(OSV News) ─ The upcoming National Eucharistic Pilgrimage ─ which takes place as the U.S. celebrates its 250th anniversary in 2026 -- marks a moment for "a country still in conversion," and "a country still on pilgrimage," said Jason Shanks, president of the National Eucharistic Congress organization.
Shanks joined pilgrimage organizers, along with several of its nine perpetual pilgrims, for an online March 25 press conference announcing further details of the event, which takes place May 24 through July 5.
With a theme of "One Nation Under God," the route will run from Florida to Maine, spanning more than 2,200 miles in most of the nation's 13 original colonies. Over the course of 43 days, pilgrims will travel through 18 dioceses and archdioceses, as well as two Eastern Catholic eparchies.
Nine perpetual pilgrims will accompany the Blessed Sacrament, with public events -- including Masses, Holy Hours, sacred music concerts, talks and charitable outreach -- taking place along the way.
Pilgrimage organizers are inviting the faithful to participate in a spiritual bouquet of 250,000 Holy Hours, with a signup form available on the pilgrimage website, eucharisticpilgrimage.org/one-nation-under-god.
The spiritual bouquet will be presented in the nation's capital as a sign of "prayers for peace in our world, for unity and peace in our country, and for God's hand to continue to guide all of those in the United States," said Shanks.
The 2026 pilgrimage, which continues the 2024 and 2025 journeys undertaken as part of the National Eucharistic Revival, has been placed under the patronage of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, the woman religious and Italian immigrant who became the first U.S. citizen to be canonized after a lifetime of work ministering to immigrants.
Along with Mother Cabrini, other holy men and women who will be commemorated throughout the pilgrimage are St. Katharine Drexel, the Philadelphia banking heiress who founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament and served Black American and American Indian communities; St. John Neumann, the Bavarian-born Redemptorist who as bishop of Philadelphia established the nation's parochial school system, as well as the Forty Hours devotion; and the soon-to-be-beatified Georgia Martyrs, six Spanish Franciscans who were slain while missioning to the Indigenous Guale people in the late 16th century.
The stops along the Cabrini Route will highlight sites significant to Catholicism's contributions to U.S. history, said Shanks.
"Before there was a Constitution, there was a consecration," he said, pointing to Masses celebrated on the territory of what would later become the U.S.
Historians have cited a number of such liturgies, including Masses reported to have taken place in 1541 in the future states of Kansas and Texas, and the Sept. 8, 1565, liturgy celebrated by Father Francisco López de Mendoza Grajales at the site of present-day St. Augustine, Florida.
In 1664, the London-born Jesuit Father Andrew White celebrated Mass in the Maryland colony.
"We're excited to unite our country in memory of its history and to sort of explore the Catholic contribution to this American experiment," Shanks said.
Among the pilgrimage events honoring the nation's development will be a Eucharistic procession through historical Williamsburg, Virginia; a blessing from Arlington Memorial Bridge over the Potomac River in Washington, with a procession past national landmarks in the capital; Eucharistic adoration in Pilgrim Memorial State Park in Plymouth, Massachusetts; and a crossing of the Delaware River into New Jersey -- a nod to George Washington, who led 2,500 Continental Army troops across the body of water on Christmas night in 1776, surprising enemy Hessian troops, mercenaries of the British empire, and securing major U.S. victories in the Revolutionary War.
The pilgrimage concludes with Mass and a Eucharistic procession over the July 4 holiday weekend in Philadelphia, where the Declaration of Independence was signed, and which served as the nation's capital from 1790 to 1800, when the new city of Washington became the nation's seat of government.
Pilgrim Zachary Dotson said at the press conference that "the real beauty" of the theme "One Nation Under God" lies in "the great humility that it takes to truly believe that and follow that."
"There's nothing more healing than God's divine mercy and love, which is open and available to all people," he said.
- - -
Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News. Follow her on X @GinaJesseReina.
