Pilgrimage of New York

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Our pilgrim route starts near the northern tip of Manhattan (Mother Cabrini shrine) and extends to the Battery (Mother Seton shrine), along a route of approximately thirteen miles (don't worry: parts of the route slope downhill; you'll make it). The walking route will give you a wonderful tour of Manhattan's geography, ethnic neighborhoods, architecture, and, most importantly for our purposes, Manhattan's rich Catholic legacy of holiness.

Following paragraphs introduce you to the churches and saints you will meet en route. The history of New York generally flowed "south to north"; that is, the first European visitors settled Manhattan's tip and gradually moved north. But our pilgrimage will flow "north to south," so your pilgrimage will begin in the 19th and 20th centuries, and you will gradually walk south in geography and backward in time toward the earliest 18th century traces of Catholic Church history in New York.

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850-1917)

She founded the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart and journeyed to New York in 1889 with six companion sisters. They worked as teachers, nurses, social workers, and even as counselors to death row prisoners in New York jails; she helped found the Columbus Hospital (later known as Cabrini Medical Center). In all she founded some 67 orphanages, schools, or other social service centers in New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and other cities—an absolutely incredible record of accomplishment in any age, much less in her own "pre-jet-age" era.

Mother Cabrini was canonized in 1946. She was the first American citizen to be named a saint. Since the 1930s, her body has been enshrined in a glass case in the St. Frances Cabrini Shrine, which is adjacent to Mother Cabrini HS in Manhattan's Fort Washington section.

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, herself an immigrant to the United States, reminds us how deeply the Catholic Church in New York has been shaped by the immigrant experience.

While you pay respects to Mother Cabrini, recall the courage it took for this woman to travel from her native Italy to a distant country in the 19th century; think of her tireless efforts to serve the poor and underprivileged in this city. We can pray that we too will be similarly inspired by her example.

St. Aloysius Gonzaga (1569 - 1591)

Is known, together with St. John Berchmans and St. Stanislaus Kostka, as the three famous Jesuit “boyhood saints,” so called because they all died young, while they were still in Jesuit training and before they were ordained priests (they did not know each other, however, and lived in different parts of Europe during different generations). Gonzaga was born in northern Italy to an extremely wealthy, noble family. While still a teenager, he expressed interest in joining the Jesuits and subsequently resisted strenuous objections from his father, who wanted Aloysius to inherit some of the family wealth and status. Aloyisus finally prevailed, entering the Jesuit novitiate at age 17. He died at age 23: a terrible plague had broken out in Rome in 1591, and Aloysius, helping to care for plague victims, contracted plague himself. Because he died while young and still in studies, he is considered the patron saint of youth. In both Ignatius Loyola and Francis Xavier churches, you will find statues of the three Jesuit boyhood saints, as they are often portrayed in a group. Aloysius is often depicted holding a lily (signifying his youthful innocence), a cross (his piety), and a skull (his early death).

St. Ignatius Loyola (1491 - 1556)

Was the leading co-founder of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) and its first superior general. He was born into a family of minor nobility in Spain’s Basque region and pursued a military career until one leg was badly wounded in battle. During his long convalescence, he underwent a profound conversion and decided to imitate the great saints in serving the Lord. While on a pilgrimage to start his new life, he developed the rudiments of his Spiritual Exercises, which are probably Catholicism’s most widely used retreat tool; you could participate in adaptations of these Spiritual Exercises in various ways: at the Jesuit churches visited during the Pilgrimage of New York; by visiting Jesuit retreat houses in Staten Island, Manhasset (Long Island), or Morristown (NJ); or in many other venues. Ignatius is best known for co-founding the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) with companions including Francis Xavier. The religious order grew spectacularly, attracting some 5,000 members within a generation of its founding, and the Jesuits became the “front line” evangelists to help Catholicism revitalize itself during an era when the Protestant Reformation was sweeping across Europe. Today, some 19,000 Jesuits are working in more than 100 countries, in universities, high schools, parishes, and many other ministries. They are the largest Catholic religious order organized under a single global superior.

