On a trip up to the Top-o’-the-Thumb in Wisconsin last year, we were lured off our route outside of Green Bay by signs along the highway that declared “The Virgin Mary Appeared Here.”
About 15 miles northeast of Green Bay, Wisconsin, we found The National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion, which we learned is the first and only Marian apparition site in the United States approved by the Catholic Church.
The shrine grounds are also the final resting place of the woman who claimed Mary appeared to her here on this site three times in 1859. Originally called a Seer, now Servant of God Marie Adele Joseph Brice is buried next to the alleged apparation site, alongside others.
Who Was Adele Brice?
Adele was born in 1831 and raised in Belgium. When she was a child, an accident with lye caused her to lose sight in one eye and also disfigured her face. Despite this, Adele was said to always be cheerful.
Adele wanted to become a nun with a local order in Belgium, but instead she migrated to America with her parents in the 1850s where they settled in the big woods of Wisconsin (Little House in the Big Woods style).
At age 28, Adele claimed to have seen an apparition of Mary three separate times. She claimed that Mary instructed her to “Gather the children in this wild country and teach them … their catechism, how to sign themselves with the sign of the Cross, and how to approach the sacraments.” And that is exactly what Adele did for the rest of her life. She never professed vows, but she lived her life as a nun from that point on.
To help Adele follow what she believed to be divine guidance, her father built a small chapel for their family at the site of the alleged apparitions. Later, a school was also built to help Adele teach children. As word of the alleged apparition spread, the chapel was rebuilt to be larger. Today’s building is the fourth version of Apparition Chapel.
Early on, some local believers trusted Adele’s story and flocked to the site to see if they would also be graced by a Marian apparition. Others reportedly ridiculed her for her beliefs, and others for believing her. Then in 1871, the Peshtigo fire, the deadliest wildfire in recorded history, swept through Wisconsin and the alleged apparition area. The chapel and school along with everyone inside were spared from destruction, which believers and non-believers alike took as a sign that Adele’s story must be true, and that the site must have been protected by the Virgin Mary.
The unincorporated community of Champion was originally named Robinsonville, although it was also known as Aux Premiers Belges (“To The First Belgians”) for a time due to the large Belgian immigrant population there. The area was renamed Champion at the suggestion of Adele, after Champion near Namur, Belgium, the home of the religious order of nuns she admired as a child.
Adele died in 1896 in her mid-60s after being ill for a few years. She was buried at the site where she claimed the Virgin Mary appeared to her, and where she had spent nearly four decades teaching children the rituals of the Catholic faith.
In 2026, the Diocese of Green Bay opened a cause for the beatification and canonization of Adele, potentially leading to her future formal recognition as a saint in the Catholic Church.
The grounds of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion are open 365 days a year, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. All are welcome to visit the site, enter the chapel, and visit Adele’s grave.
Additional Resources
The National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion
National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion, Wikipedia
Chapel of Our Lady of Good Help Cemetery, Find a Grave
The only approved Marian apparition site in U.S. is just one state away, Catholic Times
Now Discern This: Mary Says to Pray Like A Champion
Adele Joseph Brice, Mary Across America
Sainthood cause formally opened for Northwoods catechist of ‘this wild country’, Detroit Catholic
Seer of Our Lady of Champion now “Servant of God”, Aleteia
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