A life-sized statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe will visit The National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion next month as part of a worldwide tour.
The traveling Madre Peregrina (or “Pilgrim Mother”) sculpture – an image of the Virgin Mary – will be at the Catholic shrine March 6-11. It comes from the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, which is hosting the five-year tour in preparation for the 500th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe to St. Juan Diego in December 1531 on Tepeyac Hill in what is now Mexico City.
A one-hour “pilgrim experience” will be offered multiple times each of the six days the tour is at The National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion, the first and only approved Marian apparition site in the United States.
During each time slot, pilgrims will view a brief presentation, have time for quiet prayer and veneration and can submit prayer intentions to be carried to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico.
The full schedule is available at championshrine.org/guadalupe. Visitors do not need to sign up for a time. They are invited to just come.
An opening Mass celebrated by Green Bay Bishop David Ricken will begin the event at 11 a.m. March 6.
The international pilgrimage began in August in Chicago, where the statue drew over 35,000 people the first week. On tour in Wisconsin through April 22, it’s currently on its first stop, at the Basilica of Saint Josephat in Milwaukee through Feb. 25. Other visits in the state:
To learn more about each of the stops, go to guadalupewi.org.
Pilgrims travel from all over the world to pray at the sacred grounds of The National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion, where, according to the shrine’s website, a woman named Adele Brice saw the Holy Mother on Oct. 9, 1859.
The sanctuary and grounds were spared destruction from the 1871 Great Peshtigo Fire that killed thousands of people and burned 1.2 million acres, including those surrounding the shrine. In 2016, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops designated the grounds as a National Shrine.
It’s located about 20 miles from Green Bay.
Anticipated schedule in Champion
March 6: 11:30 a.m., opening Mass with Bishop David L. Ricken; pilgrim experience: 12:30, 2, 4, 6:30 p.m.; additional Mass: 5:30 p.m.
March 7-8: Pilgrim experience: 8:30 a.m., 12:30, 2, 4, 6:30 p.m.; Mass times: 9:30, 11:30 a.m.; 5:30 p.m.
March 9-11: Pilgrim experience: 12:30, 6, 6:30 p.m.; Mass times, 11:30 a.m., 5:30 p.m.
Kendra Meinert is an entertainment and feature writer at the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Contact her at 920-431-8347 or kmeinert@greenbay.gannett.com. Follow her on X @KendraMeinert.
This story was updated to add new information.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Life-sized statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe to visit shrine in Champion
Reporting by Kendra Meinert, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Green Bay Press-Gazette
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