St. Patrick

St. Patrick (died 5th century) is Ireland’s most recognized patron saint. Kidnapped from Rome’s British domain (perhaps from Wales?) as a teenager by Irish bandits and sold into slavery in Ireland for a half-dozen years, he managed to escape but later returned to Ireland as a bishop and missionary. Little is known with certainty about Patrick’s life, though two letters (written in Latin) survive, which are generally attributed to him. He speaks of working as a herdsman during his captivity and of his faith growing stronger during this time. Of his later, missionary time in Ireland, he writes that he “baptized thousands of people” and ordained priests to lead his newly founded Catholic communities. After Patrick’s death, a copious hagiography blossomed, including, for example, the belief that Patrick chased all the snakes from Ireland into the sea, or that St. Patrick used a three-leafed shamrock to explain the mystery of the Trinity to the Irish. Though none can pronounce with certainty on the veracity of these episodes, the fact remains that Patrick has remained a beloved and deeply inspiring model of Catholic witness and of Irish identity for Irish in Ireland and for millions more who proudly claim Irish descent throughout the world, including in New York, where Irish Americans took enormous pride in having the name of Ireland’s patron grace one of the world’s great cathedrals.

St. Francis Xavier (1506-1552)

Was born into a noble family in Navarre (in today’s Spain) in 1506. He and a few others met Ignatius of Loyola while studying at the University of Paris and later resolved to band together “to help souls.” Some years later, in 1540, they received Papal approval to found the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), a Catholic order of priests and brothers that broke from the monastic model in order to free themselves for more active apostolic engagement in the world. Xavier became the Jesuit role model for their approach, sailing for India in 1541 and spending the remaining eleven years of his life in India, Malaysia, Japan, and elsewhere. He died on a small island off China’s coast, never reaching its mainland, his final missionary objective (In a transept of the Church of St Francis Xavier, you will find an artist’s rendering of Xavier’s death off China’s coast: as you face the altar, look to the transept to your left on the upper wall). It is hard for us today to imagine Xavier’s heroism and the challenges he faced: he visited regions no western person had ever visited and tried to communicate in languages that no westerner had ever heard! He worked tirelessly and brought thousands of people to Christianity. He was the first person to preach Christianity in Japan and could be considered the founder of Catholicism there.

World Trade Center Memorial

The National September 11 Memorial is a tribute of remembrance and honor to the nearly 3,000 people killed in the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center site, near Shanksville, Pa., and at the Pentagon, as well as the six people killed in the World Trade Center bombing in February 1993. The Memorial’s twin reflecting pools are each nearly an acre in size and feature the largest manmade waterfalls in the North America. The pools sit within the footprints where the Twin Towers once stood. Architect Michael Arad and landscape architect Peter Walker created the Memorial design selected from a global design competition that included more than 5,200 entries from 63 nations.

The names of every person who died in the 2001 and 1993 attacks are inscribed into bronze panels edging the Memorial pools, a powerful reminder of the largest loss of life resulting from a foreign attack on American soil and the greatest single loss of rescue personnel in American history.

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774 – 1821)

Saint Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton was the first native-born citizen of the United States to be canonized. She was born an Episcopalian, married a wealthy businessman, and raised five children. Her life took a dramatic turn when her husband became bankrupt, took ill, and died before Elizabeth was thirty. Shortly after, she converted to Catholicism and moved to Emmitsburg in Maryland where she devoted the rest of her life to education and care of the poor. She founded the first religious community of women started in the United States, the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph. She was canonized in 1975. Elizabeth Ann Seton lived in a time when women were seldom welcomed to take initiative, yet she overcame considerable obstacles to launch a religious order that expanded and grew beyond what she could possibly have imagined. Her life is a fitting end to the Pilgrimage of New York, as it echoes themes so prominent in the lives of the other holy men and women commemorated during the pilgrimage. We pilgrims reflect on Mother Seton and the other holy men and women remembered during this trek; we take courage that they, like us, faced challenges; we take consolation from their holy example; we pray to be inspired, like them, to care for the poor and marginalized persons in our community.