Great Peshtigo Fire

I’ll bet you’ve never heard of St. Polycarp (A.D. 69 -155) or the Wisconsin Great Peshtigo Fire in 1871. Not many have, and few understand their connection. Let’s remedy this.

St. Polycarp

In the first century Smyrna was a major port city on the east coast of Turkey and a Christian center when Polycarp (AD 69-155) was bishop. Polycarp was a disciple of the apostle John and, along with Clement of Rome and Ignatius of Antioch, is considered one of the principle Fathers of the Church. In addition to learning from John, Polycarp was also in communion with others who had seen and heard Jesus. During his time as bishop he endured persecutions, culminating in his martyrdom at the age of 86.

St Polycarp’s death was described in a letter from the Church at Smyrna to the Church at Philomelium. The letter describes how Polycarp, who knew that he would be burned alive, endured his martyrdom. First, he was pressed to deny Christ, and promised that if he did so he would be saved. He refused and said, “How then can I blaspheme my King and my Savior?” The Romans then said they would set wild beasts upon him and when that threat didn’t produce the desired effect, they proclaimed that he would be burned alive. Polycarp responded, “You threaten me with fire which burns for an hour, and after a little is extinguished, but are ignorant of the fire of the coming judgment and of eternal punishment, reserved for the ungodly. But why do you tarry? Bring forth what you will.”

The letter describes what happened next:

“Those who were appointed for the purpose kindled the fire. And as the flame blazed forth in great fury, we, to whom it was given to witness it, beheld a great miracle, and have been preserved that we might report to others what then took place. For the fire, shaping itself into the form of an arch, like the sail of a ship when filled with the wind, encompassed as by a circle the body of the martyr. And he appeared within not like flesh which is burnt, but as bread that is baked, or as gold and silver glowing in a furnace. Moreover, we perceived such a sweet odor [coming from the pile], as if frankincense or some such precious spices had been smoking there.”

The martyrdom of St. Polycarp

Finally, they pierced him with a dagger and Polycarp died. All quotations are taken from “The Martyrdom of Polycarp” in the Catholic Encyclopedia.

In 1871 the miracle of an encircling but non-consuming fire was repeated in the USA  when the saving hand of God dramatically revealed itself in a five-acre area about ten miles northeast of Green Bay, Wisconsin. This miracle is commemorated as the National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help, but had its genesis some years earlier in Belgium, Adele Brise’s country of birth.

Adele Brise – 1859

Adele Brise was born in 1831 and because of a childhood accident was blind in one eye. Although she had no formal education, Adele made a commitment with several of her girlfriends to enter a religious missionary order. Her friends kept their commitment, but in obedience to her parents Adele immigrated to the USA with them and her three siblings in 1855. They settled on 240 acres about 15 miles northeast of present-day Green Bay.

On October 8, 1859 Adele was going to a grist mill when she saw a lady all in white standing between two trees, one a maple and other a hemlock. Nothing was said and the vision slowly disappeared.

The closest Catholic Church was eleven miles away and on October 9th, on her way to Mass, and accompanied by her sister and a neighbor, the Lady appeared again at the same place. The other two could not see anything, but they could tell by Adele’s look that she was frightened. After a few minutes the vision disappeared, just as it had the day before.

After Mass, Adele told the priest about her vision and how frightened she had been. He told her that if it were a heavenly messenger, she would see it again, not be frightened, and ask in God’s name who it was and what it desired of her.

On her return home after Mass she was again accompanied by her sister and a neighbor, and this this time they were joined by a laborer who was working for the church. For the third time Adele saw the Apparition. She fell to her knees:

“‘In God’s name, who are you and what do you want of me?’ asked Adele, as she had been directed.

“‘I am the Queen of Heaven, who prays for the conversion of sinners, and I wish you to do the same. . . .’

“‘What more can I do, dear Lady?’ said Adele, weeping.

“‘Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation.’

“‘But how shall I teach them who know so little myself?’ replied Adele.

“‘Teach them,’ replied her radiant visitor, ‘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.’”

 And that was it. No more appearances, but for the remainder of her life until she died in 1896 Sister Adele Brise was faithful to this mission. She was faithful to her commitment made years earlier in Belgium. She started to visit homes within a fifty-mile radius and began instructing children in the faith.

Several single women offered to assist Adele and, before long they formed a religious community called the Sisters of Good Help. With their assistance and the help of a devoted priest Adelle raised sufficient funds so that by 1867 they were able to open a school. The sisters also had a tiny shrine chapel, ten feet by twelve, that had been built by Adele’s father on the site of the apparitions. A larger one was completed before the opening of the school. The last thing the sister had constructed was a convent. By 1871, the school, St. Mary’s Academy, had 95 boarding students, many of whom were orphans.

