Inspired by the nation’s 250th birthday and the work of the National Eucharistic Revival (2022-2025), a National Eucharistic Pilgrimage will be held May 24-July 5 and will include stops in Maine.

In what organizers describe as “a call to build unity through prayer and to let Jesus, present in the Eucharist, renew and heal the heart of our country,” pilgrims will carry the Blessed Sacrament up the East Coast, beginning Memorial Day weekend at Our Lady of Leche Shrine in St. Augustine, Florida, site of the first Mass celebrated on American soil, and ending Fourth of July weekend in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The theme of the pilgrimage, “One Nation Under God,” is a celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Knights of Columbus’s successful campaign to add the phrase to the Pledge of Allegiance. The route has been dedicated to St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first U.S. citizen to be canonized.

 The pilgrimage will pass through 18 dioceses, including the Diocese of Portland. To welcome the pilgrims to Maine, Bishop James Ruggieri will celebrate a Mass on June 23 at 5 p.m. at St. Martha Church in Kennebunk. The Mass will be preceded by adoration at 3:30 p.m. Overnight adoration will then be held at the Franciscan Monastery in Kennebunk.

On June 24, an 8 a.m. Mass will be celebrated at St. John the Baptist Church in Brunswick followed by a eucharistic procession. There will then be an afternoon sacred music concert, a Shroud of Turin exhibit, and adoration at the Basilica of Ss. Peter & Paul in Lewiston.

On June 25, there will be a eucharistic procession to the Portland Peninsula & Island Parishes, including, by ferry, to St. Christopher Church on Peaks Island.

The Maine segment of the pilgrimage will conclude June 26 with a 10 a.m. Mass at St. Christopher Church in York.

For more details, visit www.portlanddiocese.org/national-eucharistic-pilgrimage-2026.