Champions of the Rosary

In 1859, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to a young woman named Adele Brise. Mary gave Adele a special mission: “To gather the children to the wild country to teach them what they needed to know for their salvation.” A chapel was built in honor of Our Lady of Good Help in the place where she appeared.

Champions of the Rosary introduces us to siblings Philip, Elizabeth, and John, who attend catechism classes with Sr. Adele Brise. Together, with their older brother James, they witness the raging Peshtigo Fire of 1871.

What will become of the chapel of Our Lady of Good Help? Will the children overcome their fear to reach safety? Champions of the Rosary is an exciting, inspiring story based on real-life events that will remind readers of the miraculous power of the Rosary.

Recommended for ages 10 and up.

 

Laurie Schmitt is the author of Lepanto’s Lady. She is a veteran homeschooling mother of nine who lives with her family in rural Wisconsin.

 

“This thrilling tale of adventure, danger, and good and evil will capture the attention of those interested in an intriguing historical true story. Champions of the Rosary is a good read-aloud for the whole family that encompasses the physical and emotional reality of life in Wisconsin in the mid-1800s.”

Nancy Carpentier Brown, Author of The Father Brown Reader

 

It will take time to spread the story of Our Lady of Good Help so that she is as well-known as other Marian apparitions, but Schmitt has done her part admirably with this charming book for young readers. She perfectly captures the marriage of the miraculous and the ordinary, showing how the supernatural can pierce its way into the lives of ordinary people, if only they have the faith to believe. Our Lady’s stories at Fatima, Lourdes, and Guadalupe possess a romance that we Americans may wrongly assume to be lacking within our borders, but this story demonstrates the Mother of God spreads her Son’s love everywhere . . . even to a simple town in the Midwest.”

Brian Kennelly, Author of To the Heights: A Novel Based on the Life of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati and Coauthor of Queen of Heaven