Pilgrimage to Assisi

Going on a religious pilgrimage is an ancient way of deepening one’s spirituality by traveling to a place associated with a holy person.  It can be a deeply moving and powerful religious encounter. Pilgrims are not tourists, pilgrims are people on a journey designed to take them outside their everyday, familiar lives into an unfamiliar environment, where they can encounter the extraordinary, and thereby experience God in a new way.

Our Pilgrimage to Rome and Assisi offers participants a chance to reflect on and learn from the vision and values of St. Francis and St. Clare of Assisi. The Pilgrimage includes time for Mass, reflection, study, conversation, leisure, and visits to sacred Franciscan places in Assisi and Rome. Pilgrims will experience the spiritual heritage bestowed upon the world by St. Francis and St. Clare.  We'll also have plenty of time to eat, sightsee, eat, shop, eat and eat!  

• Greccio- In 1224 St. Francis and the residents of Greccio reenacted the first modern manger scene since Christ’s birth. Today the hilltop town of Greccio still continues this tradition every day. 
• Chiesa Nuovo- The boyhood home of St. Francis is in the “Chiesa Nuova” or “New Church”. See the remains of the house where Francis was raised and the jail cell where his parents imprisoned him for giving away his father’s wealth. 
• Childhood home of St. Clare- tucked away at the top of Assisi next to the Cathedral of San Rufino are the remains of the childhood home of St. Clare. View this house and learn about Clare’s extraordinary conversion and her embrace of poverty. 
• San Rufino- Visit the ancient Cathedral where both St. Francis and St. Clare were baptized and worshipped in their youth. 
• San Damiano- At the beginning of his ministry, St. Francis began restoring the abandoned crusader church of San Damiano. Later, it became the home of St. Clare and her sisters. 
• Basilica of St. Francis- Construction began on the Basilica just 4 years after the saint’s death. Visit the upper and lower churches and see the fresco depicting Francis’ life and ministry which were painted by Cimabue and Giotto. Spend time in meditation in the crypt where St. Francis is buried.

• Basilica of St. Clare- The original church was where Francis received a basic education and since1257, the Cathedral and adjacent convent has been the home of the Poor Clare sisters in Assisi.  At the Basilica you will be able to venerate the tomb of St. Clare and the original San Damiano Cross and see relics from St. Francis and St. Clare.  
• Santa Maria Maggiore- The Church of Santa Maria Maggiore dates to 10th century and was the cathedral of Assisi until the late 12^th century when the new Cathedral of San Rufino was completed. Adjacent to the church is the bishop’s house and courtyard where, in 1206/07 St. Francis famously renounced his father and his inheritance and disrobed in front of the bishop and the townspeople of Assisi.
• Eremo delle Carceri- “Hermitage of the Cells” is a small hermitage and monastery located on Mount Subasio above the town of Assisi. St. Francis often came to pray and rest in caves on the mountain. 
• The Porziuncola- The Porziuncola is a small chapel inside the Papal Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli located on the plain of Assisi. This ancient chapel first built in the 4^th century was the site around which St. Francis and his early followers made their home. It was also here that the saint died in 1226. 
• San Francesco a Ripa (Rome)- Located in the Trastevere section of Rome, the church of San Francesco a Ripa and adjacent friary was a leper colony in Francis’ time and was the place where Francis stayed whenever he visited Rome.  
• Visit the Franciscan Shrine at LaVerna in Tuscany where St. Francis received the stigmata wounds in September of 1224.

• The Vatican 
• Santa Maria in Trastevere 
• Basilica of St. John Lateran
• Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel (optional)

• The Pantheon, Roman Forum, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Castle Sant’Angelo, Piazza Navona.

The cost of the Pilgrimage is $5,200 double occupancy, $5,700 single occupancy and includes airfare, lodging, almost all meals, transportation, transfers, tips and taxes.