View source for National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion

{{Redirect|Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help|similarly named places of worship|Our Lady of Good Help (disambiguation){{!}}Our Lady of Good Help}}
{{Infobox church
| denomination = [[Catholic Church|Catholic]]
| church name = National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion
| diocese = [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay|Diocese of Green Bay]]
| location = [[Champion, Wisconsin]]
| coordinates = {{coord|44|35|26.3|N|87|46|24.8|W|type:landmark_region:US-WI|display=inline,title}}
| image = ShrineOfOurLadyOfGoodHelpChapelDecember2010.jpg
| website = {{Official website|https://championshrine.org/|name=championshrine.org/}}
| founded date = 1861
| status = [[National shrine]]
| country = United States
}}
{{Infobox Catholic apparition
|name         = Our Lady of Champion
|image        = 
|caption      = Statue of Our Lady of Champion
|size         = 
|location     = [[Champion, Wisconsin]], [[United States]]
|date         = October 1859
|witness      = Adele Brise
|type         = [[Marian apparition]]
|approval     = December&nbsp;8,&nbsp;2010<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gbdioc.org/newsevents/news/857-worthy-of-belief.html|title=Bishop Ricken Approves Marian Apparitions at Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help|date=2010-12-08|website=[[Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay|Diocese of Green Bay]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121213223836/http://www.gbdioc.org/newsevents/news/857-worthy-of-belief.html|archive-date=2012-12-13|url-status=dead|quote='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.'|access-date=2011-01-19}}</ref><br>Bishop [[David L. Ricken]]<br>[[Diocese of Green Bay]]
|shrine       = 
|patronage    = 
}}
[[File:ShrineOfOurLadyOfGoodHelpChapelSchoolConventDecember2010.jpg|thumb|Shrine and school in 2010]]
[[File:OurLadyOfGoodHelpStationsOfTheCross.jpg|thumb|[[Stations of the Cross]] at the Shrine]]
[[File:OurLadyOfGoodHelpSign.jpg|thumb|Entrance sign]]

The '''National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion''', formerly dedicated as the '''Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help''', is a [[Catholic]] shrine to [[Mary, mother of Jesus|Mary, mother of God]] located within the [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay|Diocese of Green Bay]] in the [[United States]].<ref>{{cite web|location=Green Bay, WI|publisher=Diocese of Green Bay|website=gbdioc.org|title=Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help|url=http://www.gbdioc.org/whoarewe/diocesan-facilities/32-shrine-of-our-lady-of-good-help.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130831042519/http://www.gbdioc.org/whoarewe/diocesan-facilities/32-shrine-of-our-lady-of-good-help.html|archive-date=2013-08-31|url-status=live}}</ref> The [[chapel]] is in the [[Champion, Wisconsin|Champion]] section of the [[Green Bay (town), Wisconsin|town of Green Bay]], about 16 miles (26&nbsp;km) northeast of downtown [[Green Bay, Wisconsin|Green Bay proper]]. It stands on the site of the reported [[Marian apparition|apparition of Mary]] to a Belgian-born woman, [[Adele Brise]], in 1859.

The apparition was formally approved on December 8, 2010, by Bishop [[David L. Ricken]], becoming the first Marian apparition approved by the [[Catholic Church]] in the United States. Bishop Ricken also approved the chapel as a [[diocesan shrine]], recognizing its long history as a place of [[pilgrimage]] and prayer.<ref>{{cite web|location=Green Bay, WI|publisher=Diocese of Green Bay|website=gbdioc.org|title=Worthy of Belief|url=http://www.gbdioc.org/newsevents/news/857-worthy-of-belief.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121213223836/http://www.gbdioc.org/newsevents/news/857-worthy-of-belief.html|archive-date=2012-12-13|url-status=dead|access-date=2011-01-19}}</ref>  On August 15, 2016, the [[U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops]] designated the shrine as a [[national shrine]].<ref name=gb>{{cite web|url=http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/story/news/2016/08/15/champion-shrine-nationally-recognized/88759006/ |title=Champion shrine nationally recognized |author=Shelby Le Duc |publisher=Green Bay Press-Gazette |date=August 15, 2016 |access-date=August 15, 2016}}</ref> In recognition of this, the shrine's name was changed to The National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help.<ref name=gb/>

On April 20, 2023, the name of the shrine was changed to The National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion.

