Phone: 0800 612 3423
Int. Phone: +44 1223 968363
Email: info@pilgrimagepeople.org
Address: 28 Norwich Road, Fakenham, Norfolk, NR21 8BB, United Kingdom
If you would like to make a donation to Pilgrimage People to support our projects, please click on the Donate button below.
DonateRegistered Charity No 1145830
Copyright ©2014 - 2022 Pilgrimage People. All Rights Reserved
May 2028 · 6 – 16 May 2028
October 2028 · 7 – 17 October 2028
One itinerary, 2 dates — choose whichever suits you best.The Centre for Applied Carmelite Spirituality and Pilgrimage People are leading the whole Carmelite family — Discalced, Calced, friars, nuns, seculars, lay, alumni and friends — on a pilgrimage through the landscape that formed Saints Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross. You’re invited to journey with us from home of the Italian Carmelite mystics Florence, to Assisi, in which the Franciscan order has its roots, to the Rome where Teresa was raised to the altars, and on to La Bruna in Naples, the Marian heart of Carmel. Gentle in pace. Open to all who love Carmel — whether you have prayed with these saints for years or are only now feeling the first warmth. There is one itinerary but two opportunities to go on the pilgrimage in 2028 — in thanksgiving for the ten years of the Centre for Applied Carmelite Spirituality’s existence. Choose whichever time of year suits you best.
Day 1
Set Your Heart on Pilgrimage
“Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.” — Psalm 84:5
London → Pisa/Florence
After reaching Florence and settling in, we gather for an opening Mass and a Blessing at the Threshold, naming the intention that will carry us: to come first to our Carmelite forebears, then back to the roots that formed them, and on to the heart of the Church. A simple welcome supper closes the day.
Day 2
On the Shoulders of Saints
“We are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses.” — Hebrews 12:1
Santa Maria del Carmine: St Andrew Corsini & the Brancacci Chapel | Shrines of St Mary Magdalen de’ Pazzi & St Teresa Margaret | Sunday Mass
We begin where Carmel took root in this city, at Santa Maria del Carmine, the Carmelite church of Florence since 1268. Here we pray at the tomb of St Andrew Corsini, the Carmelite friar and bishop who made peace between warring cities. In the same church we enter the Brancacci Chapel, whose frescoes by Masaccio — the “Sistine Chapel of the early Renaissance” — tell the life of St Peter, quietly foreshadowing the tomb we will reach in Rome. Then to the shrines of two Florentine daughters of Carmel: St Mary Magdalen de’ Pazzi, the mystic on fire with the love of God, and St Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart, the hidden flame of charity. We ask their blessing on the road ahead: God forms before he sends.
Day 3
Unhurried Among the Saints
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.” — Ecclesiastes 3:1
St Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart | San Marco (Fra Angelico) | Time in the city
A second unhurried day in Florence. We return to the quiet fire of St Teresa Margaret at her shrine, and we visit the convent of San Marco, where Fra Angelico covered every cell with frescoes so that the friars would live inside the Gospel. Florence does not need to be rushed. There is beauty here that forms simply by being received. An afternoon at leisure before supper together.
Day 4
Where the Fire Was Kindled
“Praised be You, my Lord, through all Your creatures.” — St Francis of Assisi · Canticle of the Creatures
Tomb of St Clare & the San Damiano Cross | Basilica of St Francis | Tomb of St Carlo Acutis
We turn aside to Assisi, to the very ground where Franciscan spirituality was born, and we remember how deeply that fire warmed the Carmel of Teresa. It was a Franciscan book — Francisco de Osuna’s Third Spiritual Alphabet — that first taught Teresa to pray; a Franciscan, St Peter of Alcántara, who gave her the courage to begin her Reform; and St Clare who, by Teresa’s own testimony, appeared to her at that founding hour with the words, “Go on with what you have begun.” Here we pray at Clare’s tomb and before the San Damiano cross that sent Francis to “rebuild my Church.”
We also visit the tomb of St Carlo Acutis, canonised in 2025 — the first millennial saint and the newest saint of Assisi. Carlo was fifteen years old when he died, and his whole short life was organised around one passion: the Eucharist, which he called his “motorway to Heaven.” Standing at his tomb, something quietly profound becomes clear. The Rule of St Albert, written on Mount Carmel in the early thirteenth century, enjoined the hermits to gather “every day early in the morning to hear Mass” — a daily Eucharist at a time when most of Christendom celebrated it only on Sundays. Carmel has always known what Carlo lived: that the Eucharist is not a weekly obligation but the heartbeat of the contemplative life. Teresa herself knew this intimately — it was in receiving Holy Communion at the hands of John of the Cross that she attained the grace of spiritual marriage. Carlo’s fire was the same fire, burning in a teenager with a laptop in twenty-first-century Milan. One flame, many voices. From these Franciscan roots we receive our origins, and carry them south to Rome by evening.
Day 5
Blessed at the Heart of the Church
“In the end, I die a daughter of the Church.” — St Teresa of Ávila
Papal audience in St Peter’s Square (hoped) | Santa Maria della Scala (relic of St Teresa) | Santa Cecilia in Trastevere
This morning, please God, we take our place in St Peter’s Square for the General Audience, asking the Holy Father’s blessing upon our pilgrimage as we enter the heart of the Church. In the afternoon we cross to Trastevere and the Discalced Carmelite church of Santa Maria della Scala, where the relic of St Teresa’s right foot — a gift to the Carmelites of Rome in 1617 — is venerated: Teresa herself present in the city. Close by we pray at the tomb of Santa Cecilia, the young martyr and patron of sacred music.
