Update to

March 23, 2026 update to a recent blog about

“Servant of God Adele Brice & Our Lady of Champion (WI, USA)”

From: https://championshrine.org/timeline/

Adele and her companions form a community of Third Order Franciscans and begin to stabilize their missionary work in a farmhouse not far from the wood frame Chapel. Later in the year a school and convent are built of wood frame construction.

Update:

Based on a more complete biography of Adele Brice from the records at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion, we have confirmation that Adele & her group of “Sisters” were not canonically established as a religious Order but were a group of lay/secular women living a Franciscan life.  According to the terminology of that period in history, they were “Third Order” or Lay/Secular Franciscans.

Some Third Order/Secular Franciscan History:

In A Short History of the Third Order by Marion Habig, OFM & Mark Hegener, OFM (1963), Part 2 addresses the history of the Third Order of St. Francis in the USA from approximately the early 1900’s through the mid-1960’s.

In the Introduction to the book, the author cites two ancient philosophers concerning the importance of knowing one’s history: Cicero called history the “teacher of life” and Dryden rephrased this concept as “the most pleasant school of wisdom”.

1. The authors frequently use the term Tertiary or tertiaries which is just a shortened form of “Third Order member(s)”. Tertiary is still used but only rarely.
2. While it’s probable that some Third Order Franciscans came to America when Franciscan friars traveled with the early explorers, the Third Order had little organization, uniform practices or recorded history till the late 19^th – early 20^th What little they did have was predominantly in the hands of the friars & developed during a few national Congresses or Conventions under Franciscan friar leadership & then distributed to the Third Order fraternities.
3. The General Constitutions of 1957 and new Ritual helped to facilitate this necessary unification. But along with this unification came a sense of being 2^nd class Franciscan religious.  Although they didn’t take vows, they were expected to practice the evangelical virtues of faith, hope and charity in a heroic way, have a regulated prayer life, take religious names (called each other Sister or Brother…..) & wear “habits” daily which, over the years, went from modified religious habits to a scapular and cord.
4. The Second Vatican Council (early 1960’s) and Popes John XXIII and Paul VI (both of whom were Third Order Franciscans) encouraged all religious & lay Orders to “look to your roots” as a means to revitalize their Orders. These factors were the impetus for the Franciscan friars to encourage & support the lay Third Order leaders to honor the sacredness of their lay vocation; to assume responsibility for updating their governing documents to meet the needs of our times and to discern “what is ours to do” (which included changing the name of our Order to “The Secular Franciscan Order”).
5. Frs. Habig & Hegener closed Part II with “the Third Order was founded to ‘satisfy a thirst for heroism’ in the hearts of people”.

Do you feel called to “satisfy a thirst for (spiritual) heroism”?  Are you living in such a way that you inflame a thirst for spiritual heroism in others?

Terri Leone, OFS