Pilgrimage, an experience of a lifetime

A few parishioners from St. Patrick Parish experienced spiritual renewal during a summer pilgrimage to holy sites in Italy, Bosnia and Croatia. The highlight of the 12-day pilgrimage was the Papal Mass celebrated on June 29, the Feast day of St. Peter and St. Paul and the sixtieth anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI’s ordination to the priesthood.

Also on this day there was a special yearly Mass in which the newly Metropolitan Archbishops from around the world received the pallium from the pope. The pallium is a special white vestment made of lamb’s wool that is placed around the head and shoulders of the archbishop.

Immediately following the Pallium Mass, the Corpus Christi pilgrims departed for Medjugorje where they stayed four days. In Medjugorje, a town in Bosnia, the Blessed Virgin Mary is reported to have appeared to six children on June 24, 1981. At first all six children claimed to have received the apparitions of the Blessed Mother on a regular basis. Today only two receive daily apparitions.

According to pilgrims, Medjugorje is a place of great peace and prayer, but the Catholic Church has not yet approved these apparitions. The church is unable to declare whether the apparitions are real until after the apparitions have stopped. This is the standard procedure of the church. It was the procedure followed in approving other Marian apparitions in Lourdes, France, Fatima, Portugal, Knock and Ireland.

After departing Medjugorje, the pilgrims sailed back across the Adriatic Sea and made their way to the town of San Giovanni Rotondo, the home of St. Padre Pio. Padre Pio was known for being a good confessor, spending hours in the confessional. People came from all over Italy to have him hear their confession.

Like St. Francis of Assisi, Padre Pio received the stigmata or the five wounds of Christ. There are many stories of people who have received miracles through his intercession.

Next, the pilgrims visited the famous church of St. Michael the Archangel. St. Michael is said to have chosen this particular location for the church.

According to legend, around the year 490 the Archangel Michael appeared several times to the bishop of Sipontum near a cave, asking that the cave be dedicated to Christian worship and promising protection for Sipontum from pagan invaders. These were the first apparitions of St. Michael in Western Europe. St. Michael got his wish, this particular cave was dedicated to Christian worship and today a beautiful church is erected on top of the cave.

The pilgrims’ next stop was in the town of Loreto where they visited a house believed to be that of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Three centuries after the life of Jesus, the newly converted Emperor Constantine built a basilica over the humble brick house in Nazareth that was believed to have sheltered the Holy Family.

According to Catholic tradition, in 1291 the holy house came under threat during the turmoil of the Crusades, so it is believed that angels miraculously transported the house from its original location to a site in modern-day Croatia.

Shepherds, discovered it in a field, and fetched a bewildered pastor to the scene. They had a vision in which the Virgin Mary revealed it was her former house.

On Dec. 10, 1294, during the Muslim invasion of Albania, angels again moved the house to Recanti, Italy.

Shortly thereafter it was moved for a third time to its present location in Loreto.

Assisi, made famous by St. Francis, was the pilgrims’ next stop. St. Francis was born into a wealthy family, but embraced a life of poverty and service to the poor. He created a community of followers called the Franciscans, who continue to work in many countries throughout the world today.

From Assisi the group headed back to Rome where they toured ancient sites and attended Mass at the church of St. Peter in Chains.

Within this church were the chains that, according to tradition, were the chains that held St. Peter during his imprisonment.

The pilgrims reported that the pilgrimage had been an “experience of a lifetime.”