Our Patroness

Who is Our Lady of Champion? She is the Mother of God.

Champion, Wisconsin is an “unincorporated community” in Green Bay, Wisconsin. In the year 1859, on October 8th and 9th, Our Lady appeared to the Belgian girl, Adele Brise, and told her to “gather the children of this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation”. When Adele asked how she was to teach the Faith, Our Lady’s answer was clear, nearly abrupt, but tender: “Teach them their catechism, how to sign themselves with 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.” Adele spent the rest of her life obeying these words, although it was a hidden life in a rural place, far north in our country.

When Bishop David Ricken became Bishop of Green Bay, Wisconsin, in the year 2008, he almost immediately became aware of the Apparitions, and felt challenged by Our Lady to determine if they were authentic. After careful investigation, he declared them “worthy of belief” in the year 2010, thus making Our Lady of Champion the only Marian apparition approved for public veneration in the History of the United States. In 2019 Bishop Ricken expressed the thought to the National Catholic Register that he considered Our Lady’s message more “timely” for our day than when she first gave it to Adele. In 2023, Bishop Ricken made the anniversary of Our Lady’s last two appearances to Adele, October 9th, a Diocesan solemnity in Green Bay, Wisconsin.