Shrines & Pilgrimage Sites

The apparitions (1859). Adele Brise, a young Belgian immigrant, was walking through the wilderness near Champion (then Robinsonville), Wisconsin, in October 1859 when a radiant woman appeared to her between two trees. The Lady identified herself as “the Queen of Heaven who prays for the conversion of sinners,” and gave Adele a mission: “Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation.” Adele spent the rest of her life doing exactly that, catechizing the children of the frontier.

The Peshtigo Fire miracle (1871). On the night of October 8, 1871, the Peshtigo Fire — still the deadliest wildfire in American history — swept across northeast Wisconsin, killing more than a thousand people. Terrified families fled to the chapel grounds Adele had built. Through the night they processed with the statue of Mary and prayed the Rosary as the flames closed in. When dawn came, everything around had been reduced to ash — yet the five acres of the consecrated shrine stood untouched, green and unburned.

Formal approval (2010). After a rigorous investigation, on December 8, 2010 — the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception — Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay declared the apparitions “worthy of belief,” the first and only Marian apparitions approved on United States soil.

Vatican recognition (2022). In 2022 the shrine received the recognition of the Holy See and was given the title the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion, confirming its place among the Church’s approved Marian sanctuaries.

The cause of Adele Brise. The U.S. bishops have endorsed the opening of the cause for the canonization of Adele Brise — the visionary whose fidelity has touched countless pilgrims — a further step toward her possible recognition as a saint.