The American Catholic Church used influencers before brands did. Meet four of the influencers who changed politics, pop culture, and piety across the United States, and join the National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion, the only Church approved Marian apparition in the United States, in encountering all the holy influencers from the American Catholic Church.
Servant of God Adele Brice
Influencer Servant of God Adele Brice was the type of person who did not want to be famous. Adele was humble but obedient. She was illiterate and left blind in one eye, but as the Seer of Our Lady of Champion, Our Lady told Brice to go out and “teach the children what they needed to know for salvation.” With this mission, Brice influenced generations of Catholics by going door to door teaching the catechism and sharing the sacraments.
Brice’s work inspired generations of teachers to teach children what they need to know for salvation. Brice’s humility and judgement were so trusted, that she influenced her skeptical local bishop to support her work and her local government even named a town Champion, Wisconsin at her recommendation.
Venerable Fulton Sheen
Influencer Venerable Fulton Sheen was a pop culture icon whose powerful oration commanded radio and television with clarity and conviction. Sheen was bold but witty, and his Emmy-winning program reached millions each week. Sheen’s influence rose perfectly during the spiritual emptiness of modern individualism and secularism, the era of Communism, and increased anxieties about the Cold War.
Without diluting Catholic truths, Sheen explained complex topics in everyday language. When his show “Life is Worth Living” won an Emmy, he paid tribute to his four writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Blessed Stanley Rother
Influencer Blessed Stanley Rother struggled to learn Latin in seminary, but in his mission work in Guatemala, he learned Spanish and the Tz’utujil language, one of the hardest languages to learn. Rother celebrated the Mass in these languages and helped to translate the New Testament, making the Gospel accessible to everyone he served. He performed as many as 1,000 baptisms a year for 13 years. Rother was so influential that he was martyred for his impact.
Saint Mother Cabrini
Influencer Saint Mother Cabrini was a world-traveler whose missionary spirit led her to the depths of human suffering and the beauty of God’s creation. She influenced the American healthcare system and schools by gathering youth in safe houses, opening hospitals and clinics, even entering mineshafts to catechize miners, and visiting those who even the police wouldn’t dare visit.
Cabrini traveled across the Atlantic Ocean 24 times and influenced both the secular American world and American Catholic Church to accept the missionary zeal of women.
Catholic Saints of America Exhibit and Novena July 1-9
These are just a few of the holy American Catholic influencers who made America better by their words, work, and witness. You can celebrate the 250th anniversary of our nation by meeting its holiest women and men at the apparition site of Our Lady of Champion from July 1-9 for their first of its kind historic exhibit, Catholic Saints of America.
Allow yourself to be influenced as you venerate their relics, hear speakers from over 35 shrines and causes from around the nation, and participate in nine days of family events at the Shrine of Our Lady of Champion.
If you cannot meet the saints of America during its 250th anniversary, join in praying the Novena for Our Nation by signing up here: https://championshrine.org/americansaints/.
