On July 26, the World Day of Grandparents, hundreds of Catholics will quietly make their way to a hidden gem in the rural hills of Cormac, Ont., for the 86th annual St. Ann's Pilgrimage, honouring the feast day of St. Ann, the mother of the Virgin Mary and grandmother of Jesus.

The pilgrimage, touted by some as the “best-kept secret” of the Diocese of Pembroke, was established by Bishop Charles Nelligan, the third bishop to serve the diocese, from 1937 to 1945.  According to diocesan history records, the idea was born out of the region's deep Catholic roots and its early French and Irish settlers' devotion to St. Ann, which mirrored the famous devotion at Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré in Quebec.

In his first year as bishop in 1937, Nelligan recognized Cormac, the rural community in the Bonnechere Valley township of Renfrew County, as the ideal hub for a new shrine dedicated to St. Ann. By July 26 of the next year, the shrine was constructed, the statue was blessed and the very first pilgrimage took place on the Feast Day of St. Ann. 

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Fr. Michael Lund, the current pastor of Cormac’s St. Ann’s Parish, said Nelligan’s devotion to the grandmother of Jesus, unknowingly at the time, launched an annual tradition that has brought hundreds of thousands of Ontario’s faithful to the site year after year. 

“Each year, the pastor, along with volunteer parishioners, would host a pilgrimage that, at its peak in the 1970s, got up to (hosting) 10,000 people,” he told The Catholic Register. 

Thanks to St. Ann’s status as the patron saint of mothers, grandmothers and women in labour, and with her feast day coinciding with the modern commemoration of World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, Lund attests to the pilgrimage’s strong multi-generational appeal. 

“ Sometimes you can see three or even four generations of families all there together at the shrine. (St. Ann’s) is a place where you talk to people, especially older parishioners, who talk about their whole family going up every year. They say how everyone who was around would pile in the car and head out to Cormac. It was a big part of the culture in the local area,” he said. 

Numbers have steadily declined from their 1970s peak, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic, but have been slowly bouncing back in recent years. Lund estimates the site sees anywhere from 1,500 to 2,000 pilgrims each July — and while the attraction is mostly visited by local audiences, he said it has drawn pilgrims from Toronto, Peterborough and other distant dioceses. 

Still, the spiritual significance and graces available at the shrine remain. Lund said a former priest, in a historical article on Cormac, mentioned there had been over half a dozen confirmed cures of ailments through the intercession of St. Ann at the pilgrimage by 1952. 

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“I'm sure since then there have been many other graces received as well,” he said. 

Among those hopeful to receive such graces this year is a group undergoing the “Walk the Opeongo Line” pilgrimage, a unique add-on started by Pembroke priest Fr. Scott Murray in 2016. Inspired by classic European walking pilgrimages, Murray launched the opportunity for pilgrims to make a four-day, 67-kilometre walk from Our Lady of Fatima in Renfrew to St. Ann’s in Cormac, journeying along the historic Opeongo Road, which opened the way for settlers to enter the Upper Ottawa Valley in the mid-1800s.

Lund said the challenging option, which attracts 60 to 80 participants annually from all ages, has been a welcome, rejuvenating aspect of the original pilgrimage experience.

“We’ve seen people in their 80s choose to make the walk and rough it out. They camp out every night, spend time at the churches along the way, even on the lawn or nearby. There is Mass offered every day, time for Confession and prayers together as they journey along,” he said. 

The Opeongo Line offering has also inspired more recent ripple effects, with a new, more intense one-week walking pilgrimage for young adults starting last year, which returns this year by popular demand. 

The pilgrimage this year will begin on July 23 and end July 26, when there will be a solemn Mass at 11 a.m., followed by a healing Mass and anointing with St. Ann’s oil at 2 p.m.

The devotion shown by pilgrims offers a powerful reminder that vibrant Catholic devotion still thrives, even in small-town Ontario.

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“ I hope this can be a moment of renewal that has a sense of community as well. People gathering together for the same common purpose to worship God, but also seeking the intercession of our Lord's grandmother, and hopefully having the confidence to turn towards her,” Lund said. 

For more details, see cormacpilgrimage.com/