Day 6
“This Man Is a Saint”
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” — Matthew 5:10
San Martino ai Monti & the early house-church beneath | The Discalced Carmelite Generalate & the Father General
Today we delve into the hardest and most human chapter of our history. Jerónimo Gracián — Jerome — was the friend and superior to whom St Teresa entrusted her Reform; she trusted him above almost anyone and bound herself to him by a vow of obedience. Yet after her death, in the bitter struggles over how the Reform should be governed, he was expelled from the very Order he had served — slandered, exiled, even captured by corsairs and held in chains. His whole life became a long fidelity to Teresa’s vision under the weight of misunderstanding.
Rome is where that fidelity was vindicated: hearing his story, Pope Clement VIII exclaimed, “This man is a saint,” and the Carmelites of San Martino ai Monti gave the exile a home; beneath their church we descend to the third-century house-church, the hidden roots of the faith under the place that welcomed him. At the Generalate this afternoon, received we hope by the Father General, we give thanks at the heart of the Order and renew our commitment to the charism Teresa received, Gracián carried, and we are given to keep.
Day 7
Wounded by Love
“O living flame of love, that tenderly wounds my soul in its deepest centre.” — St John of the Cross · The Living Flame of Love
Santa Maria della Vittoria (Ecstasy of St Teresa) & Santa Maria sopra Minerva (St Catherine of Siena) | Catacombs of St Callixtus | St Paul Outside the Walls | St Peter’s Basilica & the tomb of Peter
A full day in the heart of Rome. We begin at Santa Maria della Vittoria, where Bernini’s Ecstasy of St Teresa renders in marble the wound of divine love; and at Santa Maria sopra Minerva, where we pray at the tomb of St Catherine of Siena — two women, two Doctors, both wounded by love. Then to the Catacombs of St Callixtus, among the tombs of the early popes and the martyrs; to the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls; and finally to St Peter’s Basilica and the tomb of Peter himself — the very place where, on 12 March 1622, St Teresa was raised to the altars alongside Ignatius of Loyola, Francis Xavier, Philip Neri and Isidore, the only woman among the five.
Day 8
Rome to Naples
“The Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.” — Luke 1:49 · the Magnificat
La Bruna (Carmine Maggiore) | St Thomas Aquinas (San Domenico Maggiore) | St Giuseppe Moscati (Gesù Nuovo)
We travel south to Naples — a city of intense, visceral faith — for the first of three days in Our Lady’s keeping. At the Basilica of Santa Maria del Carmine Maggiore we come to La Bruna, the “Brown Madonna,” the thirteenth-century icon that is the symbol of the whole Carmelite Order. At San Domenico Maggiore we visit the cell of St Thomas Aquinas and the crucifix that, by tradition, spoke to him: “You have written well of me, Thomas. What reward will you have?” — “Nothing but Yourself, Lord.” And at the Gesù Nuovo we pray at the tomb of St Giuseppe Moscati, the holy physician who served the poorest of Naples without charge, his chapel lined with the thanksgivings of the healed.
Day 9
Under Our Lady’s Mantle
“We fly to your protection, O holy Mother of God.” — Sub Tuum Praesidium · the oldest Marian prayer
Sunday Mass | Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary, Pompeii | Duomo (San Gennaro)
A gentler day in Naples. Sunday Mass together, then to Pompeii — the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary, one of the great Marian shrines of southern Italy, built in the shadow of the ancient ruins and Vesuvius — where we place the whole pilgrimage under Our Lady’s mantle. Time permitting, the Duomo and the blood of San Gennaro. An evening of thanksgiving together, the farewell dinner of the pilgrimage.
Day 10
Carry the Fire Home
“I came to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” — Luke 12:49
Final Mass at La Bruna, the Carmine Maggiore
We gather a final time for Mass at La Bruna, the Marian heart of Carmel — ending as every Carmelite pilgrimage should end, in her keeping. Then to Naples airport for our return flights, pilgrims still, wherever the road now leads. We go not with a farewell but with the fire: carried home, to be kindled wherever we are.
Day 11
Arrive Home
“Return to your home and declare how much God has done for you.” — Luke 8:39
Arrive home
Those with connecting flights or travelling independently arrive home today. The flame does not go out at the airport door.
May 2028 · 6 – 16 May 2028
Price includes:
Return airfare including hold luggage. Accommodation as detailed in the itinerary. Breakfast and dinner each day. Italian airport transfers. All transport whilst in Italy, services of professional guides, all entrance fees and gratuities.
Price does not include:
Lunches, drinks or items of a personal nature. Please note that this itinerary is not suitable for the less able traveller.
Payments:
Price includes:
Accommodation as detailed in the itinerary. Breakfast and dinner each day. Transport whilst in Italy, services of professional guides, all entrance fees and gratuities.
Price does not include:
Lunches, drinks or items of a personal nature. Please note that this itinerary is not suitable for the less able traveller.
Payments:
October 2028 · 7 – 17 October 2028
Price includes:
Return airfare including hold luggage. Accommodation as detailed in the itinerary. Breakfast and dinner each day. Italian airport transfers. All transport whilst in Italy, services of professional guides, all entrance fees and gratuities.
Price does not include:
Lunches, drinks or items of a personal nature. Please note that this itinerary is not suitable for the less able traveller.
Payments:
Price includes:
Accommodation as detailed in the itinerary. Breakfast and dinner each day. Transport whilst in Italy, services of professional guides, all entrance fees and gratuities.
Price does not include:
Lunches, drinks or items of a personal nature. Please note that this itinerary is not suitable for the less able traveller.
Payments: