After a Pentecost launch, the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage marked its first full weekend with events in the Diocese of Charlotte, North Carolina. Four parishes in the Tar Heel State hosted Mass and eucharistic adoration as the nine perpetual pilgrims traveling this year’s route head north along the East Coast.
The pilgrimage’s May 24 kickoff in St. Augustine, Florida, tied its six-week journey to the early Franciscan missionaries who helped the Catholic faith take root along the coast of what is now Florida and Georgia. After Mass, processions and adoration in St. Augustine, the longest continual Catholic community in the U.S., the route’s nine “perpetual pilgrims” participated in Mass and a eucharistic procession in Jacksonville before a river procession via boat from Fernandina Beach, Florida, into Georgia.
The perpetual pilgrims expect to accompany Jesus in the Eucharist from Florida to Maine, with the pilgrimage concluding in Philadelphia with events coinciding with the United States’ 250th birthday celebration. The pilgrimage’s theme is “One Nation Under God,” a phrase from the Pledge of Allegiance.
The water crossing from Florida to Georgia with the Eucharist was especially moving for Mary Carmen Zakrajsek, a perpetual pilgrim from the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, who said that the experience of being with Jesus on a boat was “living the Gospels … in a very tangible way.”
In southeastern Georgia, the pilgrimage focused on the Georgia Martyrs, five Franciscans slated for beatification on Oct. 31, before continuing into Savannah. A May 27 procession highlighted aspects of the diocese’s history, starting in Savannah at Our Lady of Good Hope Parish. Later that day, the pilgrims participated in a Eucharistic procession through historic downtown Savannah.
After entering the Diocese of Charleston, South Carolina, on May 28, the pilgrims were scheduled to stop for a procession, adoration and, the next day, Mass at South Carolina’s only Catholic cathedral.
On May 29, the pilgrimage began three days in the Diocese of Charlotte with adoration and Mass on May 30 at the historic Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Monroe. Among the pilgrimage events in the Diocese of Charlotte were Mass, eucharistic adoration and a screening of the 2024 film “Cabrini,” a biopic about the life of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini. She is the first naturalized American citizen to be canonized a saint and the patroness of the pilgrims’ 2026 East Coast route.
The 2026 pilgrimage is the third National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, with the initiative launching in 2024 ahead of that year’s National Eucharistic Congress with a four-route pilgrimage. The second pilgrimage took place last year from Indianapolis to Los Angeles.
