Today is the feast of Our Lady of Champion, the first and only approved apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the United States.
In October 1859, Mary appeared to a Belgian immigrant, Adele Brise three times. In the first, Mary stayed silent, leaving Adele’s family to believe it was a holy soul in need of payers. On October 9th, Adele saw the Lady again and told her priest who instructed her to ask the mysterious lady, should she appear to her again, “In God’s Name, who are you and what do you want of me?” On her journey home from Mass, Adele saw the Lady and repeated the words she had been instructed to by her priest.
The Lady then said, ” 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 do penance, my Son will be obliged to punish them. Blessed are they that believe without seeing. What are you doing here while your companions are working in the vineyard of my Son? Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation. 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”.
With everything going on today in our country with the loss of innocence in the young, we must truly heed Our Lady’s message to us, to pray for the conversion of sinners, offer Holy Communion, and to teach and catechize the children and youth the faith they need for salvation and in the Sacraments, and know that Mary will help us.
The vision, originally titled Our Lady of Good Help, was formally approved in 2010 by Bishop David Ricken of the Diocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin. In 2016, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops raised the pilgramige site of the apparition to a National Shrine. In 2023, Bishop Ricken announced that the devotional name had been changed to Our Lady of Champion, both in conjunction with other approved Marian apparitions and to avoid confusion about the name, with the liturgical Solemnity being granted by the Dicastery for Divine Worship to be celebrated on October 9th.
Let us pray:
Lord our God, you chose the Mother of your beloved Son to be the Mother and help of Christians; grant that we may live under her protection and that your Church may enjoy unbroken peace. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
text curated by Josh Mansfield