Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help

Chapel

The Chapel of the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help is a Marian shrine, located within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay.^[1] The chapel is in the community of Champion, Wisconsin, about 16 miles (26 km) north east of Green Bay, Wisconsin. It stands on the site of the reported Marian apparition to a Belgian-born woman, Adele Brise, in the year 1859.

The apparition was formally approved on December 8, 2010, by Bishop David 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.^[2]

The Apparition of 1859

Adele Brise was born in Belgium and, together with her parents, she had immigrated to Wisconsin in the 1850's. In early October 1859 she reported seeing a woman, clothed in white standing between two trees, a hemlock and a maple. 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 might be in need of prayers.^[3] The following Sunday, which was October 9, 1859, she saw the apparition a second time while walking to Mass in the town of Bay Settlement.^[4] Her sister and another woman were with her, neither of whom saw anything. She asked her 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."^[5] Adele Brise was also given a mission to "gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation." She was then 28 years old, and from that time on, she devoted the rest of her life to teaching children. At first she traveled by foot from house to house, and later she began a small school. Some other women joined her in this work, forming a community according to the rule of the Third Order Franciscans, although it seems that Adele Brise never took public vows as a nun. She died on July 5, 1896.^[6]

The Chapel

Early History

Shrine and school

The original chapel was a small wooden structure built by Lambert Brise, the father of Adele Brise, at the site of the Marian apparition. Mrs. Isabella Doyen donated the 5 acres (20,000 m²) surrounding the spot, and a larger wooden church was built in 1861. This chapel bore the inscription "Notre Dame de bon Secours, priez pour nous", giving the shrine its present name.^[7] The site became a popular place of pilgrimage and the chapel was soon too small to accommodate the pilgrims who were coming. 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 1880's.

The Peshtigo Fire

Main article: Peshtigo Fire

Lumber companies and sawmills had been harvesting the woods of Wisconsin, leaving piles of sawdust and branches as they produced lumber and 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.^[8] Unable to outrun the flames, nearly 2,000 people died in the inferno. Driven by strong winds, the conflagration leaped across the Green Bay of Lake Michigan and began burning huge sections of the Door Peninsula. When the firestorm threatened the Chapel, Adele Brise refused to leave and instead organized a procession to beg the Virgin Mary for her protection.^[9] The surrounding land was completely destroyed, but the chapel and its grounds, together with all the people who had taken refuge there, survived the fire unharmed.^[10] The conflagration destroyed about 1,200,000 acres (4,900 km²) of land and is the worst recorded fire disaster in US history.

Present day

The current chapel at the shine was built in 1942, with support from Bishop Paul Peter Rhode, who dedicated the new building in July of 1942.^[7] It is a Tudor Gothic style building which accommodates approximately 300 people in the main church. Under the body of the main church is a small crypt for prayer. The crypt also contains a collection of crutches left behind by people who felt they had been cured. 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 and a procession around the grounds of the shrine.

The Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help gained national recognition when the apparitions were approved by Bishop David Ricken on December 8, 2010, making it the first and only apparition approved by the Catholic Church in the United States.^[11]

Images

• 

  Sign

• 

  Stations of the Cross

References

1. ^ "Catholic Diocese of Green Bay-Shrine". http://www.gbdioc.org/whoarewe/diocesan-facilities/32-shrine-of-our-lady-of-good-help.html. 
2. ^ "Bishop Ricken approves Marian apparitions at Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help". http://www.gbdioc.org/newsevents/news/857-worthy-of-belief.html. 
3. ^ "Robinsonville: a Wisconsin shrine of Mary". http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/wlhba/articleView.asp?pg=1&orderby=&id=12829. 
4. ^ The Town of Bay Settlement, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Historical Society
5. ^ "Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help Pg 3". http://www.shrineofourladyofgoodhelp.com/htmPages/g_hst_p3.html. 
6. ^ "Green Bay bishop becomes first in US to approve Marian apparitions". http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1005014.htm. 
7. ^ ^{a b} "Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help Pg 1". http://www.shrineofourladyofgoodhelp.com/htmPages/g_hst_p1.html. 
8. ^ "Our 10 Greatest Natural Disasters". http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2006/4/2006_4_26.shtml. 
9. ^ "Robinsonville: A Wisconsin Shrine of Mary,p. 3". http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/wlhba/articleView.asp?pg=3&orderby=&id=12829. 
10. ^ "Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help Pg 5". http://www.shrineofourladyofgoodhelp.com/htmPages/g_hst_p5.html. 
11. ^ "Marian Apparition in US Declared Worthy of Belief". http://www.zenit.org/article-31191?l=english. 

External links

• Our Lady of Good Help
• Catholic Diocese of Green Bay
• Adele Brice-Wisconsin Historical Society