One Pilgrimage Launches, a Second Begins Next Week — Both are honoring Mother Seton - Seton Shrine

One Pilgrimage Launches, a Second Begins Next Week — Both are honoring Mother Seton

“There is no better way to be inspired by her…”

On Monday, the Shrine’s Executive Director, Rob Judge, joined forty-five pilgrims as they began the Camino of Maryland, a 14-day, 214-mile walking pilgrimage from Point Lookout, MD to the Seton Shrine.

This is the second year for this walk that takes pilgrims to parishes throughout the Archdiocese of Washington, DC and Baltimore.

Among the highlights of the Camino are stopovers at St. Clemens Island, MD — the site of the first Catholic Mass celebrated in the English-speaking American Colonies — and the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC.

“As the reality of the length of this route sets in, I focus on the prayer requests I’m carrying and I’m reminded that this walk is not about me, but about God’s glory in the ordinary,” said Camino pilgrim Corinne Coppola.

A second pilgrimage, Footsteps of Mother Seton, begins June 19 and ends — along with the Camino of Maryland — on June 22 at the Seton Shrine on the Feast of Corpus Christi.

The pilgrims will travel 55 miles walking along the same path Mother Seton took from Baltimore to Emmitsburg in 1809.

The route begins at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption in Baltimore, includes stops at Jubilee sites, and features evening programs at Sacred Heart parish in Glyndon, MD and St. John’s in Westminster, MD.

“We are literally going to walk where she walked and prayerfully reflect on her journey, life, and legacy. There is no better time to connect with the first American-born saint and each other. And there is no better way to be inspired by her,” said Rob Judge.

The Camino of Maryland and the Footsteps of Mother Seton pilgrimages are initiatives designed to spread devotion to Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of her canonization this year.

Find more details, including how to submit intentions for the pilgrims to carry with them along the way, here.