"Wherever the foot chanced to fall it rested on ashes." ~ The Great Peshtigo Fire, Adele Brice, and The Woman in the Trees

Servant of God Adele Brice surrounded by the children Our Lady called her to teach.

The National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion (originally known as Our Lady of Good Help), is the only formally approved Marian apparition site in the United States. Considering the site is near Green Bay, Wisconsin, I had at one time, in my profound ignorance, assumed that it must have something to do with the Packers various Super Bowl victories. 

But no. The site has nothing to do with Vince Lombardi, Brett Farve, or Aaron Rogers. It is much more closely associated with Our Lady, Star of the Sea, than Bart Starr. 

My general lack of knowledge about this shrine has been remedied to a reasonable degree by reading the novel The Woman in the Trees by Theoni Bell. This relatively recent work arrived among a box of books from TAN slated for our parish bookrack. I snatched it up immediately, suspecting that it would make for good Lenten reading. I was not disappointed.

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The Woman in the Trees sets out to tell the origin story of the Shrine of Our Lady of Champion through the eyes of a fictional immigrant girl from Belgium, Slainie Lafont. The story of the Shrine is told from an oblique angle which adds an enticing touch of mystery to the factual elements of the tale. Servant of God Adele Brice, the recipient of our Lady's apparition in 1859, is not one of the central characters of the book. Instead she flits in and out of the story like a guardian angel, arriving when she is most needed. Her impact on the main characters however, particularly Slainie and her irascible and immovably stubborn mother, is profound.

As a visionary, Adele does not follow the archetype set by the simple radiant beauty of Saint Bernadette. Nor does she appear like one of the wide-eyed innocents who received the locutions of Our Lady of Fatima. On the contrary, Adele had suffered a particularly horrible facial injury as a child which left her scarred and missing an eye. Yet despite her potentially frightening appearance, Adele persevered in the mission given to her by Our Lady to "gather the children in this wild country and teach them what they should know for salvation."

This novel is of that type of historical fiction that I enjoy the most in that it creates memorable characters and weaves them in, around, and through the history without making them a Pollyanna or secret genius without whom the defining events could not have happened. The novel entertains and informs at the same time. Best of all, it brings the history to life and makes the reader want to learn more about that newly settled woodland region of Wisconsin in the mid-19th century in general, and the Shrine of Our Lady of Champion in particular. Among the historical events that impact the story are the immigration of Walloons from Belgium to Wisconsin, the American Civil War, and most especially, the Great Peshtigo Fire of 1871.

If you've never heard of the Peshtigo Fire, you're not alone. Strangely enough, it happened on the same day—October 8, 1871—as the better remembered Great Chicago Fire. But as horrible as the Chicago fire may have been, the great Peshtigo Fire was much worse. In the space of 24 hours, the firestorm scorched an area of about 1.2 million acres of forest and farmland in eastern Wisconsin. The burn zone included several towns, and the fire moved so quickly, that thousands of people were unable to flee in time. The death toll was never fully determined. It was estimated that somewhere around 2,000 people were killed.

In the middle of the burn zone was the small shrine of Our Lady of Good Help and a few surrounding buildings. The shrine chapel itself was a small wooden structure which had been set up by the family of Servant of God Adele Brice at the spot where Our Lady had appeared to Adele as a young girl twelve years before. During the intervening years, as Adele's apostolate flourished, a convent and school building were added nearby the chapel. 

19th century engraving from Harper's Weekly showing the devastation wrought by the fire.

As the firestorm approached on October 8, many people from the surrounding farms and villages fled to the chapel. Led by Sister Adele, they prayed the Rosary, sang hymns, and processed around the chapel with the image of the Blessed Virgin before them. 

The great firestorm raged all around them. It burned the outside of the fence surrounding the shrine buildings—but proceeded no further. 

Early the next morning, a soaking downpour doused the fire.

