Heroes with halos: Shrine celebrates saints in July 4 celebration
Archdiocesan archivist Julie Motyka staffs the Servant of God Bishop Simon Bruté exhibit on July 5 at the Catholic Saints of America celebration at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion in Champion, Wis. (Submitted photo)
CHAMPION, Wis. (OSV News)—A small churchyard amid Wisconsin farmland became the site of a big holiday celebration over the Fourth of July weekend.
There were no carnival rides, parades, apple pie or fireworks. Not even a brass band. It was, however, a gathering of families in faith.
The National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion hosted a celebration of Catholic Saints of America on July 1-9. With relics of 14 saints and blesseds, along with tents of displays from shrines and sainthood guilds around the country, the shrine celebrated what it means to be a Catholic in America.
“Yes, we are faithful citizens of the United States of America, but we are first of all, by baptism, Catholics,” Father of Mercy Nathanael Mudd, shrine chaplain, told OSV News. “And that identity, as sons and daughters of God by baptism, is always going to be more important.”
With that in mind, though, Father Nathanael added happily that “everybody came to Mom’s for the Fourth. Mary gathered all her children at her house for the Fourth.”
They celebrated other children who are now part of the Church triumphant in an exhibit that included 76 saints, blesseds, venerables and servants of God.
‘We are on a journey of faith together’
Julie Motyka, archdiocesan archivist, set up an exhibit highlighting the life of Servant of God Bishop Simon Bruté. She was happy to share information about the legacy of the first bishop of the Diocese of Vincennes (which later become the Archdiocese in Indianapolis).
“I believe it’s important for our local Church to participate in events like this because it serves as a way to remind Catholics in the United States that we are on a journey of faith together,” she said.
“It was really wonderful to meet people from around the country who were representing different sainthood causes, or who had traveled to the shrine to learn more about the saints. As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of our nation, it’s important to remember that the history of our nation and the history of the Catholic Church in America are intertwined.”
Most people attending the event, Motyka noted, had never heard of Bishop Bruté. Many of the questions were about his biography.
“The people who were familiar with Bishop Bruté were largely aware of him through his connections to the seminaries with which he was associated, including Mount St. Mary Seminary in Emmitsburg, [Md.], St. Mary Seminary in Baltimore, and Bishop [Simon] Bruté College Seminary in Indianapolis,” she said.
“A major piece of Simon Bruté’s legacy is the impact he had on educating the future priests of the United States, which began during his own time as a seminary professor and continues today.”
An exhibit of St. Mother Theodore Guérin, foundress of the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods in Indiana and the state’s first saint, was also featured. Providence Associate Amy Miranda and her son Isaac were among those who staffed the exhibit.
Michael and Angela Schmitt of Muskegon, Mich., brought their 7-month-old son to the event. They were surprised to learn that the saint shares their son’s name.
“We bought a Christmas ornament [at the gift shop] so we can tell Thedore about our visit,” Michael said.
‘Gather the children … and teach them’
Champion’s shrine honors the only Church-approved apparition of Mary in the United States. Adele Brice (also spelled “Brise”), a Belgian immigrant whose sainthood cause was formally opened in January, experienced visions of the Queen of Heaven in 1859. Brice was told: “Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation.”
With that call to “gather and teach” in mind, the shrine’s staff began a year ago to brainstorm about how the 250th anniversary of the United States could be a teaching moment. They decided first to organize a novena, or a nine-day prayer, for all Americans.
The shrine’s rector, Father of Mercy Tony Stephens, wrote the prayers. The novena concluded on July 9.
The centerpiece July 3-5 event became a family gathering to learn about men and women on the road to formal sainthood. Shrine staff and volunteers chose 76 individuals—to commemorate 1776—and to teach children as well as adults about the Catholic faith in America.
“The whole exhibit was designed with children in mind,” explained John Paul Brissette, the shrine’s communications director.
An estimated 15,000 visitors came from around the country, sharing stories and learning about their faith as lived by other members of the Catholic family.
Sharing the causes of brothers and sisters in faith
Father Sinclair Oubre, a member of the Merchant Marine and priest of the Diocese of Beaumont, Texas, rode his Harley from Port Arthur, Texas, to share about the cause of Capt. Leonard LaRue, who died in 2001 at age 87. A fellow Merchant Mariner, LaRue used his ship to save 14,500 Koreans in the evacuation of Hungnam in December 1950. LaRue later became a Benedictine with the name of Brother Marinus in St. Paul’s Abbey near Newton, N.J.
The Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in La Crosse, Wis., shared about Sister Thea Bowman, a servant of God. She was a dynamic preacher who never tired of sharing what it was like to be Black and Catholic.
Terri White of the Servant of God Nicholas Black Elk Guild in Rapid City, S.D., spoke of the Lakota catechist and former medicine man. On display was a “two roads map,” a pictorial tapestry Black Elk used to teach. “He brought over 400 into the faith and was godfather to 113,” White said.
Emily Finley of Grand Rapids, Mich., was delighted by Venerable Emil Kapaun, a U.S. Army chaplain who died in a Korean POW camp and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. “My grandfather’s name was Emil, and I had never seen that name until after he had passed and Father Emil became a venerable,” she said. “And so that was interesting to learn more about him.”
The shrine’s nine-day celebration coincided with the 130th anniversary of Adele Brice’s death on July 5, 1896. She is buried at the shrine.
While there were no holiday parades, there was a procession led by Bishop David L. Ricken of Green Bay, Wis., to Brice’s flower-laden grave following Sunday Mass. People paused to kneel and take photos at the site.
A model of ‘obedience to God’s will’
Many attendees left the weekend with prayer cards, rosaries and third-class relics. Others took memories. Some learned lessons.
Motyka was happy to highlight the life of Bishop Bruté, including of his early childhood during the French Revolution assisting priests in captivity by bringing them the Eucharist, detailing his friendship with St. Elizabeth Ann Seton once he arrived in America, and of his model of obedience to God’s will.
“Throughout his entire life, Simon Bruté ended up doing things he had not planned. He was called to the priesthood after studying to become a medical doctor, and he was called as a missionary to America when he had hoped to serve in Asia,” she said. “Simon Bruté especially did not want to be a bishop, as he did not think he was qualified. But he did all of these things in obedience to God’s will.
“I think this is the real way in which Bishop Simon Bruté serves as a model of holiness for all of us. We may not all be called to be priests or missionaries or bishops, but we are all called to discern the will of God in our lives.”
(Editor Mike Krokos contributed to this story) †