The Fire Stopped at the Fence Line — Our Lady of Champion, America’s Only Approved Apparition

During the deadliest wildfire in American history, a wall of fire swept across Wisconsin — but stopped at the fence line of the Shrine of Our Lady of Champion. This is the true story of Our Lady of Champion, the only approved Marian apparition in the United States.

Transcript

A wall of fire is sweeping across northeast Wisconsin. It's October 1871 and the deadliest wildfire in American history is consuming everything in its path. Homes, farms, forests, entire towns already gone. Families flee toward a small wooden chapel built on the site of a Marian apparition 12 years earlier. Hundreds gather on the chapel grounds carrying a statue of the Blessed Virgin. They began processing around the property, praying the rosary all through the night as flames close in on every side. The fire advances right up to the shrine property line, getting closer and closer. But it never crosses the fence line. By morning, everything around them is destroyed for miles in every direction except the chapel grounds and the people who prayed there. And the reason they were there traces back to a message given in these woods to a young Belgium woman named Adele. This is the story of Our Lady of Champion, the first and only approved Marian apparition in the United States. Welcome to episode 10 of Advent Daily, where we are exploring Marian apparitions in preparation for Christmas. Adele came to Wisconsin from Belgium in her early 20s. She was 28 years old when heaven broke into her life. Simple, devout, and eager to serve God, but unsure of her own abilities. Her life felt ordinary, but a mission was coming that would stretch far beyond anything she imagined. On October 9th, 1859, Adele was walking through the woods near her home, and she saw a beautiful lady dressed in white, standing between two trees, a radiant figure with a crown of golden stars. Her companion saw nothing. Adele alone saw the woman, beautiful, silent, and surrounded by light. The vision disappeared. Adele went on to mass, shaken, but prayerful. Now, Adele's priest advised her if the lady appeared to her again to say, "In God's name, who are you and what do you want of me?" A week later, on her way to mass with her companions, Adele saw the woman again standing in the same place between the trees. Her companions could not see her. Remembering her pastor's instruction, Adele stepped forward towards the beautiful lady and asked, "In God's name, who are you and what do you want of me?" The woman replied, "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 as well. But you must do more. Make a general confession and offer communion for the conversion of sinners. If they do not convert and do penance, my son will be obliged to punish them." The radiant woman then gazed kindly towards Adele's companions, who still cannot see her, and said, "Blessed are they that believe without seeing." Then she turned to Adele and asked, "What are you doing here in idleness, while your companions are working in the vineyard of my son?" Adele began to weep, "What more can I do, dear lady?" Mary answered, "Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation." Adela hesitated, "But how shall I teach them who know so little myself?" The queen of heaven replied, "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 wasted no time visiting families across a 50-mi radius, teaching children the catechism, praying with them, and helping them rediscover their faith. She would do household chores just to earn a few minutes to instruct the children. Over time, other women joined her. A schoolhouse was built. A small convent formed. A chapel rose on the very spot of the apparition. 12 years later, the Pestigo fire erupted. So enormous that historians still struggle to describe the immensity of it. As the blaze approached the shrine, families ran to the chapel grounds holding the statue of Mary. They processed around the property, praying the rosary through the night. The fire burned everything around them, but stopped at the shrine's fence line. The people who gathered were spared. In 2009, Bishop David Ricken opened a formal investigation into the apparitions. A year later, he declared them worthy of belief. In 2022, the Vatican formally recognized the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion as an approved Mary and apparition site. And in 2024, the US bishops voted unanimously to begin the process of declaring Adele a saint. Bishop Rickens says pilgrims have increased from about 10,000 a year to more than 200,000 annually since the apparitions were approved. And the message Mary gave Adele, conversion, repentance, catechizus could not be more needed today. Her words still echo. Go and fear nothing. I will help you.

