(LifeSiteNews) — Countless religious pilgrims have prayed at California’s historic Spanish missions over the past 250 years. But the California Eucharistic Pilgrimage set for June 6-22 will be unlike anything before.
Also known as the Camino de California, the 17-day driving pilgrimage will include visits to all 21 mission churches and feature daily Mass, Adoration, Benediction and Eucharistic processions. There will also be daily works of mercy, such as visits to farm workers, homeless shelters, food banks, cemeteries, prisons, and pregnancy counseling centers along the pilgrimage route.
The Blessed Sacrament will be reverently transported from stop to stop in a specially designed “Eucharistic van,” shepherded by clergy and seminarians belonging to the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal (CFR). Besides those “perpetual pilgrims,” more than 150 “Eucharistic pilgrims” will travel in a vehicle caravan for the entire 800-mile course. Thousands of “day pilgrims” will join local processions and other events.
Mission San Diego, the first of the Franciscan missions, was founded by St. Junipero Serra in 1769 near California’s modern border with Mexico. Mission San Francisco Solano in today’s city of Sonoma was founded in 1823 and is the northernmost church in the chain. St. Junipero Serra will be a special intercessor for the Camino de California, for which Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patroness.
The California Eucharistic Pilgrimage will begin in Sonoma on June 6 and proceed from north to south. There will be visits to 15 sites designated by bishops for special graces during the current Jubilee Year of Hope.
Seven bishops and both of California’s archbishops will take part in portions of the pilgrimage. More than 100 religious orders are said to be praying for the Camino de California event.
The pilgrimage is an offshoot of the National Eucharistic Revival, a three-year initiative begun by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2022 to reinvigorate devotion to the Eucharist. The National Eucharistic Congress held in Indianapolis last summer was a high point of that effort.
Participants with the 2025 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage departed Indiana for California on May 18. The national group will join the Camino de California pilgrims for a special Mass at Mission San Diego on June 16. The united group of pilgrims will then visit the four southernmost missions on the way to their final destination, Los Angeles.
A closing Mass will be held at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels on June 22, the Solemnity of Corpus Christi. Prayer intentions collected during both the national and state pilgrimages will be placed at the foot of the altar. The Eucharistic procession through the heart of downtown Los Angeles after the Mass is expected to draw thousands.
The itinerary for the Camino de California aims to bring the Blessed Sacrament and the Catholic faith into the public square. Day 1 will kick off with visits to three missions and a Eucharistic procession with Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, as well as benediction and the Rosary at a prominent location beside the Golden Gate Bridge.
There will be a Eucharistic procession and Benediction on Day 5 at Lower Presidio Historic Park in Monterey, at the site not far from Mission Carmel where St. Serra celebrated Mass in June 1770.
At Mission San Miguel on Day 7, a Cruz de Ferro that is an exact replica of the well-known “Iron Cross” landmark on the Camino de Santiago in Spain will be dedicated. Days 9 and 10 (June 14-15) will feature a Weekend Eucharistic Congress at Thomas Aquinas College and visits to Mission Santa Ynez, Mission Santa Barbara and Mission San Buenaventura.
Day 12 will include a Eucharistic procession at San Diego’s Balboa Park in the morning and a praise and worship concert at Bonita Cove Park in the afternoon. There will be Mass at Mission San Juan Capistrano and overnight Adoration at Christ Cathedral on Day 14.
On Day 15, Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles will celebrate Mass and lead a Eucharistic procession in Altadena, an area devastated by deadly wildfires last January.
Mike Allison of Sacramento will serve as the driver for several religious sisters throughout the full California Eucharistic Pilgrimage. They will stay at host family homes, campgrounds, retreat centers, and a monastery.
The Spanish missions laid the groundwork for Christianity in California, according to Allison. “While the missions have been widely visited, the pilgrimage is an opportunity to reemphasize the purpose for which they were created, to bring the glory of God and the salvation of souls to California and the world.”
Allison said he may join parts of the 45-day Camino de California event now being planned for Lent 2026. Beginning on Ash Wednesday and ending on Good Friday, pilgrims will walk to all 21 missions.
LifeSiteNews readers wishing to support Camino de California may visit the website of the volunteer, non-profit organization.
Robert Jenkins is a pseudonym for a Catholic writer living in Sacramento, California.
