CHAMPION, Wis. (OSV News) — They walked over bridges and along rivers. They walked through cities and across farmland. They walked past apartments and colleges as frost dusted the morning grass.
It was May 2, and the annual 22-mile Walk to Mary pilgrimage to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion was underway.
Since 2013, with an inaugural group of about 500, the pilgrimage has grown to nearly 10,000 people of all ages, from 47 states, Canada, Trinidad, Mexico, Poland and Brazil. More than half of this year’s participants came from outside Wisconsin.
The walk sets off the first Saturday of May from the National Shrine of St. Joseph on the grounds of St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin.
“We bring the Holy Family together, by starting at the National Shrine of St. Joseph, walking out to the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion,” Pat Deprey of Two Rivers, Wisconsin, told OSV News. Deprey, with Tom Schmitt, co-founded the walk in 2012, after a challenge from Father Francis “Rocky” Hoffman of Relevant Radio.
The 22-mile trek has grown to “mini-Camino” status, a smaller version of the 1,200-year-old Camino de Santiago in Compostella, Spain, that can be walked in 74 miles or 1,066 miles depending on the starting point.
Deprey, who has walked the Camino, sees similarities. He was especially struck by how Camino walkers follow seashells on guideposts.
“We’d like to do something similar here, to mark the route we take for the Walk to Mary so that people can come and do it in August; they can do it in September,” he said, regarding future plans. “They can park their car at St. Joseph’s shrine; watch the signs and things that we place along the route.”
Why do people walk the Walk to Mary: either the full 22 miles, or any of four smaller 7-mile paths? They do it in hope; in remembrance of loved ones; with petitions; to pray in a very physical way, participants shared with OSV News.
Valquiria Luciana, originally from Brazil, came from Charlotte, North Carolina. She brought 30 pilgrims to the walk this year, all originally from Brazil, though now living from New Jersey to Miami.
“Most of them come,” Valquiria said, “because they were curious. But in the end, something happened, in their families.”
Valquiria said she encourages people in need to go on the walk and pray at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion for Mary’s intercession.
“After you pray, if God wants to use his mother, something really nice is going to happen with you. It’s a miracle,” she said. “Because the miracle happened with me. I had a huge problem in my family. … I said a prayer in front of Our Lady (at the shrine); I received a miracle.”
Bishop David L. Ricken of Green Bay declared the Marian apparitions in Champion, Wisconsin, “worthy of belief” in 2010. It is the only Church-approved apparition of Mary in the United States.
Earlier this year, Bishop Ricken opened the sainthood cause of the shrine’s visionary, Adele Brice (Brise). Brice, a Belgian immigrant, saw three visions of the self-identified “Queen of Heaven” here in 1859. Brice spent the rest of her life as a catechist obeying Mary’s request to “go and teach the children.”
At Mass on May 2, the bishop told pilgrims, “Today you have been on a walking pilgrimage, and really this is a model for the walk of life and the walk of faith.”
“You’re finding that the Lord is reorienting you to things that are simpler, things that are stronger, things that are more true, rather than settling for less,” he said. “Don’t settle for less.”
Among those not “settling for less” is the Jedwabny family of Appleton, Wisconsin. In 2024, then-15-year-old Brett Jedwabny suffered a traumatic brain injury in a power washer accident. His father, Tyler Jedwabny, told OSV News his son needed an emergency craniotomy before being flown to Children’s Hospital in Milwaukee.
There, Tyler and his wife Nicole were told Brett “wasn’t expected to live for 24 hours.”
But the Jedwabnys were uplifted in prayer by Brett’s former classmates and their families at St. Pius X Parish in Appleton, who immediately gathered for evening prayer. They prayed the rosary, a prayer that Tyler admitted he had not been too familiar with. And Brett lived.
Later, the doctor told Brett’s parents, “It’s written right in his chart: ‘No medical explanation why he’s alive.'”
Brett’s journey of healing has led the Jedwabnys closer to Mary.
“Every day since then, we have prayed the rosary over Brett,” Tyler said. And, he added, whenever Brett, who has now returned home and attends school part-time, requests the prayer.
This year, the Jedwabnys were asked to lead the 1.7-mile Children’s Walk on May 2. While they had never heard of Our Lady of Champion before, they agreed.
“When you get a chance to give back to something that has changed your life, it’s imperative that you take that opportunity.” Tyler said. “And I think that’s a lot at the front of what we’re here for, to bring people closer to God.”
The family, including younger brother Grant, walked. And, for the last few feet, Brett, held by his father, walked.
The walk was the main event, but other highlights included the May 1 dinner and sacred choral at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral, and a May crowning on May 3.
There were also confessions and six Masses held at the Champion shrine on May 2. With the increase in pilgrims, the bishop’s annual Mass needed to move outdoors because the shrine’s Mother of Mercy Center, which holds up to 2,000, was too small for 10,000.
Celina Regoza of Chicago brought nine family members, including her father-in-law, Miguel Del Real. Del Real, 86, had a stroke recently, but came to walk anyway.
Christina Esparza and her husband, Omar, came from Ontario, California. They started this first year with the 1.7-mile walk.
“We’re doing the family one,” Christina Esparza said, “trying to get to see how things are. And then we’ll definitely bring my younger cousins to come join the 22-mile one (next year).”
Among the returning pilgrims giving thanks that day was Meghan Sheehan of Maryland. After walking last year and praying to start a family, she and husband Jason returned this year.
Sharing her story at the May 1 welcome dinner, Sheehan said that, while she wanted to walk the 22 miles again, her doctor had restricted her to seven: She is expecting their first child.
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