Pilgrimages

The 2008 pilgrimage was to Greece following in the footsteps of St Paul

In 2010 we will visit Oberammergau to see the Passion Play and also visit Salzburg & Bauaria

In September 2006, the parish pilgrimage went to Assisi and surrounding places associated with St. Francis. The weather was good and very warm. We visited the Basilica of St. Francis, and had a grand tour, followed by Mass in St. Caterina’s chapel. Visits also to Basilica of St. Clare, the birthplace of St. Francis and the temple of Minerva, now a church, with a very unusual painting of Jesus and Mary standing around the bed of St. Joseph as he was dying. The Cathedral church of St. Rufino and the church St. Mary Major, and the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli (Our Lady of the Angels), as built over the little church, known as the Porziuncula.

Away from Assisi, we went to La Verna, (Sanctuary of the Stigmata). Gubbio and Mass in the sanctuary dedicated to St. Ubaldo, bishop of the town, lunch and then a trip down in the open cable car. Orvieto, an unusual town, access by funicular railway up the hill, from the car park below, and then by bus to the city centre, and the most fantastic church, you could spend all day looking at the façade on the outside, the inside was very special. We had Mass in the crypt. The Hermitage, where we learn of the importance to St. Francis of profound meditation and prayer, which was his foundation to his evangelical work.

St. Damiano, was the church where St. Francis received a clear message from God, from the crucifix no less. ‘Francis, do you not see that my house is falling into ruin? Go and repair it for me.’ Perugia the capital city of the region Umbria, where St. Francis spent sometime in prison.

Basilica of St. Francis.