Now, 117 miles nearly due south of that spot, the Apparition of Our Lady of Good Help has come to St. Stanislaus Oratory, the mother church of the south side of Milwaukee.
The only one of its kind in the world
Part of an ambitious restoration spearheaded by the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest (ICKSP), the very first restored stained glass window in the nave of their Milwaukee Oratory church is of Our Lady of Good Help. It is thought to be the only one of its kind in the world, and is faithful to the account of the moment when Our Lady spoke to Adele in the dark woods that October Sunday in 1859. (See ‘Adele’s Story and the Strange Fire’’ here.)
St. Stanislaus is home to the daily Latin Mass – and now it's home to Our Lady of Good Help, too.
One upon a time, in the primeval woods
Conrad Schmitt Studios commissioned for the ongoing artistic restoration of the church, researched the apparition of Oct. 9, 1859, and the days leading up to it, to render an image faithful to what that visit from the Queen of Heaven must have looked like in the woods at the base of the Green Bay peninsula.
And they got it right.
Adele is in a long black wool gown and cloak with a stiff bonnet. There is a yellow sash about Blessed Mother's waist and Her golden hair is falling loosely about Her shoulders.
And the trees.
"We wanted to capture the leaves that were there in October, because Our Lady appeared between two trees, specifically, a maple and a hemlock," said Heidi Emery, vice president of Conrad Schmitt Studios.
And so, the needles of the hemlock and October maple leaves arch above Our Lady. The forest path and the deep forest look like something out of 'Hansel and Gretel.'
Vincent Zager, studio glass artist who helped research the apparition and then helped make the window, along with many others, removed some of the blue sky glass from between the trees, to render the gloam and depth of the woods.
"I saw that there was just too much blue sky there, and took some out so that the woods looked deeper and denser, like it would have looked on that day," he said.
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