Seminary, Clergy and Religious Pilgrimages

The group is already a community

A seminary class, a presbyterate on retreat and an order visiting its founder’s shrine already pray together, and the itinerary is built for a group that keeps an office and a rule rather than one meeting for the first time at the airport.

Time to pray, not only to see

The Liturgy of the Hours, daily Mass, silence and time for confession are built into the day rather than fitted around it. Where a house or a shrine will host the group for Mass or an overnight, we arrange it with them before you travel.

Built to the rector or the superior

You set the shape of the days and we build to it. A Canterbury tour manager is on the ground throughout and a local guide meets the group at each site, so formation stays with you and the logistics stay with us.

The first conversation

You tell us roughly where the group needs to go, which window the calendar allows, and how many are travelling. We build a draft itinerary and a price from that, with no deposit and no commitment until the plan is right.How it works →

Materials for the house

Every trip gets its own printed brochure, which for a closed group is usually the practical document rather than a promotional one: the day by day, what is included and what each traveller needs to bring and arrange.What we send you →

Registrations and payments

Canterbury takes the registrations and the payments directly from each traveller, or from the house or diocese as one account where that is how you prefer to settle it. Tell us which at the first conversation.Common questions →

The leader 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 the rector, the superior or the vicar can travel with his men rather than run the trip.What a pilgrimage is like →

A different kind of group?

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

Your community 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.

Can the group celebrate Mass privately each day?

That is the normal arrangement for a group travelling with its own priests. We arrange the times and the churches with each shrine before you travel, and where a religious house will host the group we arrange that with them directly.

Do the clergy discounts apply?

Individual clergy rates and group pricing are worked out differently. Tell us how many are travelling and we will quote both, so you can see which is better for your numbers.

How far ahead should we start?

Eight to thirteen months. Seminary and community calendars are fixed further ahead than a parish calendar and offer fewer windows, so the earlier end of that range is the practical one.

Who collects the money?

Each traveller can register and pay Canterbury directly. If your house or diocese would rather settle as one account, raise it at the first conversation and we will tell you what we can arrange.

Can you build it around our founder?

Yes, and it is usually the right starting point. Tell us the founder, the houses or the shrines that matter to your community, your dates and how many are travelling, and we will build around them.