In the Footsteps of St. John Paul II with Fr. Gary Kosmowski
Nine days in Kraków and southern Poland, from Wadowice and Częstochowa to the Tatra Mountains and the Divine Mercy Sanctuary, with Mass every day.
Your chaplain
Fr. Gary Kosmowski
Pastor, Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Parish, Hampton, and St. Theresa Catholic Church, Rye Beach, New Hampshire
“Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ.”
St. John Paul II, at the inauguration of his pontificate, October 22, 1978
On Wawel Hill stands the cathedral where Karol Wojtyła was ordained a bishop and later served as Archbishop of Kraków. On this pilgrimage we pray in the churches where he was baptized, studied, served and preached.
Wawel Hill · Kraków
Poland, September 13 to 21, 2027
Nine days, seven nights in Kraków, with day trips to Wadowice, Auschwitz, Częstochowa, Zakopane and Wieliczka, and Mass each day.
Begins and ends in Kraków
OvernightVisit
Nights: 7 Kraków.
Departure
Our pilgrimage begins as we depart the United States on our overnight flight to Kraków, Poland.
Arrival in Kraków
Upon arrival at Kraków’s John Paul II International Airport, our local professional tour escort will greet us and accompany us by motorcoach to our hotel. After check-in, we gather this evening for a welcome dinner to begin our pilgrimage together.
Kraków, A Second Rome
A sixteenth-century papal legate said of this city that if there had been no Rome, Kraków would have been Rome, and in the number of its churches, religious houses and saints the claim still holds. We begin on foot in the historic center at St. Mary’s Basilica on the Main Market Square, whose Gothic interior and great carved altarpiece by Veit Stoss are among the most beautiful in Europe, and from whose tower the hejnał has been sounded every hour for centuries. We ascend Wawel Hill above the Vistula to the royal cathedral and castle, where the kings of Poland were crowned and buried and where St. Stanislaus, the bishop martyred in 1079 and patron of Poland, is venerated at the center of the church; this was Cardinal Wojtyła’s own cathedral as Archbishop of Kraków. We visit Kazimierz, for five centuries the heart of Jewish Kraków until its people were forced across the river into the ghetto under the German occupation, and pass the Jagiellonian University, the second oldest in Central Europe, where Karol Wojtyła studied and whose faculty were seized and deported to the camps in 1939. We celebrate Mass at the Church of St. Florian, where the young Father Wojtyła served the university students in the first years of his priesthood, accompanying them one by one in a ministry that shaped the rest of his life. Time is left for lunch at leisure.
Wadowice & Dębniki
This morning we depart for Wadowice, the small town where Karol Wojtyła was born in 1920 and lived until he was eighteen. We celebrate Mass at the Wojtyła family parish, the Basilica of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, where he was baptized and where he prayed daily before the image of Our Lady of Perpetual Help as a boy, and we have time to walk the town he never stopped speaking of. Returning to Kraków, we visit the Church of St. Stanislaus Kostka in Dębniki, the parish he attended as a university student. It was here that he met Venerable Jan Tyranowski, the tailor who at grave personal risk gathered and catechized young men through the years when religious instruction was forbidden, introduced Wojtyła to St. John of the Cross, and left a mark on his interior life that lasted to the end.
Nowa Huta, Mogiła, Auschwitz & Harmęże
The Communist authorities built Nowa Huta as the model socialist city, dedicated to labor and industry and deliberately raised without a church, the first town in Poland so planned. The workers set up a cross; each time it was torn down another went up in its place, and the young Bishop Wojtyła came year after year to celebrate Christmas Mass in the open cold, promising that a church would one day stand here. That promise was kept in the Ark of the Lord Church, which we visit this morning. We continue to the Cistercian Abbey at Mogiła, the Sanctuary of the Holy Cross, where the venerated crucifix has drawn pilgrims for centuries and where St. John Paul II celebrated Mass on his first return to Poland as Pope in June of 1979, preaching there on the Cross as the sign under which Poland would be renewed. We celebrate Mass at the sanctuary. This afternoon we travel to Auschwitz-Birkenau for a guided visit to the camp, where we see the starvation cell in which St. Maximilian Kolbe gave his life in place of a fellow prisoner in August of 1941, and we pray for the dead. We conclude at Harmęże, where the St. Maximilian Kolbe Sanctuary keeps his memory.
