Robinsonville (now Champion), WI, USA (1859)
Title: Our Lady of Good Help
Investigated: 2009
Approved: Dec 8, 2010 by Bishop David L. Ricken , bishop of Green Bay, WI
Visionaries: Adele Brise (28)
First Apparition: October 9, 1859
Last Apparition: October 17, 1859
Number of Apparitions: 3
Miracles & Signs: On October 8th, 1871 (12 years from the first apparition), the greatest fire disaster in the history of the US destroyed 1.5 million acres of land in Wisconsin. The only place left untouched was the Chapel and Shrine property of Our Lady of Good Help. Many cures have been recorded at the Shrine.
Summary: October 8 of 1859, the Blessed Mother showed herself to a devout 28-year-old Belgian farm woman named Adele Brise in the area of Robinsonville (now Champion), Wisconsin. Mary stood in white between two trees, then slowly vanished, leaving a white cloud after her. The Blessed Mother desired evangelization. She wanted Adele to show others the Catechism.
The Seer
Adele Brise (Brice) was born in Belgium to Lambert and Catherine Brise on January 30, 1831. Although she suffered an accident at a young age that left her blind in her right eye, those who knew her best describe her cheerfulness, fervent piety, and simple religious ways.
Upon receiving her first Holy Communion, Adele and a few close friends promised the Blessed Virgin Mary that they would devote their lives to becoming religious teaching sisters in Belgium. However, this promise grew difficult to keep when her parents decided to move to America alongside other Belgium settlers. After seeking advice from her confessor, she was told to be obedient to her parents. He assured her that if the Lord willed her to become a teacher and a sister, she would serve in that vocation in America.
After the six-week voyage to America, the Brise family joined the largest Belgian settlement – near present-day Champion, Wisconsin. Belgian pioneers’ and settlers’ lives were difficult, and many died in the harsh Wisconsin winters. Adele served her family’s needs by often taking grain to the grist mill.
(SOURCE: championshrine.org)
Timeline
January 30, 1831
Marie Adele Joseph Brise was born
August 7, 1855
Lambert and Marie Brise purchased 240 acres of land in the town of Red River, Wisconsin.
Oct 1859
First apparition of the Virgin Mary to Adele Brice (Brise). Adele could see the beautiful lady, clothed in dazzling white, with a yellow sash around her waist. Her dress fell to her feet in graceful folds. She had a crown of stars around her head, and her long golden wavy hair fell loosely over her shoulders. Such a heavenly light shone around her that Adele could hardly look at her sweet face. Overcome by this heavenly light and the beauty of her amiable visitor, Adele fell on her knees.
Oct 9, 1859
When Adele told her parents, they wondered if it was a poor soul who needed prayers. On the following Sunday the young woman had to pass there again on her way to Mass at Bay Settlement, which was the nearest place, when she saw the Virgin again.
When she asked what the apparition wanted, Mary responded:
"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."
1859
A small oratory was built of logs.
1861
A second chapel was built as a frame structure.
1865-1868
Between these dates a frame convent and school was built near the Chapel.
1869
A school known as St. Mary's Academy was formally announced.
October 8, 1871
The "Great Fires of Northern Wisconsin," popularly known as the "Peshtigo Fire" raged.
October 8, 1871
The Great Chicago Fire
1880
A third chapel was built as a brick structure.
July 5, 1896
Sister Adele Brise dies at the Chapel.
Dec 8, 1941
The Most Reverend Paul P. Rhode, Bishop of Green Bay, laid the cornerstone for the fourth Chapel.
July 12, 1942
The new Chapel was dedicated by Bishop Rhode under the title of "Our Lady of Good Help."
January 2009
Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay opened an investigation into the authenticity of the apparitions
Dec 8, 2010
Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay declared the apparitions to be authentic, making them the first approved apparitions in the United States.
Description of the Virgin
"... there appeared between two trees, one a maple and the other a hemlock, which stood for years after, a blinding white light which paralyzed the poor girl with fear. She cowered before it and prayed rapidly and breathlessly as the light took definite form, and between the trees stood a marvelously beautiful lady, clothed entirely in dazzling white garments, with no touch of color save a wide yellow sash or girdle. Her hair was auburn; her eyes deep and dark and she bore a radiant and kindly smile. Adele trembled with fear. The vision faded gradually away." (Green Bay Gazette, August 13, 1925)
Messages
The Blessed Mother desired evangelization. She wanted Adele to show others the Catechism.
"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."
At the second vision, Our Lady told Adele:
“ Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation."
When she appeared for the third and final time, young Adele asked, “What more can I do, dear Lady?” Mary’s direction was simple: “Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation.”
“But how shall I teach them who know so little myself?” Adele asked.
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.”
(Source: Our Lady of Good Help Shrine official website)
Miracles, Cures, and Signs
On October 8, 1871 -- exactly 12 years to the date since her first appearance -- a tremendous catastrophe struck by way of a raging fire that destroyed massive swaths of northeastern Wisconsin and Upper Michigan -- indeed, the worst recorded forest fire in American history. By the time it was over, 1.2 million acres -- 1,850 square miles (the size of Rhode Island) -- had been consumed, and one to two thousand were dead. It was described in some parts as "a wall of flame, a mile high, five miles wide, traveling 90 to 100 miles an hour, hotter than a crematorium, turning sand into glass."
October 8, 1871 -- date of the Wisconsin catastrophe -- was also the day of the Great Chicago Fire.
Over the years there have been hundreds of stories of people coming to the shrine and being healed. Old crutches and canes were left behind.
Approval
Bishop Stanislaus V. Bona of Green Bay placed his imprimatur on a booklet describing the events and containing the messages.
In 2009, the most Reverend David L. Ricken, Bishop of Green Bay, opened a formal Church investigation into the Marian apparitions that occurred in 1859 on the site of the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help. While considered private revelation, the task of the commission was to review all the historical information on the apparitions, as well as the life of the visionary Sister Adele, and test their consistency with Public Revelation as guarded by the Catholic Church.
On December 8th, 2010, Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay declared the apparitions to be authentic, making them the first approved apparitions in the United States.
Reading from his decree, the Bishop stated, “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.”
This declaration makes the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help at Champion the first and only Marian shrine in the United States that is on the site of an approved apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
SOURCE:
miraclehunter
Our Lady of Good Help Shrine official website
championshrine.org