==Apparitions of 1859==
Adele Brise was born in Belgium in 1831. Together with her parents, she immigrated to Wisconsin in 1855. In early October 1859, Adele 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.<ref name="Eckholm2010">{{cite web|location=New York|website=[[The New York Times]]|last=Eckholm|first=Erik|title=Wisconsin on the Map to Pray With Mary|date=2010-12-23|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/24/us/24mary.html}}</ref> Brise 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 might be in need of prayers.<ref name="CatholicHerald1935" />

The following Sunday, October 8, 1859, Brise saw the apparition a second time while walking to Mass in the community of [[Bay Settlement, Wisconsin|Bay Settlement]]. Her sister and another woman (Marie Theresa VanderMissen, 1822–1898) were with her at the time, but neither of them saw anything. 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 the priest had told her to ask. The apparition replied, "''I am the Queen of Heaven, who prays for the conversion of sinners, and I wish you to do the same.''"<ref>{{cite web|location=New Franken, WI|publisher=Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help|website=shrineofourladyofgoodhelp.com|title=Apparitions|url=http://www.shrineofourladyofgoodhelp.com/htmPages/g_hst_p3.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131127042449/http://shrineofourladyofgoodhelp.com/htmPages/g_hst_p3.html|archive-date=2013-11-27|url-status=dead}}</ref> Brise was also given a mission to "''gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation.''"

Brise, who was 28 years old at the time of her vision of the apparition, 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 they formed a community of sisters according to the rule of the [[Third Order Franciscans]], although Brise never took public vows as a [[nun]]. 

Brise died on July 5, 1896.<ref name="CatholicNewsService">{{cite web|location=Washington DC|publisher=Catholic News Service|website=catholicnews.com|last=Lucero|first=Sam|title=Green Bay bishop becomes first in US to approve Marian apparitions|date=2010-12-09|url=http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1005014.htm|archive-url=https://archive.today/20101210145541/http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1005014.htm|archive-date=2010-12-10|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Chapel==
===Early history===
The original chapel was a 10 foot by 12 foot wooden structure built by Lambert Brise, Adele's father, at the site of the Marian apparition.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=The History of Belgian Settlements in Door, Kewaunee and Brown Counties|last=Tlachac|first=Math S.|publisher=Peninsula Belgian-American Club|year=2007|location=Namur, Wisconsin|pages=28}}</ref> Isabella Doyen donated the {{convert|5|acre|m2}} surrounding the spot, and a larger (24 foot by 40 foot) wooden church was built in 1861.<ref name=":0" /> 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.<ref name="Shrine1">{{cite web|location=New Franken, WI|publisher=Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help|website=shrineofourladyofgoodhelp.com|title=Chapel and Shrine|url=http://www.shrineofourladyofgoodhelp.com/htmPages/g_hst_p1.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131127042819/http://shrineofourladyofgoodhelp.com/htmPages/g_hst_p1.html|archive-date=2013-11-27|url-status=dead}}</ref> The site became a popular place of [[pilgrimage]] and the chapel was soon too small to accommodate the pilgrims who were coming to it. A larger brick chapel was built in 1880 and dedicated by Bishop [[Francis Xavier Krautbauer]], the second bishop of the [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay]]. A school and a convent were also built on the site in the 1880s.<ref name=":0" />

