January 16, 2026 // National
Eucharistic Pilgrimage Returns – with Patriotic Twist
(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 on Thursday, January 8.
The pilgrimage – the third of its kind – will begin in May on Memorial Day weekend and end on 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.”
A graphic depicts the 2026 route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, which begins in St. Augustine, Fla., and ends in Philadelphia. (OSV News graphic/National Eucharistic Congress)
In a January 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 in the media release. Shanks is president of the National Eucharistic Congress and a parishioner at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Fort Wayne.
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 that returned last summer with a route from Indianapolis to Los Angeles. Two Catholic young adults from the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend participated in the first two National Eucharistic Pilgrimages – Mason Bailey, a seminarian of the diocese, was a perpetual pilgrim in 2024, and last summer, Johnny Hernandez, a parishioner at St. Henry Catholic Church in Fort Wayne, joined the group.
“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.
Seminarian Mason Bailey, center holding a candle, and other pilgrims, process from St. Theodore’s Catholic Church in Laporte, Minn., along the Paul Bunyan State Trail during the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage May 20, 2024. Bailey, 24, is one of seven seminarians who are traveling the four routes of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, which began in California, Connecticut, Minnesota and Texas May 18-19 and converges in Indianapolis for the National Eucharistic Congress July 17-21.(OSV News photo/Courtney Meyer)
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 of 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, D.C.; 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 pilgrimage will end in Philadelphia with events planned for July 4-5, Independence Day weekend, to commemorate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.
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. Learn more at eucharisticpilgrimage.org.
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