Częstochowa & Jasna Góra
Today we travel north to the Jasna Góra Monastery at Częstochowa, the national shrine of Poland and the most visited place of pilgrimage in the country, home to the icon of Our Lady of Częstochowa, the Black Madonna, crowned Queen and Patroness of Poland. The icon has stood at the center of Polish history for six centuries, and in 1957 an exact replica was carried from parish to parish across the whole country under Communist rule, a visitation the authorities tried and failed to stop. We celebrate Mass at the shrine and join the faithful for the unveiling of the icon, entrusting our own intentions to Our Lady.
The Tatra Mountains, Zakopane & Krzeptówki
St. John Paul II was a man of the outdoors, and to understand him it helps to walk where he walked. We travel south to the Tatra Mountains, where as priest and bishop he hiked, camped, skied and prayed with his students, and where he was known as the daredevil of the Tatras. Asked once whether it was fitting for a cardinal to ski, he answered that it was unfitting for a cardinal to ski badly. We take a moderate hike on the paths he loved and ride the funicular for the view over Zakopane, where we stop for lunch. We then visit the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima at Krzeptówki, raised by the mountain people as a votive offering in thanksgiving for Our Lady’s protection of the Holy Father at the assassination attempt of May 13, 1981, and we celebrate Mass there.
Łagiewniki, Divine Mercy & Wieliczka
We travel this morning to the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy at Łagiewniki, the convent where St. Faustina Kowalska lived and died in 1938 and where the Lord entrusted to her the message of His mercy. We venerate her relics and her tomb, see one of the earliest images of the Divine Mercy painted under her direction, and celebrate Mass at the sanctuary. Nearby we visit the St. John Paul II Museum, which follows his life from the devotional books of his childhood to his skis and to the blood-stained cassock of 1981. This afternoon we descend into the Wieliczka Salt Mine, a UNESCO World Heritage Site worked since the thirteenth century, where generations of miners carved chapels, altars and statues out of the rock salt, chief among them the great Chapel of St. Kinga far below ground. This evening we gather for our Farewell Dinner.
Kraków, Return Home
With hearts renewed by the grace of pilgrimage and the intercession of St. John Paul II, St. Faustina and St. Maximilian Kolbe, we transfer to Kraków’s John Paul II International Airport for our return flight home to the United States.
What’s included
Everything below is covered by the package price.
Your hotel in Kraków
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“Each one has been beautifully arranged and managed from start to finish.”
“This was the trip of a lifetime and excellent customer service.”
Questions pilgrims ask
Short answers to what most people want to know before they put down a deposit.
It is a touring pilgrimage by motorcoach, not a walking one. Expect about 2 to 3 miles of walking on a typical day. The Kraków day is on foot through the Old Town and up Wawel Hill, Auschwitz-Birkenau is a long visit on foot, the Tatra day includes a moderate hike, and the Wieliczka Salt Mine has many stairs underground.
You can have a room to yourself, with a single room supplement of $799, or share a room with two beds with another pilgrim. If you would like to share, we will do our best to match you with a roommate; if we cannot find a match by the final payment date, June 15, 2027, the single room supplement applies. Couples, families, friends and singles are all welcome, and plenty of pilgrims come on their own.
Lunches, drinks beyond those served with meals, donations at Masses, souvenirs and laundry. Tips for your tour manager and driver: if you are satisfied with their service, it is customary to tip. Tips for local guides and hotel and restaurant staff are included. Travel insurance if you choose it, and the 3% credit card processing fee unless you pay by check, ACH or Zelle. A typical lunch costs about $15 to $20. Abroad, we recommend paying for most things by credit card, which is accepted almost everywhere and comes with protection that cash does not; bring a couple hundred US dollars in cash for emergencies. When a card machine or ATM asks whether to pay in dollars or in the local currency (Polish złoty), choose the local currency; it is almost always cheaper.
Yes. Cancel in writing. Up to June 15, 2027, everything you have paid is returned except $200 per person. The final payment, due June 15, 2027, is 100% non-refundable, so after that date nothing paid is returned. Travel insurance may cover a cancellation, depending on the reason.
Fr. Gary Kosmowski, pastor of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Parish in Hampton and St. Theresa Catholic Church in Rye Beach, New Hampshire, leads the pilgrimage and celebrates Mass each day, with parishioners, family and friends. Anyone is welcome to join.
More answers in the FAQ below and in our Support Center, or call us at +1 (800) 653-0017.
Price per person
Per person, including roundtrip group airfare from Boston (BOS). Flying from another city? You can request an airfare quote from your airport when you reserve.
$200 per person is non-refundable.
Final payment is due 90 days before departure and is 100% non-refundable. Payment plans are available if you would like to make smaller payments before then.
Check
ACH bank transfer
Zelle
Cash, money order or cashier’s check
Protect your pilgrimage
Your pilgrimage is paid for long before you leave. Travel insurance is added as part of your booking: when you reserve, choose an Allianz plan on the insurance step. There is no separate quote to get. Classic is the plan we recommend for most pilgrims.
- Covers your trip cost. Classic reimburses 100% of the trip cost you insured if you cancel for a covered reason, and adds emergency medical care and baggage cover.
- Buy within 14 days of your first deposit to keep Cancel Anytime and pre-existing condition cover. The plans stay available until departure.
- Buy it in the same checkout as your pilgrimage. Prefer to add it by phone? Call us at +1 (800) 653-0017.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Fr. Kosmowski celebrates Mass on each full day in Poland: at St. Florian’s in Kraków, the basilica in Wadowice, the Sanctuary of the Holy Cross at Mogiła, Jasna Góra, Krzeptówki and the Divine Mercy Sanctuary.
Yes. Choose “Book my own” on the flights step when you reserve: the same pilgrimage, September 13 to 21, 2027, for $3,300 per person, two sharing. Send us your flight details once booked, so we can line your arrival up with the group’s. Group air from other airports can be arranged; you can request an airfare quote from your airport when you reserve.
No. We stay all seven nights at the Mercure Kraków Stare Miasto or similar, a 10-minute walk from the Old Town, and return there each evening.
A U.S. passport valid at least 3 months beyond the return date. If the European Union’s ETIAS travel authorization is in force by departure, each pilgrim applies for it online before travel.
June 15, 2027, 90 days before departure. The final payment is 100% non-refundable.
You get access to the Canterbury app and the Pilgrim Portal, which use the same login, with your itinerary, payments and messages to our team. A travel kit with your final information letter, the Magnificat and your name and luggage tags arrives by mail about 30 days before departure.
We strongly encourage travel insurance for all of our pilgrims, and we partner with Allianz Travel Insurance to offer affordable coverage. Most of our pilgrims choose the Classic Plan. You add it as part of your booking: choose a plan on the insurance step when you reserve, or call us at +1 (800) 653-0017. Buy within 14 days of your first deposit to keep Cancel Anytime and pre-existing condition cover.
A pilgrimage is not a vacation or excursion but a unique spiritual journey that provides many opportunities to deepen your relationship with God and enrich your Catholic faith by bringing Scripture to life. Pilgrimages offer the opportunity to let Christ draw you near.
More questions are answered in our Support Center, covering booking, payments, travel insurance, passports and what to expect on pilgrimage.
Couples, families, friends, singles, all are welcome!
Some pilgrims come as a couple, some bring the whole family, some come with a friend from the parish, and plenty come on their own. Everyone is welcome.
Join Fr. Kosmowski in Poland
Nine days in the footsteps of St. John Paul II, September 13 to 21, 2027. Reserve today with a $450 deposit per pilgrim.
Questions? Call +1 (800) 653-0017 or email hello@canterburypilgrimages.com.
Secure your spot today with a $450 deposit per pilgrim.