(OSV News) ─ The National Eucharistic Pilgrimage is back for 2026 with a special route that will travel the East Coast from St. Augustine, Florida, to Portland, Maine, ending in Philadelphia, organizers announced Jan. 8.
The pilgrimage ─ the third of its kind ─ will begin in May on Memorial Day weekend and end July 5. This year's pilgrimage celebrates America's 250th anniversary with the theme "One Nation Under God," and its route incorporates key sites in the history of the country and its Catholics.
Organizers described the pilgrimage as "a nationwide call to renewal, unity and mission rooted in the Eucharist."
In a Jan. 8 media release announcing the route, organizers noted that 2026 marked the 75th anniversary of the lobbying campaign, led by the Knights of Columbus, to add the phrase "One nation under God" to the nation's Pledge of Allegiance.
“One Nation Under God is not a borrowed slogan; rather, it is an invitation to realign our lives, our communities, and our country under the sovereignty of Jesus Christ," said Jason Shanks, president of the National Eucharistic Congress, in the media release.
The National Eucharistic Congress nonprofit organizes the pilgrimage, which first took place as four routes in 2024 ahead of the 10th National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis as part of the National Eucharistic Revival, and which returned last summer with a route from Indianapolis to Los Angeles.
"Our hope is that Catholics will come together on this significant anniversary to give thanks for our country and to pray for our future," said Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, who serves as chairman of the National Eucharistic Congress, in the statement. "We want all Catholics to be inspired with missionary zeal to bring revival through the light and love of Jesus Christ."
The pilgrimage has been placed under the patronage of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, an Italian-American immigrant and the first U.S. citizen to be canonized a saint. It will also take place in solidarity with the U.S. bishops' call to consecrate the United States to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Like previous National Eucharistic Pilgrimages, the route will be traveled by "perpetual pilgrims," eight young adults selected among a group of applicants (plus a "media missionary") who will attend Mass, Eucharistic adoration, other devotions and community-building events along the way.
The pilgrimage will launch Memorial Day weekend with Mass at Our Lady of La Leche Shrine in St. Augustine, the site of the first Mass celebrated on American soil in 1565. It will also include commemorations of the Georgia Martyrs, five Franciscan missionaries who were killed for their faith in 1597, whose path for beatification Pope Francis cleared in January 2025; the celebration of the feast of Corpus Christi in the Archdiocese of Washington and the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia; and stops in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, the nation's first Catholic diocese.
The pilgrimage will pass through most of the original 13 colonies, with stops in 18 dioceses and archdioceses: St. Augustine; Savannah, Georgia; Charleston, South Carolina; Charlotte, North Carolina; Richmond, Virginia; Arlington, Virginia; Washington; Baltimore; Wilmington, Delaware; Camden, New Jersey; Paterson, New Jersey; Springfield, Massachusetts; Manchester, New Hampshire; Portland, Maine; Boston; Fall River, Massachusetts; Providence, Rhode Island; and Philadelphia.
The pilgrims will also make a private, mid-point retreat at the St. Frances Cabrini Shrine in New York City.
The pilgrimage will end in Philadelphia with events planned July 4-5, Independence Day weekend, to commemorate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in the Pennsylvania State House, now the city's Independence Hall, on July 4, 1776. That weekend will include special outreach for Catholic youth and all-day Eucharistic adoration July 4. The pilgrimage's closing Mass will take place July 5 at the Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul, followed by a Eucharistic procession to the National Shrine of St. John Neumann.
Organizers said in the media release that "the pilgrimage seeks to extend the fruits of the three-year National Eucharistic Revival that began in 2022 and culminated in the 2024 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage and subsequent Congress in Indianapolis. The fruits of the 2025 Drexel Pilgrimage carry forward into the 2026 Cabrini Route."
The pilgrimage also will connect with a national prayer campaign and digital lecture series "that highlights themes and topics of America through a Catholic lens and framework," organizers said.
