The Blessed Mary
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While the 2024 National Eucharistic Congress has passed, its support of contemporary sacred art will continue to nourish us, especially in a gorgeous painting it commissioned for the event. Our Lady of Champion, by Gwyneth Thompson-Briggs, is a stunning depiction of the only Church-approved Marian apparition in America. Unveiled during the Congress, the painting will find a permanent home at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion, where pilgrims describe being washed over with a sense of peace as they stand on the exact spot where Mary appeared.
But who is this Lady? As Thompson-Briggs reflects, “I knew nothing about Our Lady of Champion, and Adele Brise, and I think that’s true for many Americans. We’re far more likely to have a devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Fatima, and Our Lady of Lourdes.”
The Blessed Mother has appeared to us throughout history and all over the world, and always finds ways to come to us when we need her. In 1859, Adele Brise, a Belgian immigrant, was visited three times by a Woman in White in the autumn woods of Champion, Wisconsin. The story of this apparition, dormant for all these years, was given formal and official approval in 2010, and in 2015, the site of the apparition was designated as the National Shrine. Like a magnificat, the devotion to Our Lady of Champion keeps widening: in June of 2024, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops gave support for the advancement of the cause of beatification and canonization of Adele Brise on the dicesan level.
Catholics who embrace the practice of Visio Divina (“sacred seeing”) draw closer to God through the masterpieces of Fra Angelico, Leonardo Da Vinci, Fillippo Lippi, Henry Ossawa Tanner, and countless others. These artists render Mary, the Saints, the Christ Child, the angels, all with perfect faces of holiness. What is so extraordinary about Thompson-Briggs depiction is that while she exquisitely captures Mary’s radiance and grace, she also did not mask Adele’s scars from a childhood accident with lye that left her blind in one eye. It’s rare, in sacred art throughout Western history and in contemporary work, to find a damaged face such as this. But one Baroque Spanish artist took a different approach: Velasquez, Thompson-Briggs favorite painter.
She shares, “I loved his depictions of dwarves, and the disfigured. He gives them dignity. We want to idealize holy individuals. I wanted Adele to be herself, in her blindness. During one of the apparitions, her friends could not see Our Lady.” But the half-blind girl did. Even with her visual impairment, “Adele is blessed with seeing. There is so much inspiration. We too, have blindness.”
Not only is there inspiration, this image offers us hope and comfort. As we hone in on Adele’s left eye that sees, it is darkened by shadow. But the damaged part of her is fully illuminated by Our Lady’s dazzling light. We, too, can bring our childhood wounds, hurts, and injustices to the Blessed Mother. We have nothing that needs to be kept hidden; we can bring our full, broken selves to her. Just as Christ welcomes all our burdens, so does his mother.
Thompson-Briggs has used her immense gifts to paint a Blessed Mother with the softness and maternal gentleness we so need. “That gold, I fell in love with her sash,” she says. Our Lady of Champion is also draped in an airy, pearl-colored veil. “The veil, the shrouding. Her brilliance needs to be heavenly, a barrier between us and Our Lady. It shows how there is always more to know--you never reach her fully.”
And yet she is always here, imparting in this apparition to teach children of the faith, and to “Go and fear nothing, I will help you.” The painting powerfully synthesizes all the elements of the three apparitions--including the Eucharist overtones with Adele cradling the bundle of wheat--- into one whole, useful image for our world today. There is so much suffering, especially from the pain in our childhoods, and in the challenges of the years that have passed. In Our Lady of Champion, the face of Adele is the face of us all, gazing up at Our Mother who will heal and guide us within the light of her love.
National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion with Image of Painting:
https://championshrine.org/national-eucharistic-congress-art-collaboration-with-champion-shrine/
Gwyneth Thompson-Briggs website:
https://gwyneththompsonbriggs.com/galleries
Beatification of Adele Brise:
Maureen O’Brien is the author of two spiritual memoirs from Franciscan Media: “What Was Lost: Seeking Refuge in the Psalms” and the most recent, “Gather the Fragments: My Year of Finding God’s Love” She can be found on Instagram at maureen_obrien_writer.
