Diocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin, Bishop David Ricken has asked the faithful to contribute evidence for the diocese’s investigation into whether Servant of God Adele Brice, a local 19th-century catechist who had visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary, should be canonized.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) voted in June 2024 in favor of opening Brice’s cause for canonization, as CatholicVote previously reported. At the time of the vote, Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, chairman of the Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance, emphasized that this cause of canonization, for a Marian visionary, has particular significance to faithful across the U.S. because the nation’s patroness is Our Lady, under the title of the Immaculate Conception.
In his Dec. 28, 2025, edict, the bishop states that the cause will look into “the life and heroic virtues as well as on the reputation of holiness and of signs of the Servant of God.”
The faithful can submit a personal testimony regarding Brice by mail to the Green Bay diocesan chancellor, Tammy Basten.
“This is the very first investigation into a life of a Catholic Christian living here in Northeastern Wisconsin, who lived and died here, that potentially could be a Canonized Saint,” diocesan priest Father John Girotti told FOX 11 News in a Jan. 5 report. “So, it’s very, very exciting for us.”
According to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion, which is in Champion, Wisconsin, Brice was born in 1831 in Belgium. At a young age, she became blind in her right eye due to an accident. Despite this suffering, she was joyful.
“Those who knew her best describe her cheerfulness, fervent piety, and simple religious ways,” the shrine explains.
After receiving her First Communion, Brice and several close friends promised Our Lady they would become religious sisters who would teach in Belgium; however, Brice’s parents decided later to move to America, making this promise difficult to fulfill.
Her confessor advised her to be obedient to her parents, trusting in the Lord’s will for her vocation. Her family moved to modern-day Champion, Wisconsin, with other Belgian settlers. In 1859, Brice had several visions of the Blessed Mother.
The third time Brice saw her, the Blessed Mother instructed Brice to pray for the conversion of sinners, emphasizing the need for them to convert and do penance. She also told Brice to teach children in America about the faith.
“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,” Our Lady told Brice.
After these apparitions, Brice carried out her mission of teaching, which she did for several years alone until other women joined her. Local families supported their community by building a convent, school, and chapel in 1861.
The shrine states that Brice “lived out her ministry with zeal and love of God and Mary.”
She died in 1896 and is buried in a cemetery at the shrine.
In 2009, Bishop Ricken opened a formal investigation into the apparitions and declared them “worthy of belief” a year later. The Shrine of Our Lady of Champion states that it is the site of the first and only approved Marian apparition in the U.S.