The Peshtigo Fire has always intrigued me, especially after learning the story of how the area where the Virgin Mary appeared in Champion, WI was spared from the blaze. I had read a lot about her apparition there, how the people fled to the Shrine and processed around the chapel with the statue of Mary, begging her help, and how that night the rains came. The next morning, the area surrounding the chapel grounds was all charred and laid waste, with the outer side of the fence black and burned, while within the fenced area the grass was vibrant green, and the fence still white, untouched by the fire. It was described as an emerald island in a desolate wasteland.
Somehow I wanted to read more about the fire itself, and on a recent trip to the Shrine, found an account written by Fr Pernin, an eyewitness survivor of the fire. The date of Mary’s first apparition to Adele Brise, the Belgian immigrant girl, was October 8, 1859, and the date of the Peshtigo Fire was that same day in October, in the year 1871. I brought the book home and read it that evening, caught up in the sheer horror described in it. It detailed the tragedy in a very graphic way, as Fr Pernin wrote of his sense of foreboding prior to the actual blaze, and then of the frantic effort to escape when the world around him exploded in flames of hurricane force. Railroad cars were tossed in the air, fire explosions were everywhere.
Although he was caught in the midst of this tremendous storm of fire, with people frantically seeking safety, he felt a certain inner calm that carried him to do what was necessary to save himself from the blaze. He took the tabernacle from the church on a wagon and was able to get to the river, where he pushed the wagon holding the tabernacle into the water.
As the firestorm swept through the area, everything was destroyed. People were bursting into flame with bodies everywhere – his descriptions are horrific. After the rain finally came and the fire stopped, he found the tabernacle untouched, carried by the wind and set upon some logs in the river ~ the consecrated Host inside was intact, and even the silk interior was preserved unscathed.
Perhaps what has drawn me so powerfully to this account are the mounting prophetic words about the state of our world today, and the firestorm of God’s wrath that may come through war or some other horror. Mary’s persistent pleas, from Fatima, from Medjugorje, and other apparition sites keep calling for prayer, especially the rosary. Mary is called the tabernacle where Jesus resides, the only safe harbor amidst the escalating evil.
The word that came after Adoration on Monday warned that when we may no longer have Christ present for us in the Eucharist, when our churches may be closed, when our priests may be gone, we will always have Mary and the rosary. October 7th is the feast of the Holy Rosary, celebrated one day before the dates of the Fire and of the Apparition. This sequence of events calls me to pray it often, and to do what I can to help others in their relationship with the Blessed Mother, our refuge in time of trial, who can bring us to Jesus. The Marian Servant community is a graced vehicle to help others find safety in this time of spiritual drought, when the landscape is becoming tinder dry and the winds of the evil one are escalating.
This doesn’t bring me anxiety or fear, but rather a strong desire to help others find refuge in the womb of Mary, beneath her Immaculate Heart, cradled there with Jesus. Fr Bonifice Hicks’ Consecration to Mary has helped me to envision this place of safety, and to enter into it spiritually.
His prayer of Entrustment to the Womb of Mary follows:
Almighty God, Heavenly Father, who have placed me, by Baptism, in the womb of the Virgin Mary beneath her Immaculate Heart to be together with her Son and ever more conformed to Him by the power of the Holy Spirit, grant that I may whole-heartedly embrace my dependence on you as I place all my trust in my Mother Mary. May I never scorn my weakness which your Son chose to share with me, but may I always be grateful to be little and helpless, knowing that without you I can do nothing. Veiled with her beneath the protective care of Saint Joseph her spouse, may I find in her a refuge against every danger and in her womb a hiding place invisible to the ancient foe. May I know that I am loved perfectly like Jesus by Joseph and Mary, those parents who, receiving everything from You, will always provide for all of my needs, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.
There may be more pieces coming together as this story unfolds. For now, I’m heading for the Shrine on October 8th to commemorate the anniversary of the Apparition, to join in the candlelight procession, and to give thanks to God, through the hands of Our Lady of Good Help, for the many blessings received from her intercession. May the Fire of His Merciful Love fall upon the earth and bring peace to the hearts of all His people….
Spiritual Sun Pennies 