So, as we go into our commentary, just a quick warning. uh what we're going to share is not for young ears. So if you have young children, pre-teens, this message maybe not for them. So one thing I found interesting about Adele's story that we didn't actually mention in the previous part of this video was that she was either missing an eye or she was blind in one eye. Um not clear, but anyway, she couldn't see out of one of the eyes. I'm sure somebody knows though. Yes. And and they'll tell us in the comments. But what I find interesting is that our ladies chose her to be one to catechize children even though her eye she was either missing an eye or she couldn't see out of the out of her eye. But it just goes to show, you know, the Lord will use all of us, you know, to build his kingdom. Yeah. I think sometimes we just disqualify ourselves. Well, I can't do anything. How could the Lord use me because of this, this, this? And we give a list of our excuses or in inabilities or weaknesses. I mean, she could have just said, "Ah, I I don't look very pleasing to the site, and I might scare children because I'm I'm missing an eye." That that would be a a common insecurity. Mhm. But the Lord doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called. And this is just a beautiful example. And and maybe you feel like, well, what can I do to help other people? What can I do to spread the fullness of the Catholic faith to others or your children or your grandchildren? and you disqualify yourself. No, no. Ask our lady's intercession. God's grace qualifies us to to serve him. And you know, one thing that really stood out to me in this story was how she would go into people's homes and she would go and do like just regular ordinary chores with the children just to earn some time with them. And I was listening to this podcast recently about how modern-day conveniences don't allow us to work side by side with one another anymore. Like when you think of our laundry, you know, it just requires one person to like take the laundry out and put it into the to the dryer or same with like often just other tasks. It's just you only one person can do it at a time. But really, it's really wonderful when you can work side by side with someone and then you spend that time with them. Mhm. A couple themes that stand out to me. One is that our lady says, "Make a general confession and offer communion for the conversion of sinners. If they do not convert and do penance, my son will be obliged to punish them. So there we have a message of Mary saying there's a consequence to sin. We need to convert and turn away from sin. And if not, there there is a punishment. Again, language we are kind of uncomfortable with in our modern times. But um the truth doesn't change with the trends. Uh we can do whatever we want. We're free to do that. But we can't choose the consequence. There's always a consequence to sin. And so during this Advent time, it's it's an opportunity to examine our hearts, go to confession and and repent. But more than that, we can also also then pray for others, our family members. She specifically talks about offering communion for other people. Have you ever done that? When you receive our Lord in holy communion, you can have this prayer in your heart. I offer the graces that I'm receiving for the conversion of my family, my son, my daughter, my husband, my wife, my grandchildren. The gift that you received at that time can now then be given. You become a vessel of grace. Like our lady was that vessel of grace. What she received, she gives to the world. At the enunciation, she receives Jesus within her. When we go forward to receive the Eucharist in a similar way that Mary did, we we receive Jesus physically, we share something with Mary sort of in that way. But what we have to do is be like Mary and then give Jesus to the world. Now, how we do that varies depending on our state of life. I'm assuming that you're probably you're a mom, you're a dad, you're a husband, you're a wife, you you're a grandma, a grandpa. Your first audience, your first mission field is those around you. not the world, those right in front of you. So offer your communions for their salvation. Another message that was here was the catechism of children passing the faith on to a younger generation. And boy, isn't that needed because there's great forces right now that are trying to deform our children. I just heard uh yesterday about this study regarding Netflix programming. Check this out. 41% of content on Netflix targeting children contains LGBTQ characters, themes, or messaging. So, kids who are watching Netflix are being deformed. Their innocence is being violated through unnecessary sexual information at an age that's just way too young. Children have this age of innocence that starts at the beginning of reason and leads up to the onset of puberty. Nobody talks about this. The age of innocence needs to be protected for children. And who needs to protect children? Adults. But adults are the ones that are pushing crazy def in sexual information that is harmful to their innocence. Uh and it's become so normalized that grandparents and parents and schools and priests and even bishops don't consider this. The age of innocence needs to be protected. Here's just a clear example. schools in Canada, Catholic schools in Canada have pride rainbow flags flying or pride rainbow posters in in elementary schools. How is this happening in Catholic institutions? Here's an example where uh sexual perversion is being normalized even within Catholic circles. How is this possible? We've lost our minds and no one seems to question this. So here in this advent, what we can do is we can go to our lady of champion and ask her intercession for reparation for the sins that we and others have committed, but also for the intercession of the katakesus of our children and the protection of their innocence. So with that, our lady of champion, pray for us. [Music]