On Sunday, April 15, 1858, an immigrant girl named Adele Brisse was walking to church a few miles northeast of Green Bay when suddenly, between two trees, a blinding light knocked her to her knees.

The light took the shape of "a marvelously beautiful lady, clothed entirely in dazzling white garments," and left her frightened and confused.

When it happened again six months later, she cried out, "In the name of God, who are you and what do you wish of me?" The visionary woman told her to found a religious school for the rural children.

Although Adele felt unqualified, a neighbor donated land around the site of her visions. Adele's father built a tiny wooden chapel and she began taking students in a one-room schoolhouse.

Soon miracle cures began to be reported, and a collection of discarded crutches and canes piled up behind the chapel's altar.

On Oct. 9-10, 1871, the massive Peshtigo Fire spread through 400 square miles of northeastern Wisconsin. Most residents fled to the lakeshore for refuge, but Adele and her students called on divine power for protection. Flames devastated the neighborhood and spread right up to the fence surrounding their enclave but did not leap over it.

The next day Adele's wooden school and church stood out like an island in the charred landscape.

Descriptions of cures and divine intervention continued, earning the little church the nickname "Wisconsin's Lourdes."

Adele Brisse died in 1896, but the chapel and school are still there, now known as Our Lady of Good Help, in New Franken.

— Wisconsin Historical Society
www.wisconsinhistory.org

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