Back in November we took an afternoon to visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Hope. This approved apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary is located in Champion near Green Bay, WI.
In October, 1859 Our Lady appeared to a young Belgian woman who had immigrated to Wisconsin with her family. Our Lady asked Adele Brise to gather the children and teach them what they needed to know for salvation. Sister Adele (as she became known as) travelled throughout the peninsula teaching the children as well as opening a free school in the late 1860's.
The five acres where the church and school sat was miraculously protected from the devastating Peshtigo fire on October 8, 1871. This fire consumed 2,400 square miles (1.5 million acres) and took the lives of an estimated 1,200 to 2,400 people. Its amazing that a five acre land, consecrated to Our Lady, should survive such an ordeal.
Image from the Peshtigo fire information website.
Here are some pictures from our visit to the shrine.
The boys are posing next to Sts. Cyril and Methodius.
The main altar in the church.
This statue was admired by Adele herself. It was first in a church in Bay Settlement and then later moved to Champion. The statue was donated to the shrine in the early 1900's since Adele enjoyed it so much during her life.
This is a statue of St. Odilia. I was unaware of this saint until this visit. She is a patron saint of people with eye disorders. Adele's face was disfigured due to the loss of her eye during childhood accident with lye.
This is a statue of what Mary could have looked like when she appeared to Adele. Bishop Ricken has commissioned an official statue of Our Lady of Good Hope.
St. Therese is Blase's First Communion patron saint.
This was a statue down in the crypt.
This is the sight of the apparition of Our Lady to Adele.
On the property there was a walking path for the rosary and one for the stations of the cross.
The boys at the Crucifixion station.
They also had grottos of other Marian apparitions. Here is the one for Our Lady of Fatima.
Our Lady of Lourdes at sunset.
The gift shop and former school building, now being used for a meeting hall and dining room for pilgrimage groups.
The current chapel built on the land in 1941.
all the buildings
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