Shrines and Pilgrimage Sites

When you are born in a major pilgrimage destination, you grow up with a treasure — a national shrine and sacred image — within reach every day. I was that child, born in Czestochowa, home of the Black Madonna and a beloved place of spiritual refuge for St. John Paul II.

Jubilee Year celebrations in the Archdiocese of Toronto will bring faithful from across the Greater Toronto Area together in pilgrimage to Martyrs’ Shrine later this month.

Whether the motivation is a boycott of the United States over its current posturing towards Canada, the ongoing affordability crisis or a host of other reasons, it is clear a greater number of Canadians plan to spend summer in their homeland.

The Archdiocese of Montreal’s youth office is providing a local alternative for the Jubilee Year by creating a map of pilgrimage for the city of Montreal.

It was 100 years ago this month that the eight men who dedicated their lives in honouring God and their neighbour throughout their missionary work and would become known as the Canadian Martyrs were beatified, setting the stage for their canonization five years later.

In a joyful moment after the rosary on St. Bernadette Soubirous' feast day April 16 at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in France, the shrine's rector, Father Michel Daubanes, announced that a 72nd miracle at the famed pilgrimage site has been recognized.

Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of Tarbes and Lourdes has decided to cover mosaics by Father Marko Rupnik at the entrance of the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary, a move aimed at making the basilica more welcoming for all, particularly victims of abuse.

On a cold and snowy Feb. 13, Montreal's St. Joseph’s Oratory officially opened a newly constructed, four-level welcome centre to visitors.

Even though a pilgrimage peak is some months away, the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes celebrated its wintery feast day Feb. 11 with a number of pilgrims who flocked to the French holy site on the anniversary of the first apparition of the Blessed Virgin to St. Bernadette Soubirous in 1858.

Saint Paul University is offering a unique interactive course next spring that will allow students and the public alike to traverse part of a major historic Christian pilgrimage, the Camino de Santiago.