Did Adele Brise belong to a religious community?

While she was called 'Sister,' Brise was actually member of secular third order

While they were known as the Sisters of Good Help, were addressed as "Sister" and wore a modified habit, these women were not a religious community. They were instead a secular third order: non-vowed lay women who had chosen to live together, following, by most accounts, the Franciscan way of life.

(Adele called the Chapel, La Chapelle. The words Notre Dame de bon Secours, priez pour nous — "Our Lady of Good Help, pray for us" — were inscribed above the door of the 1861 chapel. Some translated secours as "health" and called the women the "Sisters of Good Health.)

In 1867, the women opened a school alongside the chapel. Two years later, they were advertising their boarding school, "St. Mary's Academy." They soon had many students, some of whom were orphans.

"Sister" Adele never took vows in a religious community, though some of her companions later did. The final two members of her group — Celina Londo and Cecilia Frisque — joined the Sisters of St. Francis of the Holy Cross at Bay Settlement in 1903.

The Bay Settlement Sisters took responsibility for the chapel and its school in 1902. They did so six years after Adele's death, at the request of Bishop Sebastian Messmer. They served there until 1992.

"Sr." Adele and her companions lived as a third order community. Third orders, sometimes called tertiaries, are lay people linked to a specific religious order, such as the Franciscans or Dominicans. When discussing religious communities, those in the "first order" are priests; "second order" are those who are cloistered; and "third order" members live "in the world."

More details at The Compass

She's still Sister Adele to me.

Christmas pilgrimage to Robinsonville Shrine

Here's a special supplement to our most recent edition of Among Women 83, with theology prof, Dr. Maura Hearden, on the subject of Our Lady of Good Help Shrine in Robinsonville, WI,  a recently approved Marian apparition in the Diocese of Green Bay. If you've heard the episode, you know that Maura and I discussed some theological teachings about the Blessed Mother, and then we came around to talking about this Shrine, most recently in the news.

Among Women

Crutches on the wall are a sample of the hundreds that 

have been left at the shrine after healing miracles.

This is where Adele now rests.

Sister Adele reminded bishop he was responsible for souls

Bp Joseph Melcher

As one discovers when studying the stories of those canonized and beatified by the Church, lives blessed by an extraordinary amount of holy intercession are often lives bearing much suffering, tests and trials…circumstances which not only strengthen those receiving such intercession emotionally, but also spiritually. Sister Adele’s life proved to follow that course of courage and struggle.

Once the story of the apparition was out, and pilgrimages and religious celebrations began to take place, avaricious and pleasure-seeking individuals took the opportunity to exploit the crowds who came to the Chapel. A variety of vendors set up business outside the Chapel grounds, over which Adele had no control, serving only to sully the solemnity of the feast of the Assumption and the Church. Such dealings threw a bad light on Adele and fueled the opposition of some of the clergy who believed her story a myth. Those who noted these irregularities pointed them out to the first Bishop of Green Bay, Joseph Melcher. Despite the lack of clear information and a complete understanding of the matter, Bishop Melcher placed an interdict on the Chapel. Sister Adele was refused the Sacraments and threatened with excommunication should she continue to tell her story of the apparition.

On one occasion, when Adele attended Sunday Mass with the children at a church a mile west of the Chapel, Adele found the pews closed against her. Adele heard Mass kneeling in the aisle.

Later, Bishop Melcher reconsidered and decided to visit the Chapel, accompanied by two physicians to test Sister Adele’s sanity. However, after protests by the vendors around the Chapel, the Bishop changed his mind on the visit, and commanded Sister Adele to close the school and the Chapel, and bring him the keys to both. After accomplishing the safe return home of her students, and after buying an acre of land near the Chapel to build a home to continue her commissioned duty to Our Lady, Sister Adele obeyed the Bishop’s command, reminding him that he would be responsible for the souls lost due to the lack of proper religious instruction. Impressed by her sincerity and zeal[to say the least!], the Bishop returned the keys to Sister Adele in order to continue her mission.

Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help

Last words of Sister Adele Brise

Sister Adele (seated at right) and two companions
wearing habits as described by Eliza Allen Starr.

“We went into the Chapel and prayed. I can still see the calm, serene and happy look on the face of the good Sister as if a light from heaven shone upon her."

On July 5, 1896, Sister Adele Brise uttered her last words: “I rejoiced in what was said to me. We shall go into the house of the Lord”.

She died that day, and was laid to rest near the Chapel. A simple tombstone bears the following in French: "Sacred Cross, under thy shadow I rest and hope. Sister Marie Adele Joseph Brise Died July the 5th, 1896 At the age of 66 years.” 

Shrine

HT Spirit Daily

Bishop Ricken may confirm Robinsonville apparitions Dec 8

The scheduled appearance of Bishop David L. Ricken of Green Bay, Wisconsin, at a shrine that commemorates a reputed apparition has raised speculation that the alleged phenomenon may have been elevated a further step in the approval process, or may even meet with formal approbation.

So far, there is no firm information on what the bishop has decided, what he will proclaim, or why he will be at the shrine on that particular day.

The bishop is set to celebrate Mass on December 8 at the chapel in Robinsonville where -- in 1859 -- a third-order religious named Adèle Brisé reported three apparitions of the Blessed Mother, who gave Adèle the mission of teaching the catechism to the young and warned of a coming chastisement. The final apparition was on October 9. Twelve years later -- to the week -- a horrific wildfire destroyed tens of thousands of acres, sparing only the spot of the apparition when it swept to that locale northeast of Green Bay.

The matter has been under study by a special diocesan commission and according to sources that investigation is winding toward a conclusion. We ask prayers for this shrine and event.

While he makes an annual appearance there on August 15, the Mass comes not only in December -- on another great Marian feast day, the Immaculate Conception -- but is closed to the general public (invitation-only for 260, which is all the chapel there can accommodate, though the grounds themselves will be open).

The fact that no apparition has ever been fully approved in the more than 234-year history of the United States has often baffled observers in light of the hundreds approved in Europe, especially France, Spain, Italy, and Germany. Dozens more have met with approval in other nations. Canada also is without a formal pastoral letter for a Marian appearance. Mexico has a number of approved sites, the most famous of which is Guadalupe near Mexico City. 

The rest from Spirit Daily

As I already mentioned, Bishop Ricken WILL CONFIRM the apparitions.  I have heard he has been looking for an opportune time in December or January.  It looks like this might just be it. 

The next step might be to pursue the cause of sainthood for Sister Adèle Brisé who was the seer of the three apparitions. 

I also heard that in the 1930s the Shrine would get crowds of 10-20 thousand on the anniversary of the apparitions.  It's time us Sconnie's renew that tradition.