When the smoke finally cleared, the area around the shrine was a scene of apocalyptic destruction. An eyewitness who very nearly lost his life in the fire, Father Peter Pernin, described the what he saw in Peshtigo when he returned three days after the fire:

About one o'clock in the afternoon, a car was leaving for Peshtigo, conveying thither men who went daily there for the purpose of seeking out and burying the dead. I took my place with them. The locomotives belonging to the Company, having been burned, were now replaced by horses, and we progressed thus till we came up with the track of the fire. We walked the rest of the way, a distance of half a league, and this gave me ample opportunity for examining thoroughly the devastation and ruin wrought, both by fire and by wind. Alas, as much as I had heard on the sad subject, I was still unprepared for the melancholy spectacle that met my gaze.

lt is a painful thing to have to speak of scenes which we feel convinced no pen could fully describe nor words do justice to. It was on the eleventh of October, Wednesday afternoon, that I revisited for the first time the site of what had once been the town of Peshtigo.

Of the houses, trees, fences that I had looked on three days ago nothing whatever remained save a few blackened posts still standing, as if to attest the impetuous fury of the fiery element that had thus destroyed all before it. Wherever the foot chanced to fall it rested on ashes. The iron tracks of the railroad had been twisted and curved into all sorts of shapes, whilst the wood which had supported them no longer existed. The trunks of mighty trees had been reduced to mere cinders, the blackened hearts alone remaining. All around these trunks, I perceived a number of holes running downwards deep in the earth. They were the sockets where the roots had lately been. I plunged my cane into one of them, thinking what must the violence of that fire have been, which ravaged not only the surface of the earth, but penetrated so deeply into its bosom. 

Then I turned my wondering gaze in the direction where the town had lately stood, but nothing remained to point out its site except the boilers of the two locomotives, the iron of the wagon wheels, and the brick and stonework of the factory. All the rest was a desert the desolation of which was sufficient to draw tears from the eyes of the spectator—a desert recalling a field of battle after a sanguinary conflict. Charred carcasses of horses, cows, oxen, and other animals lay scattered here and there. The bodies of the human victims—men, women, and children—had been already collected and decently interred, their number being easily ascertained by counting the rows of freshly-made graves. ("The Great Peshtigo Fire: An Eyewitness Account," Wisconsin Magazine of History, 1971)

Given the totality of the destruction, the fact that the shrine of Our Lady of Good Help survived intact has been considered by many to be a miraculous sign of God's mercy. 

The entirety of Fr. Pernin's account may be found at the link above and is well worth a read.

Also well worth reading is The Woman in the Trees. I highly recommend the novel for young readers of age 11 or 12 and older. It makes for a quick, easy, and satisfying read for adults as well—an ideal book to read aloud with your kids.

Click here to find out more about the Shrine of Our Lady of Champion.

Click here to learn about Adele Brice's cause for canonization.

The Youth Movement that Brought Catholicism to Korea

Korean scholars studying the Western Learning in the late 18th century. 

The host city for World Youth Day 2027 will be Seoul, South Korea. The fact that an American Pope will be presiding and that Korean culture generally is pretty popular in the US means that interest in attending should be pretty high among Americans. I suspect that some of my own kids may find their way over there for the event. 

This being the case, what better time for American Catholics to find out about the vibrant past and hopeful future of the Church in Korea? Seoul is a particularly appropriate site for WYD 2027 considering that Catholicism had its origins in Korea largely as the result of a youth movement.

Christianity got a comparatively late start on the Korean peninsula. The first murmurings of Catholic doctrine only arrived in Korea in the 18th century. This was largely due to the closed nature of the country during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1897). But that hasn't stopped Koreans from catching up quickly. At present, there are nearly 6 million Catholics in Korea, representing about 12% of the total population. 

Perhaps the most awe-inspiring aspect of the advent of Catholicism in Korea is that unlike practically every other country in the world, the Faith did not first arrive there courtesy of foreign missionaries. Indeed, foreigners were strictly forbidden from entering the Joseon kingdom. Though several French martyr-saints would play key roles later on, Catholicism would first emerge in Joseon based solely on the Holy Spirit-inspired intellectual curiosity of a few Korean scholars. 

Western literature began to filter into Korea in the mid-18th century, courtesy of embassies sent from the Joseon royal court to the imperial court of Qing Dynasty China. Interest in Western learning was particularly strong among the young members of noble families. Though brought up to follow the strict doctrines of neo-Confucianism which stressed right living and filial piety, these young scholars were eager to get their hands on anything related to the outside world.  

