In the Footsteps
of St. Francis

The pilgrimage begins as the group departs Charlotte on the overnight flight to Rome, with dinner and breakfast served on board. We travel with the intentions of the whole parish of St. Francis by the Sea. Full flight details are in the Group Flight Information section below.

We land in Rome on the Feast of the Archangels and drive north to the hill town of Orvieto, whose golden Duomo enshrines the Corporal of Bolsena, the Eucharistic miracle that gave the Church the feast of Corpus Christi. After veneration and time for lunch on your own in the old town, we continue into Umbria and arrive in Assisi with time to settle in. In the evening we gather with Father Daniel, Brother Kolbe, and fellow pilgrims for our first meal together. Benvenuti in Italia!

We begin with Holy Mass at the Basilica of Saint Francis and time in prayer at the tomb of the saint, surrounded by Giotto’s frescoes of his life. In the afternoon we walk down to San Damiano, the little church where the crucifix spoke to Francis, “rebuild my Church,” and where Saint Clare of Assisi lived and died. We return by way of the Basilica of Saint Clare, where that same crucifix hangs today, and stop at the church of Santa Maria Maggiore to pray at the tomb of Saint Carlo Acutis, the young patron of the internet canonized in our own day, before dinner in Assisi.

This morning we descend to the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels, built over the Portiuncula, the chapel Saint Francis rebuilt with his own hands and where he died, then climb Mount Subasio to the Eremo delle Carceri, the hermitage caves of the first brothers. The afternoon offers a choice: free time in Assisi for prayer, shopping, or rest, or an optional excursion into the Umbrian wine country for a tasting with lunch among the vineyards. Group dinner in Assisi.

A full day pilgrimage into the Tuscan Apennines to La Verna, the mountain given to Saint Francis for prayer and penance, where in September 1224 he received the stigmata, the wounds of Christ. We celebrate Holy Mass at the sanctuary and visit the Chapel of the Stigmata, the Sasso Spicco where Francis slept on stone, and the Della Robbia ceramics of the basilica, with time for silence in the forest he loved. We return to Assisi for dinner.

Departing Assisi after breakfast, we cross the Apennines to Lanciano, where in the eighth century a doubting monk saw the host become flesh and the wine become blood at the words of consecration. The miraculous Flesh and Blood remain exposed for veneration, and we celebrate Sunday Mass in this church of the Eucharistic Miracle. We continue south along the Adriatic to San Giovanni Rotondo, home of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, arriving in time for dinner.

On the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi we celebrate Holy Mass in San Giovanni Rotondo, where his spiritual son Saint Pio of Pietrelcina bore the stigmata for fifty years. We pray at the tomb of Padre Pio, visit the old Church of Our Lady of Grace with his confessional and the crucifix before which he received the wounds, and see the hospital he founded. In the afternoon we drive up the Gargano to Monte Sant’Angelo, the grotto sanctuary of Saint Michael the Archangel, a pilgrimage destination for fifteen centuries.

After a final morning prayer with Padre Pio we board the coach for the drive across Italy to Rome. At the group’s preference, and at no additional cost, we can break the journey at Monte Cassino, the mountaintop abbey where Saint Benedict of Nursia wrote his Rule and where he and his sister Saint Scholastica lie buried. We arrive in Rome in the late afternoon, and the evening is deliberately simple: check-in, rest, and dinner together near the hotel. Tomorrow belongs to the Holy Father.

The morning starts early with the Wednesday General Audience with the Holy Father in St. Peter’s Square. After lunch on your own near the Vatican, we enter St. Peter’s Basilica to visit the tomb of Saint Peter the Apostle beneath the high altar, Michelangelo’s Pietà, and the church built over the bones of the fisherman. Group dinner this evening.

Pilgrims on the base program transfer to the airport after breakfast for return flights to Charlotte. For those on the Rome extension, the morning opens the great basilicas: St. John Lateran, cathedral of Rome, the Holy Stairs, and St. Mary Major with the Salus Populi Romani. The afternoon is free, and in the evening we walk the centro storico enjoying the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, the Trevi Fountain, and gelato along the way.

We celebrate Holy Mass in the catacombs on the Appian Way, in the burial galleries of the first Christians, and walk a stretch of the ancient road itself. Returning toward the center, we descend through the Basilica of San Clemente, three layers of the city’s Christian story. The group is free from mid-afternoon; a visit to the Scavi excavations beneath St. Peter’s, at the tomb of the Apostle, may be requested in advance, subject to Vatican confirmation.

We begin at St. Paul Outside the Walls, the great basilica over the tomb of Saint Paul the Apostle, then take the heart of old Rome by daylight: the Gesù, Sant’Ignazio and its painted false dome, and the Caravaggios of San Luigi dei Francesi, ending at the Pantheon where the group scatters into the streets. The afternoon is free for last purchases and prayers before our farewell dinner in Rome.

After breakfast and hotel check-out, we transfer to the airport for the return flight to Charlotte, having kept the feast of Saint Francis in his own country and prayed in the square of Saint Peter the Apostle with the Holy Father.