Wisconsin's Virgin Mary Shrine, is also a home

CHICAGO READER
By Sam Worley

Shrine photographed by Sam Lucer

WISCONSIN - The Tippses' home sits on the grounds of the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help outside Champion, Wisconsin. A winding trip down rural roads leads to the shrine's chapel, the stations of the cross, a grotto, and a crypt where a collection of crutches is amassed—alleged evidence of miracles performed. Upstairs there's a gift shop that sells Catholic paraphernalia: crosses and trinkets, DVD dramatizations of the lives of saints, T-shirts. Karen Tipps and her husband are the shrine's caretakers—a task that became far more intense after it received a rare designation. On December 8, the Catholic church affirmed the shrine as one of about a dozen sites worldwide—and the first in the U.S.—to have received a visit from the Virgin Mary. [link]