By the early 1780s, enough Western literature had reached Korea for scholars to set up study-groups to explore Western philosophy and religion. One of these scholars, a young man named Yi Seung-hun, joined an embassy to China. While in Peking, he found a French Catholic priest who instructed him in the Faith and baptized him, giving him the Christian name of Peter. 

Portrait of Peter Yi Seung-hun.

Peter Yi Seung-hun returned to Korea with a treasure trove of Catholic books, crucifixes and artifacts which he presented to his study group. These men were deeply impressed by some of the unique teachings of Catholicism, among them: that God not only exists but actually condescended to appear on Earth in the form of the man Jesus Christ; that all men possess an immortal soul; that a man's soul is destined either for eternal life of bliss in Heaven or eternal torment in Hell based on how well he follows the teachings of Christ in the Gospels.

Among the study group was a revered senior scholar named Yi Byeok who had encouraged Peter Yi to join the embassy to China in the first place. Upon reading the books brought back from China by Peter, Yi Byeok was convinced that Catholic teaching was true. He and several other members of the study group desired baptism and Peter did the honors.

What happened after that was again unique in the history of the Church. Based on their limited knowledge of Church practice, this first handful of Korean Catholics stood up their own church in imitation of the Catholic Church. This included the creation of bishops and priests, and the administration of the sacraments, including Holy Eucharist in a liturgical setting. This pseudo or improvised church endured for several years until in response to letters sent to China seeking guidance, the Korean Catholics were told that they could not celebrate the sacraments without properly ordained priests, and that priests could only be ordained by legitimate bishops.

From that point on, Korean Catholics would petition the Church to send priests and bishops to minister to them. Given that foreigners were absolutely forbidden from entering the Joseon kingdom except on official business with the court, and that any foreigners who attempted to enter without permission could be tortured and executed, it was exceedingly dangerous to attempt to smuggle a Catholic priest into the kingdom.

But what caused the new Korean Catholics the most distress was the instruction that the traditional form of Confucian ancestor worship, including the offering of food and drink to their deceased relatives, was a superstition that could not be reconciled with Catholicism. Failing to perform these rites made one unfilial and a public disgrace. For members of the upper class, the censures for such failures to revere their ancestors were more dramatic. By 1791, Korean Catholics who refused to perform the rites of ancestor worship were being condemned and executed.  

Many noble Catholics, Yi Byeok among them, refused to repudiate ancestor worship and subsequently abandoned the nascent Church. Those brave souls who remained were viewed with increasing suspicion and hostility by the Joseon court. By 1795, Catholicism was considered a subversive foreign religion disruptive to the harmony of the Joseon state, and the first larger scale persecutions of Korean Catholics erupted. 

The reigning monarch at the time was King Jeongjo, a rather high-minded ruler who tolerated a certain amount of internal dissent in the interest of national unity. The idea of kingdom-wide persecution of Korean Catholics would not fly as long as he was in power. During the reign of Jeongjo, a Chinese Catholic priest, Fr. James Zhou Wen-mo, managed to enter Joseon and it is estimated that the Catholic community in the country grew to nearly 10,000 adherents. Peter Yi Seung-hun, who had vacillated due to intense pressure from his family, remained one of the leaders of the Church at this time. Also among the leaders was a man named Alexius Hwang Sa-yeong.

Unfortunately, Jeongjo passed away in 1800. His successor was his 10 year-old son, Sunjo. This boy-king was under the thumb of his great grandmother, Grand Queen Dowager Yesun, who ruled Joseon as regent during Sunjo's minority. Yesun did not share the same scruples as Jeongjo when it came to Catholics. During her regency in 1801, the Shin-yu persecution was initiated, in part as a political maneuver to incriminate a rival faction at court that was more sympathetic to the Catholics. 

The Joseon court produced a edict entitled the Imperial Message Prohibiting the Evil Learning. In no uncertain terms, this document declared Catholic teaching to be in opposition to Confucianism, which was considered the True Learning. The followers of the Evil Learning would be forced to abandon it. As the edict itself declared:

All who disobey will be considered as rebels and guilty of high treason....[T]he head of each unit of five families shall immediately denounce any who persist in following the Evil Learning. All such persons are to receive condign punishment so as to root out the Evil Learning once and for all and to leave no trace of it remaining. [Kim & Chung: Catholic Korea: Yesterday and Today, p. 54-55].