The Great Peshtigo Fire

On October 8, 1871, the 12th anniversary of the first visitation by the Blessed Virgin to Adele, the worst fire disaster in United States’ history occurred. An area twice the size of Rhode Island was destroyed by raging infernos. About one-half of the 2,000 inhabitants of Peshtigo, Wisconsin died. The number of casualties in the affected areas was estimated to be between 1,400 and 2,500. An immense wall of fire, five miles wide, devastated forests and towns as it raced along, sucking in the fueling oxygen from an incoming cold front, and causing what is called a ‘firestorm’ with hurricane-force winds of 90-100 miles per hour. This inferno is known as The Great Peshtigo Fire, and was a wildfire of immense proportions with hurricane force winds and 2,000-degree temperatures. Nothing in its path survived and it was headed right for the Chapel of Our Lady of Good Help. The following quotation appears is taken from Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help:

“Unable to fight it and with no hope of outrunning it, the people headed for the only place they could think of – the church. The compound was now about five acres in size and enclosed by a white picket fence. No one knows how many people eventually crowded in but it was a large number. They brought their livestock too and there were reports that forest animals were also inside the fence.

“With the fire bearing down on them, Sister Adele led them in prayer.  They said the Rosary.  They kneeled in prayer at the altar. They walked around the chapel in a processional with a statue of Mary lifted high and pleaded for salvation. Soon the fire was all around them.  Flames arched over the compound.  People watched nearby farms explode in flames. The outside of the picket fence was charred black.  Before this night was over, the heat, the flames, the smoke, the poisoned air and the flying debris would destroy 1,000 square miles of old growth forest, kill 2,500 people and incinerate at least a dozen communities. It was the largest and deadliest fire in American history – before or since – but the Chapel of Our Lady of Good Help was spared.”

As night progressed, the air grew hotter and hotter as they prayed and prayed for help from the Queen of Heaven. Suddenly, a cool wind blew in from the west. At daybreak it began to rain and the rain became a downpour. The miraculous hand of God intervened, and the fire was extinguished.

The worst firestorm in USA history left a scene of total devastation – nothing but charred remains and ashes. In the middle of this total destruction was the green oasis of Our Lady of Good Help and her protected five acres. The surrounding land was destroyed by the fire, but the chapel and the five acres proved to be a sanctuary from hell’s fury. They alone remained untouched. All the people that had taken refuge were unharmed. Theirs was the only patch of safety in the encircling fire. Just as God reached down and saved Polycarp from the encircling flames some 1,700 years earlier, he did it once again – this time just a few miles from the future home of the Green Bay Packers. See the first person account by Reverend Peter Pernin, the parish priest for Peshtigo and nearby Marinette, whose churches burned to the ground. He published his account of the fire in 1874, republished in 1999 as The Great Peshtigo Fire: An Eyewitness Account (Wisconsin).

First approved Marian apparition in the USA

The appearances by the Blessed Virgin to Adele Brise in 1859 was approved by the Catholic Church on December 8, 2010 when the bishop of Green Bay, affirmed:

 “I declare with moral certainty and in accord with the norms of the Church that the events, apparitions and locutions given to Adele Brise in October of 1859 do exhibit the substance of supernatural character, and I do hereby approve these apparitions as worthy of belief (although not obligatory) by the Christian faithful. I encourage the faithful to frequent this holy place as a place of solace and answered prayer.” For the past hundred years miracles, cures, and conversions have abounded at this holy site in Champion, Wisconsin. Our Lady of Good Help Shrine is now, officially, the first approved site in the United States for a Marian apparition.

Lourdes is unique in that some of the miracles reported there are exhaustively studied over a number of years and sometimes decades. Most remain unexamined, as do all the reported miracles associated with Our Lady of Good Help. Nevertheless, there have been numerous miraculous cures reported.

The Great Chicago Fire

The Great Chicago Fire provides an interesting, but somewhat unrelated, footnote to The Great Peshtigo Fire.

The fire that history records as being important on that October 8th occurred not in Wisconsin, but in Chicago, some 200 miles south. Legend has it that it was kicked off by an infamous cow. The fire destroyed four squares miles, killing 250 people. Ninety thousand were left homeless. Father Arnold Damen was the pastor of Holy Name Church on Chicago’s north side. At the time of the fire he was in Brooklyn, New York. When he was informed of the Chicago fire and that his parish and church were in the projected path. Father Damen knelt before the altar and begged the Lord to spare his parish. As he was praying the winds shifted, sending the flames in another direction.

Was this the intervening hand of God to help his faithful? Are the inexplicable healings reported at Our Lady of Good Hope miraculous gifts from God? We can’t know, but the coincidence is noteworthy. If we are doubters, these inexplicable cures and the story of Father Damen’s intercession will not persuade; if we believe, they only confirm what we already knew.

Believe to understand.

Some websites and references

Footnotes and Attributions

The martyrdom of St. Polycarp print retrieved from the Church Pop website.

Last modified July 27, 2019