As the 2026 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage concluded amid the U.S.’s 250th anniversary, “the journey continues,” Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez of Philadelphia said.
2026
From the 2015 World Games in Los Angeles, California, to the 2022 USA Games in Orlando, Florida, Notre Dame Schools of Dallas STAR Young Adult Program participant Kelley Tyler has traveled across the country with pompoms in tow to cheerlead at Special Olympic events. As she took her pep from place to place, her younger brother, Austin Tyler, was there too, cheering for his sister as she cheered on the competitors.
As an assistant project manager working in commercial construction management, Argelia Simon Perez’s days are filled with submittals, financials, and quality reports. Her work requires her to be detail-oriented and organized, she said, and to collaborate with clients and workers to get the job done — and to get it done well.
Registration for public events during the 2026 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage opened March 18, revealing abundant opportunities for Catholics to join the nine “perpetual pilgrims” traveling the East Coast route from Florida to Maine that culminates in an Independence Day weekend celebration in Philadelphia.
Nine young adults have been selected as “perpetual pilgrims” to travel with the Eucharist along the East Coast this summer in the third National Eucharistic Pilgrimage. The pilgrims — five men and four women — will participate in the pilgrimage’s full route, which begins May 24 in Florida and reaches Maine before ending in Philadelphia July 5 for U.S. semiquincentennial celebrations.
The National Eucharistic Pilgrimage is back for 2026 with a special route that will travel the East Coast from St. Augustine, Florida, to Portland, Maine, ending in Philadelphia, organizers announced Jan. 8.
In a revolutionary year, the spirited celebration of America’s 250th anniversary throughout 2026, the national shrine dedicated to the first U.S.-born saint is aiming to help patriotic revelers discover the place of “Mother Seton” among the pantheon of iconic nation-builders.