In 2019, Bishop David Ricken of the Diocese of Green Bay wanted to establish a Medical Association for the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion in Wisconsin, the only Church-approved Marian apparition site in the United States.
The purpose was, similar to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in France, to investigate testimonials of potential miracles associated with Champion from over the years.
Enter Joe Sanders, a knight in the Order of Malta and a parishioner at St. Philip the Apostle Church in Pasadena.
So how did a Catholic living in Southern California end up helping lead investigations into miraculous healing at a national shrine in Wisconsin?
It can be traced to the Order of Malta’s annual pilgrimage to Champion, where members and special guests from Southern California returned in August.
“It’s just been a labor of love for me, not being a medical doctor, but loving the Church, loving the shrine, try[ing] to publicize the shrine, bring[ing] people there as a place of healing,” Sanders said.
The history of Our Lady of Champion
In 1859, a 28-year-old Belgian immigrant woman named Adele Brice, also spelled Brise, experienced three separate incidents in the rural area of what is now Champion, Wisconsin, seeing a blonde woman in white standing between two trees, wearing a gold sash and a crown of stars. After confiding in a priest after one of the visions, she was told to approach the woman in the name of God and ask what she wanted
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