel was a 10x12 foot wooden structure built by Lambert Brice, Adele's father, at the site of the Marian apparition.[10] Isabella Doyen donated the 5 acres (20,000 m2) around the spot, and a larger (24x40 foot) wooden church was built in 1861.[10] This chapel bore the inscription "Notre Dame de bon Secours, priez pour nous" (“Our Lady of Good Help, pray for us”), giving the shrine its original name.[11] The site became a popularpilgrimage site, and the chapel was soon too small to accommodate the growing number of devotees. A larger brick chapel was built in 1880 and dedicated byFrancis Xavier Krautbauer, the secondBishop of Green Bay. A school and convent were also built on the site in the 1880s.[10]
Lumber companies and sawmills had been harvesting the woods of northeastern Wisconsin for decades, leaving immense piles of sawdust and branches as they produced lumber and other wood products. The night of October 8, 1871, afirestorm began nearPeshtigo, Wisconsin, that spread through the woods and towns, consuming everything in its path.[12] Unable to outrun the flames, nearly 2,000 people in the area died in the inferno.Some people assume that, driven by strong winds, theconflagration leaped acrossGreen Bay ofLake Michigan and began burning huge sections of theDoor Peninsula. When the firestorm – whatever its origin – threatened the chapel, visionary Adele Brice refused to leave and instead organized aprocession to petition theVirgin Mary for her protection.[6] The surrounding land was destroyed by the fire, but the chapel and its grounds, together with all who had taken refuge there, remained unharmed.[13] The conflagration engulfed about 1,200,000 acres (4,900 km2) and is the deadliest wildfire in recorded history.[14]
The current shrine was constructed with support from BishopPaul Peter Rhode, who dedicated the new building in July 1942.[11] It is aTudor Gothic-style building and accommodates approximately 300 people in an upper Apparition Chapel, along with a small ApparitionOratory for prayer on the lower level. The Apparition Oratory also contains a collection of crutches left behind in thanksgiving asex-votos by those who came to pray at the shrine. The shrine grounds have an outdoor area for arosary walk andStations of the Cross.
The largest annual gatherings at the chapel are on the feast of theAssumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, August 15, where Mass is celebrated with an outdoors and a procession is held around the shrine precincts, and the Walk to Mary pilgrimage, which takes place on the first Saturday of May, where pilgrims walk 7, 14, or 22 miles to the Shrine from other locations. Both events attract thousands of people.[15][16]
The Shrine of Our Lady of Champion gained national recognition when the apparitions were approved after a two-year investigation by BishopDavid Ricken on December 8, 2010. This makes it the first and only apparition approved by theCatholic Church in the United States.[17] Bishop Ricken noted his predecessors had implicitly endorsed the shrine in holding services there over the years.[5]
On August 15, 2016, theUnited States Conference of Catholic Bishops designated the church as anational shrine.[4] To reflect this, the shrine's name was changed to The National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help.[4]
On April 20, 2023, the shrine was again renamed toThe National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion.
On January 30, 2026, Bishop David L. Ricken officially opened the cause for the canonization of Adele Brice and named her a Servant of God. Adele Brice was the seer of Our Lady of Champion in 1859.[18]
'I declare with moral certainty and in accord with the norms of the Church that the events, apparitions and locutions given to Adele Brice 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.'
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