The 2026 pilgrimage will travel up the East Coast for six weeks before ending in Philadelphia on the July 4 weekend
ST. MARYS RIVER, Ga. — Under clear blue skies and with a warm wind blowing, Jesus in the Eucharist spent part of Memorial Day on the water traveling from Florida to Georgia as part of the second day of this summer’s National Eucharistic Pilgrimage.
After processing from St. Michael Church in Fernandina Beach, Florida, to the nearby waterfront, Bishop Erik T. Pohlmeier of St. Augustine offered a eucharistic blessing to his diocese as the pilgrimage departed from the Diocese of St. Augustine and headed north toward the Diocese of Savannah via boat.
The 2026 pilgrimage, which will travel up the East Coast for six weeks before ending in Philadelphia on the July 4 weekend, began May 24 with Mass at the historic Mission Nombre de Dios and the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche in St. Augustine.
After overnight eucharistic adoration at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine, the pilgrimage departed for Jacksonville and then went farther north to the quiet beach town on Amelia Island.
Accompanying Bishop Pohlmeier on the boat with the Blessed Sacrament were priests, deacons, seminarians and men and women religious. Members of the group Sons of Our Lady knelt before the sun-drenched golden monstrance and prayed the Rosary. Also present — singing, praying and simply appreciating the unique experience — were the perpetual pilgrims, nine young adults who are traveling the entire St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Route with the Blessed Sacrament.
“I’ve never been with Jesus before on a boat, like the Blessed Sacrament,” Mary Carmen Zakrajsek, a perpetual pilgrim from the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, said, adding that the experience was “living the Gospels … in a very tangible way.
“It’s an opportunity to really witness what the disciples did 2,000 years ago,” she said.
People on the dock looked on as pilgrims of the 2026 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage travel on a boat with the Blessed Sacrament.
Sailing behind the boat with the Blessed Sacrament were two vessels typically used for touring Amelia Island, as well as some smaller, private boats, including one filled with seminarians dressed in cassocks and surplices. The main boat was flanked on all sides by police boats in an impressive escort up St. Marys River.
Though strong winds whipped the vessel as it approached land, the monstrance, standing upon a makeshift altar, stood strong.
On the St. Marys shoreline, crowds of people waited to welcome the pilgrimage to its next destination. Among them were Bishop Stephen D. Parkes of Savannah, who received the Blessed Sacrament from Bishop Pohlmeier on the dock before the procession continued to the nearby parish.
Along the route, onlookers stopped on sidewalks and leaned out of car windows to ask what was going on. Those traveling with the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage explained that Jesus was present, and they extended invitations to follow Him.
At the Mass May 24, umbrellas blocked the sun in chairs near the altar, while worshippers sought out any available shade under surrounding trees or tents. A steady breeze blew in from the nearby Matanzas River and, beyond that, the Atlantic Ocean. Participants ranged from families to the elderly, from Knights of Columbus to women religious.
Sister Mary Faithful Virgin, a member of the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matara, a missionary order founded in Argentina, said she traveled from central Florida, where she is based, with 40 parishioners.
“It is a beautiful opportunity to be part of this moment of history and to pray for our country and our nation, that we can live truly ‘One Nation under God,’” she said, referring to the 2026 pilgrimage’s theme.
In his homily, Bishop Pohlmeier focused on two effects of Pentecost: the “missionary impulse because of the coming of the Holy Spirit” and “the divine power of the Church’s work because of the coming of the Holy Spirit.”
“From the beginning, we see that the Church is able to carry out the mission entrusted by God Himself — able to carry it out because God provides,” he said. “And what God asks is that we faithfully receive the gifts that He gives. That in receiving those gifts, we step out in faith, allowing God to work in us.”
Following Mass, Bishop Pohlmeier processed throughout the grounds of the shrine with the Eucharist to the “Rustic Altar,” a memorial of where Father Francisco López de Mendoza Grajales celebrated St. Augustine’s first Mass Sept. 8, 1565. From there, Bishop Pohlmeier carried the Blessed Sacrament to the altar in the historic chapel of Our Lady of La Leche, where he placed Jesus at the foot of the iconic image of Our Lady holding the Child Jesus to her breast.
