European Pilgrimage Tours

European Pilgrimage Tours are journeys of faith with a spiritual purpose.

European Pilgrimage Tours of faith to a place that is considered holy is an important part of spiritual life.

European Pilgrimage Tours offer inspiration, the light of hope and spiritual enlightenment.

Fatima, Portugal

Chapel of the Apparitions

Famous for the Apparitions of Our Lady of the Rosary that appeared to three shepherd children, Lucia dos Santos and her two younger cousins, Francisco and Jacinta Marto in 1917.

Fatima, located in west central Portugal, in the region of Leiria and approximately 110 kilometers (88 miles) north of Lisbon, was then a small rural village in a rocky region whose main product was olive oil.

In 1916, on three separate occasions, Lucia Santos and her two cousins, Jacinta and Francisco Marto, began witnessing apparitions of an angel in the region of Ourém.

These visitations persisted until the 13 May 1917 when, while tending their family's sheep in Cova da Iria, they witnessed the apparition of the Virgin Mary.
These visitations culminated in the public Miracle of the Sun and the Virgin Mary divulged three secrets to the children.

The last vision of the Virgin Mary occurred on 13 October 1917.

Since then, Fatima has become one of the most visited Marian shrines for Catholic pilgrims in the world.

The Chapel of the Apparitions is now built on the site where the vision of the Virgin Mary appeared before three peasant children in 1917.

Fatima has been given the title of "Shrine of the World".

Lourdes, France

European Pilgrimage Tours journey to Lourdes, a small market town lying in the foothills of the Pyrenees in south-western France.

Prior to the mid-19th century, Lourdes was best known for its fortified castle of Château fort de Lourdes.

In 1858, the Virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette Soubirous on eighteen occasions at Lourdes.

The Virgin Mary also told Bernadette to dig at a certain spot and to drink from the small spring of water located there.

From that spring, cures were reported from drinking the water.

Lourdes has now become a major Roman Catholic pilgrimage site noted for miraculous healings.

Lourdes today, is known worldwide for the Sanctuaries Notre-Dame de Lourdes, or the Domain, the Grotto of Massabielle and for Bernadette Soubirous, the young peasant girl who saw the vision of the Virgin Mary who is now a venerated Christian Saint of the Catholic Church.

Assisi, Italy

Festival Calendimaggio of Assisi

Assisi, an Umbrian hill town north of Rome, is the birthplace of St. Francis.

St Francis of Assisi (1181 or 1182 - 1226) is renowned for his love, simplicity, and practice of poverty.

He was born into wealth and began to see visions from God that changed his life.

He took a vow of poverty, founded the Franciscan Order and, his basic rule was "To follow the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ and to walk in his footsteps".

He was declared a Saint of the Catholic Church two years after his death.

St Francis is remembered by the Catholic Church in the Basilica of San Francesco of Assisi, which is now a World Heritage Site.

May is the month when the Festival Calendimaggio in Assisi re-enacts medieval life with games, processions, dances and theatrical performances.

Czestochowa, Poland

The Black Madonna of Czestochowa

The Black Madonna of Czestochowa is a four-foot-high icon painted in the Eastern Christian tradition and famous for many miracles which includes bleeding after being struck with a sword during a Hussite attack in 1430.

It is a revered icon of the Virgin Mary housed at the Jasna Góra Monastery in Czestochowa and has been associated with Poland for the past 600 years.

The Virgin Mary is shown as the "Hodegetria" ("One Who Shows the Way") directing with her right hand toward Jesus as the source of salvation.

Art historians believe that the original painting was a Byzantine icon created around the 6th or 9th century and brought to the monastery in the 14th century by Prince Wladyslaw.

Several Pontiffs have recognised the venerated icon, beginning with Pope Clement XI who issued a Canonical Coronation on 8 September 1717 via the Vatican Chapter.

The shrine to the Black Madonna in Jasna Gora Monastery today attracts pilgrims from around the world. millions visitors a year.

Camino de Santiago, Spain

Santiago de Compostela

The Camino de Santiago, also known as the Way of St. James, St. James's Way, St. James's Path, St. James's Trail, Route of Santiago de Compostela, and Road to Santiago, is the name of any of the pilgrimage routes to the shrine of the Apostle St. James the Great in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, northwestern Spain, where the remains of the Saint are buried.

The Way can take one of several pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela and are considered the oldest Christian pilgrimage routes in the world.

These pilgrimage routes run through Northern Spain and end at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.

Monasteries provide hostels for pilgrims along the Camino de Santiago, or Way of St. James who ask for small monetary donation in return.

Pilgrims should also be aware that a special Credencial, or religious passport, is required to stay at a monastic hostel.

The scallop shell, often found on the shores in Galicia, is the symbol of the Camino de Santiago.