The Chapel:
Surrounded by dairy farms and fields of corn, oats and soybeans, The Chapel of Our Lady of Good Help stands humbly, yet majestically, in a quiet and beautiful spot of rural Northeast Wisconsin. The Chapel was the first house of worship in the Belgian settlement…and it all began when Adele Brise’s father erected a 10-foot-by-12-foot oratory near the spot of Adele’s vision of Our Blessed Mother. A small picture of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, given to Adele by Father William Verhoef, was the only adornment of this makeshift chapel. As news of the apparitions spread, pilgrims arrived almost daily to the oratory, making it apparent that the structure was too small to accommodate the faithful. In 1861, the settlers—with the help of Adele’s father, Lambert Brise, and a donation from Mrs. Isabella Doyen of five acres of land around the holy knoll—built a 24-foot-by-40-foot Chapel. According to a description of the Chapel reported in the Kewaskum Enterprise, the building was capable of seating about 100 people, and the inscription over the entrance of the Chapel read “Notre Dame de bon Secours, priez pour nous.”