Among the first victims of the Shin-yu persecution was Fr. Zhou who surrendered himself and was executed. Hearing about this event, Alexius Hwang Sa-yeong retreated to the mountains to escape capture. While in hiding, he composed the famous Silk Letter. Written on a sheet of silk roughly one foot by two feet, the Silk Letter was addressed to the Bishop of Peking and related the travails of the Korean Church. In 13,000 Chinese characters, the letter provided estimates of the numbers of Catholics in Korea, an account of the martyrdom of Fr. Chou and other Korean Catholics, and an appeal for help. Most critically, Alexius Hwang suggested that the Bishop enlist the help of the Qing Emperor of China and European nations to intervene with the Joseon court to protect Catholics.

The original Silk Letter of Alexius Hwang (Source)

The Silk Letter was never sent. Alexius Hwang was captured by Joseon government authorities and the letter was confiscated. Its contents seemed to prove the worst suspicions about Catholics. To the deeply isolationist Joseon court, the Silk Letter was incontrovertible evidence that Catholics were a subversive element who would not hesitate to appeal to foreign powers for aid against their own government. As a result, the Shin-yu persecution intensified. Alexius Hwang was found guilty of high treason, was executed and his body dismembered. His family was exiled. 

Peter Yi Seung-hun was also a victim of the Shin-yu persecution. Considered one of the leaders of the Catholic Koreans, he was arrested and tortured over the course of eight days and then executed. Since then, Peter Yi's status as a martyr or an apostate has been the subject of considerable debate. Very recently, the Korean Bishops' Conference declared him a Servant of God—the first step toward canonization.

By the time the Shin-yu Persecution subsided, the Joseon government had executed several hundred Catholics and exiled many more. It seems that a large number also apostatized. As the persecution had focused by design on educated Korean Catholics, the remnants tended to be from the poorer classes and survived in hiding in the provinces. 

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This would be the first of many persecutions that the young Church in Joseon would endure. This pattern of uneasy peace punctuated by periods of intense persecution was the world into which later notable Korean Catholics like Paul Jeong Ha-sang, Andrew Kim Dae-geon, Thomas Choe Yang-eop, and numerous others would soon be born. During the mid-19th century, thousands of faithful Korean Catholics would endure tremendous suffering before the age of martyrdom finally drew to a close after 1866. The victories, defeats, heroic deeds and heartbreaking betrayals of this time are brought to vivid life in Martyr of Blood, Martyr of Sweat: The Letters of Saint Andrew Kim Dae-geon and Thomas Choe Yang-eop, translated, edited, and annotated by Brothers Anthony and Han-yol of the Community of Taizé. If you'd like a good introduction to the early years of Catholicism in Korea, this collection of authentic letters by the first two native-born Korean priests is an excellent source and a very engaging read.

If you're not a big reader, some of the events related above are interwoven through the plot of the series, Yi San. This K-drama tells a romanticized but very poignant version of story of King Jeongjo in which Catholic Koreans and their status as pawns in the factional battles of the Joseon court are mentioned. The drama focuses on the early life of King Jeongjo and his romance with his favored Royal Consort. The main villain in the drama is Queen Dowager Yesun. If you have 70 hours or so to spare, I highly recommend it.

"It is everyone's duty to serve God." ~ The martyrdom of St. Lucia Park Hui-sun

Three saintly martyrs of Korea: St. Agatha Jeon (left), St. Lucia Park (center),
and St. Julietta Kim (right).

This post is the first in a series drawn from a new book entitled Martyrs of Blood, Martyrs of Sweat: The Letters of Saint Andrew Kim Dae-geon and Venerable Father Thomas Choe Yang-eop, as translated and edited by Brothers Anthony and Han-yol of the Community of Taizé, published by Arx Publishing.

This engrossing work contains all of the extant correspondence of these first two native Korean Catholic priests. Andrew Kim would go on to be martyred and later canonized a saint. Thomas Choe perished of exhaustion and sickness after ministering in his native land for over a decade. 

