National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion
Champion, Wisconsin, United States
The site of the 1859 Marian apparitions to Adele Brise in Wisconsin, the only Marian apparition site in the United States with formal Church approval, elevated to a national shrine in 2023.
In October 1859 Adele Brise, a Belgian immigrant schoolteacher, reported visions of a lady in white on the road between Champion and Bay Settlement, Wisconsin, and received the message to teach the children their catechism. A chapel was built on the site in 1861, and during the Peshtigo Fire of October 8, 1871, the deadliest fire in American history, the surrounding area burned while the chapel grounds were spared, an event central to local Catholic tradition. On December 8, 2010, Bishop David Ricken of Green Bay formally approved the apparitions as worthy of belief, making Champion the first and still only Church-approved Marian apparition site in the United States; Pope Francis elevated it to a national shrine in 2023.
Pilgrimage runs year round, with large crowds on the October 8-9 anniversary, daily Mass and Rosary per the shrine calendar, the Apparition Chapel, Stations of the Cross, Adele's gravesite and the Fatima grotto.
Visiting
The shrine's own site carries hours and the pilgrimage calendar; free and open daily; group pilgrimage coordinators are available.
Photo: The Apparition Chapel, [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:National_Shrine_of_Our_Lady_of_Champion_July_2025_4_(Apparition_Chapel).jpg), CC BY-SA 4.0, Michael Barera.
Associated traditions & practices
Visitor stories