Join Fr. Martin Rangel Garcia, FSSP on a pilgrimage to the Great Catholic Shrines. This pilgrimage will visit Rome, Fatima, Avila, Lourdes, and more!
Fr. Martin Rangel Garcia, FSSP and a Christian guide will meet your party at the airport and accompany you every step of the way as you explore Rome, Fatima, Avila, Lourdes, and more!
Fr. Martin Rangel Garcia, FSSP is accompanying this pilgrimage to help lead the group in prayer, fellowship, and thoughtful engagement with each traveler.
See the official trip information for gratuities, shipping and handling, payment fees, and any optional-extension charges.
Depart Phoenix International Airport on an overnight flight to Rome. Dinner and breakfast will be served on the plane. Quotes for add-on flights from different airports, as well as optional Premium Economy and Business Class upgrades, are available upon request and will be provided starting 120 days prior to departure. Group air restrictions (for ten passengers traveling together) do not permit specific seating requests on flights. We recommend purchasing your own airline tickets and land-only packages with us if seat confirmation is an important part of your trip. Should you require any additional information, please do not hesitate to contact your trip Account Manager, who will be happy to assist you.
Welcome to Italy. We are greeted by our English-speaking tour manager, who will accompany us during our trip to Italy. We begin our visit to the Eternal City with a stop at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. Continue to the nearby Tre Fontane Abbey to see the site of St. Paul’s beheading. Mass will be celebrated. Our final stop of the day is the Mamertine Prison, where St. Peter and St. Paul were imprisoned. We check into our hotel and enjoy dinner at the hotel. Overnight in Rome.
We depart early this morning for St. Peter’s Square, to attend the Papal Audience, where the Holy Father blesses us. Following the included lunch we have a walking tour visiting Gesu Church, the Pantheon, Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, where St. Catherine of Siena is buried, and Piazza Navona, where our walking tour ends. Mass will be celebrated. Dinner is on your own. Overnight in Rome.
In the morning, we visit St. Peter’s Basilica. We await confirmation closer to departure for our visit of the Vatican Museum, including the Raphael Rooms and the Sistine Chapel. (TBC). In the afternoon, we explore St. Mary Major Basilica and St. John the Lateran, the Cathedral Church of Rome, containing sacred relics of Peter and Paul and the magnificent sculptures of the twelve apostles. We also visit the Holy Stairs from Jerusalem. Dinner and overnight in Rome.
This morning we board our motorcoach and head to Assisi. We explore the Basilica of St. Clare and the Chapel of San Damiano, where St. Francis received his call to rebuild the Church and where St. Clare lived and died. We visit the Sanctuary of the Spoliation to see the tomb of St. Carlo Acutis in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore. Continue to the Basilica of St. Francis, where you will see Giotto’s frescoes depicting the life of St. Francis. Then, proceed to the lower Basilica and the Tomb of St. Francis. Mass will be celebrated. We return to Rome for dinner and overnight.
We check out of our hotel and head for Rome airport for our flight to Lisbon. Upon arrival in Lisbon, our guide will assist us onto the motorcoach. En route to Fatima, we stop in Santarem for a short walk down narrow streets to Saint Stephen’s Catholic Church, also known as the Church of the Holy Miracle. Continue to Fatima where we celebrate Mass. Check into our hotel for dinner and overnight. (B.D) * This day’s itinerary is dependent on our flight arrival time.
We start the day with Mass. We see the parish church where the visionaries were baptized and other places associated with their young lives, including the cemetery where the children are buried and their homes in Aljustrel. In Valinhos we visit the site where the Holy Virgin appeared in August, we see the outdoor Stations of the Cross erected by Americans, and the beautiful Shrine of the Crucifixion, built on the highest point by Hungarian refugees. Tonight, we participate in the Candlelight Procession. Dinner and overnight in Fatima.
We explore Avila, the perfectly preserved eleventh-century walled city, home of the mystic writer Santa Teresa, who was born here and whose shrines are a must-see for all Catholic pilgrims! Ávila’s atmosphere has changed very little since the days of Santa Teresa, the first woman to be named a Doctor of the Church, to whom the city is dedicated. During our tour of Ávila, we will visit the Cathedral and the Church of San Vicente. Mass will be celebrated. We will visit the Incarnation Convent, La Santa Monastery, built on the site of the house where she was born, and San José Convent, the first monastery founded by the Saint. Dinner and overnight in Avila.
After breakfast, we depart for the quaint village of Alba de Tormes where we visit the Carmelite Monastery, this is where Saint Teresa died in 1582 A.D. and is buried. In the little museum of the Carmelite Monastery, we will be able to see the incorrupt heart and left arm of St. Teresa. Mass will be celebrated. Return to Avila for dinner and overnight.
We board our motorcoach and head to Burgos to visit the beautiful Cathedral of Burgos. Mass will be celebrated in the Cathedral (TBC). Enjoy an afternoon and evening at leisure in Burgos.
Following breakfast, we depart for Loyola, the birthplace of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits. Here, we see the 17th-century Basilica dedicated to St. Ignatius and visit his family home, located behind the sanctuary. We will celebrate Mass, followed by lunch. After lunch we depart for Lourdes, a great pilgrimage center where more than four million pilgrims, many of whom are sick or disabled, come to bathe in the waters of the miraculous spring. In 1858, 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous declared that the Virgin had appeared to her several times in the Cave of Massabielle. They had said to her in the local patois, “I am the Immaculate Conception.” This evening, you may want to participate in the candlelight procession. Overnight in Lourdes.
Following an early breakfast, we visit the Basilica of St. Pius X, the world’s largest underground sanctuary, which was built to accommodate more than 30,000 people. See the Church of the Rosary, whose walls are covered with tablets of gratitude, marble tablets commemorating cures and other favors attained through the intercession of Our Lady at her Grotto in Lourdes. The walking tour includes the sites associated with Bernadette’s life in Lourdes, particularly the Cachot, the former prison where her impoverished family was housed in one room at the time of the apparitions. After lunch on your own, you have time to visit the baths and experience the water gesture in the healing waters of the miraculous Fountain. You may also choose the Way of the Cross up the hill to the Cross of Calvary. Mass will be celebrated. Dinner and overnight in Lourdes.
Early this morning, we will transfer to Toulouse airport for our return flights to the USA.
Land Only. Main trip package.
Land and Air from Phoenix. Main trip package.
Solo Room (Additional Charge). Additional supplement.
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