Before an individual can be canonized a saint, the local bishops need to investigate their life and discern if he or she lived with “heroic virtue.”
At their June Plenary Assembly, the US Bishops gave their approval to pursue the beautification and canonization of Adele Brise.
Adele is the visionary who reportedly saw the Virgin Mary in a forest in Wisconsin, and the Church built on the location of her vision is the only locally approved apparition site in the United States.
Bishop David Ricken of the Diocese of Green Bay spoke to Catholic News Agency and explained how she is a saint for our modern times:
She’s really current for now because we’re facing the same problems. People not knowing the faith, people having fallen away from the Church. She’s a model for us of what it means to be an evangelizing catechist. She’s very pertinent for today as well
Adele’s mission
When the Virgin Mary appeared to Adele, she told her to teach children where she was located:
Gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation.
Adele recalled her promise and traveled all throughout Eastern Wisconsin, teaching children. She eventually gathered like-minded women around her and lived in a lay community as members of a third order (the reason she is depicted in a religious habit, though a layperson).
Only the beginning
This would be the beginning of a possible cause for canonization, as Adele’s life would need to be closely examined to determine if she lived a life of “heroic virtue.”
The fact that she may have received a private revelation from the Virgin Mary is not automatic grounds for canonization.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church offers a brief explanation behind the Church’s canonization process:
By canonizing some of the faithful, i.e., by solemnly proclaiming that they practiced heroic virtue and lived in fidelity to God’s grace, the Church recognizes the power of the Spirit of holiness within her and sustains the hope of believers by proposing the saints to them as models and intercessors.
CCC 828
If it is shown that Adele lived a life of heroic virtue, her cause would be sent to the Vatican, who could then name her “venerable.”
And today we celebrate...