Fatima Lourdes Pilgrimage Tour October 2023

Board your overnight transatlantic flights to Lisbon. Dinner and breakfast are served on board

Arrive in Lisbon and enjoy an orientation drive through Lisbon, highlighted by Mass, and a visit to the birth site of Saint Anthony. Dinner and Overnight in Lisbon.

Drive to the town of Santarem, one of the oldest cities in the world, where you will have Mass and visit the Church of St Stephen, which contains the oldest recorded Eucharistic Miracle. Stolen by a woman in payment to a sorcerer, the Host began to emit a brilliant beam of light and then bleed. Reverently returned to the church of St Stephen, this miracle has been on continuous display since 1269. In the afternoon, you drive to nearby Fatima, the place where the Blessed Mother appeared in 1917 to three simple shepherd children and exhorted mankind to pray for world peace. Tonight you may participate in a candlelight procession. Dinner and overnight in Fatima.

Six times, from May 13 to October 13, 1917, the Virgin Mary appeared to three novices belonging to the diocese of Leiria. See the basilica was constructed in 1928 and contains Francesco and Jacinta’s graves, and celebrate Mass at the Little Chapel of the Apparitions. Visit the Hamlet of Aljustrel, where the children lived, and Valinhos, the site of Our Lady’s appearance after the children’s return from prison. Follow the Stations of the Cross along the Via Sacra (The Sacred Way) culminating in the Chapel of Calvary, which overlooks all of Fatima. Dinner and overnight in Fatima.

Depart to Avila making 2 stops en route; the first in Coimbra, to visit the Carmelite Convent the last earthly home of Sr. Lucia, the third visionary. Continue to the Convent of the Poor Clare’s to see the Silver coffin that holds the incorrupt body of St. Elizabeth of Portugal. On the way to Avila, we make another stop in Alba de Tormes, where St. Theresa of Avila is buried. Arrive at Avila in time for dinner and overnight.

St. Theresa, the great mystic was the first woman to be named a Doctor of the Church. In Avila, visit the Cathedral, which contains many of St. Theresa’s relics, and the crypt of the Convento of La Santa, which is built on the site of the house where she was born and is home to the most comprehensive museum dedicated to her life. Also visit La Encarnacion Convent, the first convent she founded. In the afternoon, travel to Burgos, the historic capital of Old Castile. Dinner and overnight in Burgos.

This morning you will have Mass at the Santa Maria Cathedral. Leave Burgos, heading to Lourdes. En route stop in Loyola, the birthplace of St Ignatius, founder of the Jesuits. See the 17th Century Basilica dedicated to St Ignatius and visit his family home which contains the place referred to as the Room of the Conversion. Later, travel through the Pyrenees Mountains into Lourdes, the birthplace of St Bernadette, and where Our Lady appeared in 1858 near the Grotto of Massabielle. After dinner, enjoy a candlelight procession. Overnight in Lourdes.

See a video presentation telling the story of Lourdes and enjoy a guided tour of Lourdes which will include the sanctuary; the Grotto, where Our Lady appeared under the title of the Immaculate Conception; the Basilica of the Rosary, the Basilica of St Pius X, the world’s largest underground church; Boly Mill where St Bernadette was born and the “Cachot,” an abandoned prison where Bernadette’s impoverished family lived; and the baths where hundreds of miraculous cures have taken place. Dinner and overnight in Lourdes.

Early departure for the USA.