You will board a flight to Washington DC. Upon arrival you will be met by your guide and taken for lunch on your own. Following lunch visit the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception for Mass and a tour. The United States has long been considered the great melting pot, where people from many diverse lands have come to dwell. The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception is proud to reflect this rich heritage of America. Home to more than 80 chapels and oratories honoring the Mother of God and representing peoples from every corner of the globe, the National Shrine reflects the ethnic and cultural diversity of the United States and the unity and universality of the Catholic Church. Built by generations of faithful American Catholics to honor the patroness of our nation—the Blessed Virgin Mary under her title of the Immaculate Conception — the National Shrine is affectionately referred to as America’s Catholic Church. Among the nationalities and ethnicities represented throughout the Basilica are African, Austrian, Chinese, Cuban, Czech, Filipino, French, German, Guamanian, Hungarian, Indian, Irish, Italian, Korean, Latin American, Lebanese, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Slovak, Slovenian, and Vietnamese. Religious communities from around the world are also represented, including the Augustinians, Carmelites, Claretians, Dominicans, Franciscans, Jesuits, Montfort Missionaries, Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Redemptorists, Salesians, Sisters of Charity, Sisters of Providence, and Vincentians. Following visit transfer to Frederickson, MD hotel for a group welcome dinner and restful overnight.

Today after breakfast we will visit Baltimore’s significant churches – The Basilica of the Assumption (“America’s First Cathedral”) and the Cathedral of Mary, Our Queen which has recently been restored. Encounter the deep faith in Jesus that inspired the Maryland founders to charter land for religious freedom! Lunch will be on your own. After lunch we will visit Mother Seton’s First school and residence in Baltimore. Lastly, this afternoon we will visit the National Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes. Above the lovely valley of Emmitsburg, situated high on the Mountainside, where nature displays itself in all its wild and picturesque glory, sits the National Shrine Grotto of Lourdes. This shrine traces its lineage to the very beginnings of the spread of Catholicism in America. Indelibly linked with Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, it is one of the oldest American replicas of the revered French shrine, dating to about two decades after the apparitions at Lourdes (1875), although the site had already been in use for more than seventy years as a place of prayer and devotion. Dinner and overnight Frederick, MD.

Today is the full day dedicated to celebration St. Elizabeht Ann Seton. The center pays tribute to the life and mission of Elizabeth Ann Seton (August 28, 1774 – January 4, 1821), the first native-born citizen of the United States to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. It is both a Minor Basilica and a National Shrine. There will be a tour, Mass, time for prayer and veneration at Mother Seton’s Tomb. There will be time to shop. Discover the life and legacy of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton on a tour where you’ll see the two historic homes and grounds where Elizabeth Ann, the first American-born saint, lived and worked. We will spend the day at this beautiful shrine. Dinner at a local restaurant. Overnight Frederick, MD.

Breakfast at Hotel followed by Holy Mass and transfer back to the airport to say our farewells and catch flights home.

*206 Tours Disclaimer:
Occasionally local religious and national holidays, weather, traffic conditions and other events may necessitate changes in the sequence of events or the missing of certain events/places. Though every effort will be made to follow the itinerary, it should be considered as an indication, rather than a contract of events and places to be visited.