WHY OUR LADY
19TH CENTURY - 1859 - OUR LADY OF GOOD HELP
ROBINSONVILLE (GREEN BAY), WISCONSIN, USA
VISIONARY: Adele Bris
NUMBER OF APPARITIONS: 3
FIRST APPARITION: October 9, 1859
LAST APPARITION: October 17, 1859
APPROVED: December 8, 2010
“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 well.
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.”
SUMMARY
On October 8, 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. Our Lady appeared a total of 3 times to Adele asking her to show others the Catechism and to pray for the conversion of sinners, and encouraging Adele to envangelize and catechize the local people.
On October 8, 1871, (12 years after the first apparition), the greatest fire disaster in the history of the U.S. 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.
BEFORE THE APPARITIONS
From 1853 to 1857 a great wave of emigration struck Wisconsin. Thrifty and industrious people from Holland, Belgium, Germany and other countries settled in the Green Bay area, among them was the Brise Family.
Adele Brise was born in 1831, in Belgium. As a young girl, she desired to enter the convent and devote her life to foreign missions. But her family wanted to journey to America. Consulting her confessor, he advised her to comply with her parent’s wishes, “If God wills it, you will be a sister in America. Go, I will pray for you.”
The family immigrated to America in 1855 when Adele was 24 years old. Adele was to have a very significant impact on the spiritual welfare and education in the newly formed communities. Despite the loss of an eye as a child and a meager education, Adele was known for her charming and inviting personality, fervent piety and simple religious ways and confidence in the intercession of the Blessed Virgin.
Four years after immigrating to Wisconsin, Adele would receive a mission from the Holy Mother of God through a series of apparitions.
THE APPARITIONS
In the early part of October, 1859, Adele saw our Blessed Mother for the first time. Walking through the wilderness, to the grist mill four miles from her home, Adele saw a lady all in white standing between two trees, one a maple and one a hemlock. She was frightened and stood still. The lady slowly disappeared. When she told her parents, they wondered what it could possibly mean. Maybe a poor soul who needed prayers?
The following Sunday, on her way to Mass, accompanied by two companions, Adele saw the lady again. She stopped and was frightened. Her companions saw nothing. After Mass, she spoke to her confessor about the apparitions. He told her not to fear, if it were a heavenly messenger, she would see it again and it would not harm her. He said to ask the lady, “In God’s name, who was she and what did she desire of me.”
When she appeared for the third and final time, Adele asked, “In God’s name, who are you, and what do you want of me?” “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 well. 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.”
“What more can I do, dear Lady?” said Adele weeping. “Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation.” “But how shall I teach them when I know so little myself?” “Teach them their catechism, how to make 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.”
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.
AFTER THE APPARITIONS
Adele Bris
Adele devoted her life to the work of our Holy Mother. Adele was charming and persistent. At first she traveled by foot, house to house doing unsolicited chores in exchange for being permitted to instruct the children. Later she began a small school. Undeterred by weather, fatigue or ridicule, she would venture as far as fifty miles from home seeking funds and sustenance for the chapel and school. Other women joined her in this work and together they formed a community of Sisters according to the Third Order of St. Francis.
When Adele’s fellow sisters did not know where their next meal was coming from, she would gather her companions in the chapel and ask for Mary’s help. Before morning, someone would undoubtedly drop off a bag of flour or supply of meat at the door. Adele never took public vows as a nun.
As misconceptions prompted several closures of chapel and school, Adele’s confidence in Mary’s promise and dedication to her mission endured. And when Adele attended Sunday Mass with the children, finding pews closed against her, she would still hear Mass kneeling in the aisle. Her determination was so strong and her faith so bright that her mission continues to inspire today.
Adele Brise died on July 5, 1896.
Miracles, Cures, and Signs
On October 8, 1871 -- exactly 12 years to the date since her first appearance, and the same day as the Great Chicago Fire, a tremendous catastrophe struck by way of a raging fire that destroyed massive swaths of northeastern Wisconsin and Upper Michigan. This is 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."
The only place left untouched by the fire was the Chapel and Shrine property of Our Lady of Good Help.
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.
The Shrine
The Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help is now the only Marian shrine in the United States on the site of an approved apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
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 8, 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.
SOURCES
https://www.shrineofourladyofgoodhelp.com/about-our-shrine/ ; Sponsored by the Council of Catholic Women Ministry