This Memorial Day weekend, a small group of young adults will set out from St. Augustine, Florida, carrying the Blessed Sacrament on a 2,000-mile pilgrimage to Philadelphia — arriving just in time for America's 250th birthday on July 4.
Pilgrims in this year’s National Eucharistic Pilgrimage make this public witness of faith as an invitation for the U.S. to rediscover what it means to be “one nation under God,” a theme chosen in honor of America’s 250th year:
One Nation Under God is not a slogan — it’s an invitation to realign our lives, communities, and country under the sovereignty of Christ.
As pilgrims on this route, we walk with Christ so that His love might draw our nation back to Him.
The pilgrimage patron is St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American citizen to be canonized a saint. Mother Cabrini was a woman of great prayer and devotion to the Eucharist, offering a model for pilgrims and all Americans.
(Pope Leo will visit her birthplace in northern Italy next month.)
All of us are invited to join the pilgrims, in person or in spirit, and offer our prayers and sacrifices for the renewal and healing of America.
If you would like to join, members of the public are welcome to walk with the Eucharist through public events, Masses, processions, and Adoration. You can sign up at the pilgrimage website to stay connected with updates, prayer opportunities, resources along the route, and ways to participate—whether in person or from home.
Kickoff this weekend
The pilgrimage begins over Memorial Day weekend in St. Augustine, a site specially chosen because it is near where the first-ever Mass in what is now the U.S. was celebrated. The site highlights the deep Catholic heritage that predates the founding of the United States.
It is the site of the Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche.
At the launch event on Sunday, May 24, Jason Shanks, President of the National Eucharistic Congress, and Bishop Erik Pohlmeier of St. Augustine will welcome pilgrims to accompany our Eucharistic Lord and begin their 2,000+ mile journey up and down the eastern seaboard. The route will continue through most of the 13 original colonies, reaching as far north as New Hampshire and Maine.
Pilgrims will stop in the Archdiocese of Baltimore — the country’s very first Catholic diocese — as well as the Archdiocese of Boston to visit significant national historical sites. The pilgrimage will end over the 4th of July weekend in Philadelphia, where the Declaration of Independence was adopted 250 years ago that day.
You can explore the map of the route here.
Meet the “perpetual pilgrims”
A small, dedicated group of young adults, along with a few chaplains, will make the entire journey from St. Augustine to Philadelphia. These nine pilgrims committed to carrying the Blessed Sacrament across the country.
The perpetual pilgrims’ names are Zachary Dotson, Marcel Ferrer, John Paul Flynn, Eduardo Gutierrez, Cheyenne Johnson, Angelina Marconi, Raymond Martinez II, Sharon Phillips, and Mary Carmen Zakrajsek. You can get to know each of them here on the pilgrimage website.
“Once you are near the Eucharist for an extended amount of time, you can physically see the joy in people, and it is amazing!” said Eduardo Gutierrez in an interview. “I can't wait to see that in my team, myself, and the people who join us for the route.”
Share your prayer intentions here with the pilgrims so that they can carry them along their journey.
