Our Lady of Good Help
- Feb 26
- 5 min read
Our Lady appeared to Adele Brise in 1859 in the farmlands of what is now Champion, Wisconsin. Making these apparitions the only officially approved Marian apparitions in the United States. Mary appeared to Adele three times over the course of a week and identified herself as the “Queen of Heaven.” The apparitions and the shrine of Our Lady of Good Help were approved by Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay in 2010, and the site is a popular pilgrimage site for many Americans.
Adele Brise was born in Belgium in 1831. Together with her parents, she immigrated to Wisconsin in 1855. She had very little schooling and had lost an eye growing up but was said to have a profound devotion to Our Lady and her intercessory power even as a little girl.
In early October 1859 when Adele was 28, she reported seeing a woman clothed in white and standing between two trees, a hemlock and a maple. Adele described the woman as “surrounded by a bright light, clothed in dazzling white with a yellow sash around her waist and a crown of stars above her flowing blond locks.” She was frightened by the vision and prayed until it disappeared. When she told her parents what she had seen, they suggested that a poor soul from Purgatory might be appearing to her in need of prayers. The following Sunday, she saw the apparition a second time while walking to Mass in the community of Bay Settlement. Her sister and neighbor were with her at the time but neither of them saw anything. After mass, she asked the parish priest for advice, and he told her that if she saw the apparition again, she should ask it, "In the Name of God, who are you and what do you wish of me?"
Returning from Mass that same day, she saw the apparition a third time, and this time asked the question she was given. The lady replied, “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 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."
“Adele, who is it?” said one of the women. “O why can't we see her as you do?” asked the other weeping. “Kneel,” said Adele, “the Lady says she is the Queen of Heaven.” Our Blessed Lady turned, looked kindly at them and said, “Blessed are they that believe without seeing.”
The Lady continued, “What are you doing here in idleness while your companions are working in the vineyard of my Son?” “What more can I do, dear Lady?” Adele said weeping. “Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation.” Ok love that- the good ole US of A, or as Our Lady calls it, “the wild country”. “But how shall I teach them who know so little myself?” replied Adele. Mary replied, “Teach them their catechism, how to sign themselves with the sign of the Cross, and how to approach the sacraments; that is what I wish you to do. Go and fear nothing. I will help you.”
After the apparitions, Adele began traveling on foot in a 50-mile radius around the present-day Shrine going house to house to teach and instruct as she was told by Mary. Adele’s father later built a chapel on the apparition site where she furthered her teaching work and later a proper schoolhouse. This little schoolhouse building is still standing today surrounded by a much larger and newer shrine and outdoor prayer space. Eventually, Adele founded a lay order of women to help with this work of catechizing. And although she is often referred to as “Sister Adele,” she and other members of the group never took formal vows but voluntarily lived in community, following the Franciscan way of life, even dressing conservatively like nuns of the time.
On October 8, 1871, almost twelve years to the date of Mary’s last appearance, a Midwestern drought caused two of the worst fires in America’s history – one in Chicago and the other in Peshtigo, Wisconsin. The same drought caused an inferno that began raging through the rural area of Adele’s town, claiming many lives and destroying miles of land. Local families who had been involved with Adele as part of her mission work in catechesis traveled during the fire to the chapel on the Shrine’s grounds, many with babies, small children and farm animals, to pray the rosary.
On their knees and in procession all night long, as the area of land all around the Shrine was reduced to ashes, those who gathered at the Shrine prayed the rosary, asking Our Lady of Good Help for her intercession with her Son, Jesus, to save them from the fire. Their prayers were answered when the rains came and extinguished the fire, preserving the chapel while everything around it was totally destroyed. To this day, many descendants of those whose lives were spared during the October 8, 1871 fire come to celebrate the miracle of the fire on that day annually, praying the rosary all night long into the following day. This and other miraculous instances at the Champion Shrine continue to be a harbinger of hope for thousands who travel on pilgrimage to pray for help and healing. There is even a wall of crutches and medical equipment near the entrance of the shrine from visitors who experienced healings during or after their visits.
The title Our Lady of Good Help, is rather obscure, and not common in the United States; the title’s historical roots lie in France, Belgium, and Canada. Since Adele came from Belgium, she had a devotion to Our Lady under this title prior to the apparitions, and once they occurred, asked for the chapel to be dedicated to Our Lady under this title. Thus, the reason we call it the National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help. Sanctuaries to Our Lady of Good Help can be traced back as early as the eleventh century by oral tradition, or to the 13th century in the historical record in France. The popularization of this title arises out of Mary’s assistance to those who call upon her.
The feast day of our Lady of Good Help is October 9th, the day all were saved from the fire.
Mary is inviting us to pray with her for a specific intention, and she shows Adele how to do it, by offering her Communion for the conversion of sinners. Our Lady teaches us that every time we go to Mass and receive Holy Communion, we can unlock something there — offer our Communion praying for someone. Our Lady taught us that, and that’s something special, and this was something unique to Mary’s message in Champion.
These apparitions were important because Immigrants were coming to the States and falling away from practice of the faith, in part because they didn’t have priests accompanying them who spoke their language. They just stopped going to Mass. They didn’t have anyone to instruct them or their children in the faith and it just kind of stopped being a part of the family life. Then Our Lady appears and invites people back to the sacraments. There was a need to teach the importance of Mass and prayer and get back to the basics of the faith for people who had fallen away. And of course with an emphasis on raising up children to know the faith.
It’s not a coincidence that 150 some years later the apparitions have been approved. We find ourselves in a different situation but a similar need. People are falling away from the practice of the faith, and the Church is calling for re-evangelization. So there is a need for the message again. Our Lady of Good help gives us the recipe for this re-evangelization and through Adele, invites us to be a part of this saving work.
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