During their ministries, these two priests would encounter hundreds of secret Korean Catholics who strived to maintain their faith through periodic intense persecutions initiated by the neo-Confucian (and therefore very anti-Christian) Joseon court. These persecutions resulted in the imprisonment, impoverishment, torture and death of hundreds if not thousands of Korean Catholics, and impacted all levels of society.

Following is one example. Park Hui-sun (1801-1839) was born into a wealthy family and would be chosen by the Joseon court to serve as a court lady (Gungnyeo) to the royal family of King Sunjo (reign: 1800-1834). Distinguished by her beauty, wit, skill and prudence, she was promoted to the first rank among the Queen's handmaids. The rest of the story, as told by St. Andrew Kim in his Deeds of Several Important Martyrs of the Gihae Persecution of 1839, is as follows:

Click here for more info.

Lucia was a Gungnyeo, prudent and diligent in her manner, and her nature was always upright, and was outstanding among virgins. 

After her mother died, she was chosen by the royal court as a court maid and she entered the palace. She set an outstanding example for people with a noble life. When she was around 30, she heard about the Christian doctrine and she immediately accepted it. Then, knowing that she would be unable to follow a religious life in the court, she used illness as an excuse, and she was given permission to leave the palace, and she went to a acquaintance’s house to live. Because her father was extremely hostile and hated the Christian faith so much, she could not dare move into his house. 

She soon turned her family to the True God with her example and persuasion. She thanked God often and cherished Him deep in her heart. She regarded worldly fame and glory as nothing and diligently followed a life of faith. She was often engrossed in prayers and meditations, used crude clothing and poor food, and she struggled to discipline herself. She often recalled her Lord’s Passion and shed tears of gratitude. 

Eventually, when the persecution intensified, her entire family fled to a believer’s house. The satellites [servants and informers in the employ of government officers] noticed this and attacked the house. At that time, she acknowledged that this was God’s Providence, and she comforted and encouraged believers on the one hand, and treated the satellites very kindly on the other. 

Following the police official, she was taken to the Sagwancheong, the first court to interrogate criminals. There she confessed the Truth and was taken to the police court. 

The judge asked. “Why do you believe in Christianity while you are a court lady?” 

Lucia answered. “It is everyone’s duty to serve God.” 

Again Lucia was commanded to forsake God and betray other believers, but she refused. She was tortured, but in view of her bravery, she was taken to the Hyeongjo court and was subjected to severe torture. Her flesh was torn and her bones were exposed. As Lucia endured with constant perseverance, she rejoiced that she could, to some extent, imitate the suffering of Christ. After a few days, all her wounds healed completely and her health was restored. When this fact was confirmed, the satellites said that it was done by magic. 

During her punishment, she confused the enemies by explaining much of the Truth of the religion. The judge who had failed to make her apostatize eventually sentenced her to death. 

When Lucia was taken to her execution, she was so happy that she did not stop praying to God. Her head was cut off and she flew to her Lord. Her age was 39. [Martyr of Blood, Martyr of Sweat, pp. 135-6].

A second biography embellishing upon the above is also included in Martyrs of Blood, Martyrs of Sweat, among the writings of Ven. Thomas Choe Yang-eop.

Lucia Park Hui-sun was canonized a saint of the Catholic Church on May 6, 1984, by Pope St. John Paul II, along with her sister, Maria Park Keun-agi. 

A biography of St. Lucia from the Vatican website includes an additional anecdote from her life as a court maid, indicating that her youth and beauty caught the eye of the king. Despite the king's attention—a favor that every court maid coveted—Hui-sun rebuffed the king's advances out of respect for her patroness, the Queen. 

Upon hearing of this incident later on, Bishop Imbert, a martyr and saint in his own right, would remark: "This is an act of bravery and uprightness, the like of which has never been seen in Korea before."

Other related posts of interest:

• "I came out with a joyful heart and gave thanks to God." ~ Thanksgiving in luxury and in persecution
• Letter of Saint Andrew Kim Taegon (martyr) to Bishop Jean Joseph Ferréol, 1846
• Yi San - An enthralling Korean historical drama (with Catholics!)
• Our TV is Lousy and Now it Must Die! or, What the West Can Learn from South Korean Television