Parish Pilgrimages

Your pastor leads it

A parish pilgrimage travels with its own priest, so Mass is celebrated for your group each day and confessions are heard along the way. We arrange the times and the churches with each shrine before you travel.

Built around the parish year

Dates are set around your calendar rather than ours: an anniversary, a patronal feast, the school holidays, or simply the weeks the pastor can be away. The group travels on its own dates rather than joining a fixed departure, and the itinerary is built to fit the time you have.

One parish, one group

Everyone travels together on one itinerary, with a Canterbury tour manager on the ground for the whole pilgrimage and a local guide at each site. Parishes of every size travel this way, from a single coach to several hundred pilgrims across many.

The first conversation

You tell us roughly where the parish wants to go, when, and how many you expect. We build a draft itinerary and a price from that, with no deposit and no commitment until the plan is right. How it works →

Promotion your parish can use

Every trip gets its own brochure and we mail 250 printed copies to the leader, with sample bulletin text and a parish email ready to send. Bulletin graphics are made on request. Promoting it in the parish →

Registrations and payments

Canterbury takes the registrations, the deposits and the balances directly from each pilgrim, so the parish office is not collecting cheques or chasing payments. Common questions →

The pastor travels free

At the group size shown on your proposal the leader’s place is complimentary. The threshold is written on the proposal from the start rather than discovered later. How the free place works →

A Canterbury escort on the ground

A tour manager travels with the group for the whole pilgrimage, with local guides at each site, so your pastor can be a priest to his people rather than a tour leader. What a pilgrimage is like →

A different kind of group?

We build the same trip for a diocese, a school, a youth group, a lay organisation, or a seminary or religious community. We also build pilgrimages to mark a priest’s anniversary. Tell us what the group is and we will build around it.

Your parish travels on its own dates.

Tell us the window you have in mind and we will build the itinerary around it: the time you have, and the places that matter most to your pilgrims.

Does our pastor have to travel with us?

In practice a parish pilgrimage travels with its own priest, and that is what makes daily Mass and confessions along the way straightforward. If your parish cannot send one, tell us: we arrange for the group to attend a public Mass, usually in the local language, and a chaplain can be arranged on request.

How many pilgrims do we need?

Tell us roughly how many you expect and we will price it. Smaller groups cost more per person than larger ones, and the group size at which the leader’s place becomes complimentary is written on your proposal from the start.

How far ahead should we start?

Most parish groups start eight to thirteen months out, and waiting is the most common mistake we see. Holy Week, the major feast days and the school holidays go earliest, so a popular date wants the longer end of that.

Who collects the money?

We do. Each pilgrim registers and pays Canterbury directly, so the parish office is not handling deposits, balances or refunds, and no one in the parish is chasing payments.

Can you build a parish pilgrimage anywhere?

Yes, that is most of what we do. Tell us your dates, roughly how many travellers, and where the parish would most like to go, and we will build it around that.