===Peshtigo Fire===
{{Main|Peshtigo Fire}}
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, a [[firestorm]] began near [[Peshtigo, Wisconsin]], that spread through the woods and towns, consuming everything in its path.<ref>{{cite journal|journal=American Heritage|volume=57|issue=4|year=2006|last=Gibson|first=Christine|title=Our 10 Greatest Natural Disasters|url=http://www.americanheritage.com/content/our-10-greatest-natural-disasters?page=show|access-date=2014-10-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141022234013/http://www.americanheritage.com/content/our-10-greatest-natural-disasters?page=show|archive-date=2014-10-22|url-status=live}}</ref> Unable to outrun the flames, nearly 2,000 people in the area died in the inferno. [[Peshtigo Fire#Firestorm|Some people assume]] that, driven by strong winds, the [[conflagration]] leaped across [[Green Bay (Lake Michigan)|Green Bay]] of [[Lake Michigan]] and began burning huge sections of the [[Door Peninsula]]. When the firestorm – whatever its origin – threatened the chapel, Adele Brise refused to leave and instead organized a [[procession]] to petition the [[Virgin Mary]] for her protection.<ref name="CatholicHerald1935">Wisconsin Historical Society. Wisconsin Local History & Biography Articles. {{cite news|location=Milwaukee, WI|newspaper=Catholic Herald|date=1935-05-23|title=Robinsonville: a Wisconsin shrine of Mary|url=http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/wlhba/articleView.asp?pg=3&orderby=&id=12829|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121106165621/http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/wlhba/articleView.asp?pg=3&orderby=&id=12829|archive-date=2012-11-06|url-status=live}}
</ref> The surrounding land was destroyed by the fire but the chapel and its grounds, together with all the people who had taken refuge there, survived the fire unharmed.<ref>{{cite web|location=New Franken, WI|publisher=Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help|website=shrineofourladyofgoodhelp.com|title=Troubles and Miracles|url=http://www.shrineofourladyofgoodhelp.com/htmPages/g_hst_p5.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131127043314/http://shrineofourladyofgoodhelp.com/htmPages/g_hst_p5.html|archive-date=2013-11-27|url-status=dead}}</ref> The conflagration engulfed about {{convert|1200000|acre|km2}} and is the deadliest wildfire in recorded history.<ref name = "Biondich2010">{{cite news | last = Biondich | first = S. | title = The Great Peshtigo Fire | newspaper= [[Shepherd Express]] | date = 2010-06-09 | url = https://shepherdexpress.com/news/happening-now/great-peshtigo-fire/#/questions | access-date = 2011-11-09}} </ref>

===Present day===
The current building at the shrine was constructed in 1942, with support from Bishop [[Paul Peter Rhode]], who dedicated the new building in July 1942.<ref name="Shrine1" /> It is a [[Tudor Gothic]]-style building and accommodates approximately 300 people in an upper Apparition Chapel, along with a small Apparition Oratory for prayer on the lower level. The Apparition Oratory also contains a collection of crutches left behind in thanksgiving by people who came to pray at the shrine. The grounds of the shrine have an outdoor area for a [[rosary]] walk and [[Stations of the Cross]].

The largest annual gathering at the chapel happens on the feast of the [[Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary]], on August 15, celebrated with an outdoor [[Mass (liturgy)|Mass]] and a procession around the grounds of the shrine.

The Shrine of Our Lady of Champion gained national recognition when the visitations apparition were approved, after a two-year investigation, by Bishop [[David Ricken]] on December 8, 2010, making it the first and only apparition approved by the Catholic Church in the United States.<ref>{{cite web|publisher=Innovative Media|website=zenit.org|title=Marian apparition in US declared worthy of belief|date=2010-12-08|url=http://www.zenit.org/article-31191?l=english|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120926114938/http://www.zenit.org/article-31191?l=english|archive-date=2012-09-26|url-status=live}}</ref> Bishop Ricken noted that his predecessors had implicitly endorsed the shrine by holding services there over the years.<ref name="Eckholm2010" />

On August 15, 2016, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops designated the shrine as a national shrine.<ref name=gb>{{cite web|url=http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/story/news/2016/08/15/champion-shrine-nationally-recognized/88759006/ |title=Champion shrine nationally recognized |author=Shelby Le Duc |publisher=Green Bay Press-Gazette |date=August 15, 2016 |access-date=August 15, 2016}}</ref> In recognition of this, the shrine's name was changed to The National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help.<ref name=gb/>

On April 20, 2023, the name of the shrine was changed to ''The National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion''.

==See also==
* [[Shrines to the Virgin Mary]]
* [[List of shrines]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help}}

* {{Official website|https://championshrine.org/|name=Official website of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion}}
* [http://www.gbdioc.org/ Catholic Diocese of Green Bay]
* [https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS292 Adele Brise-Wisconsin Historical Society]

{{Roman catholic approved apparitions}}
{{Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay|state=collapsed}}

[[Category:Churches in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay]]
[[Category:Belgian-American culture in Wisconsin]]
[[Category:Churches in Brown County, Wisconsin]]
[[Category:Shrines to the Virgin Mary|Good Help]]
[[Category:Marian apparitions|Good Help]]
[[Category:Tourist attractions in Brown County, Wisconsin]]
[[Category:Roman Catholic churches completed in 1942]]
[[Category:1861 establishments in Wisconsin]]
[[Category:20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States]]