It was a moving sight: the Blessed Sacrament carried in procession through downtown Brunswick, Portland, and Peaks Island, drawing the gaze of neighbors and tourists alike. They watched from porches, patios, piers, and even a trolley car, as hundreds of worshippers followed the Lord, singing and praying.

“This is the beautiful thing about walking with Jesus in our city. Even though we can’t see what He is doing, we can’t see the hearts and minds of the people whom we encounter — and they can’t see ours — we know that the Spirit of Christ bears fruit and that His Spirit is powerfully at work,” said Father Seamus Griesbach, rector of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and pastor of the other Portland Peninsula & Island Parishes, following the Portland procession.

The processions were held as part of the 2026 National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, which came to Maine this June. Inspired by the 2022-2025 National Eucharistic Revival and by the 250th anniversary of the United States, the pilgrimage began Memorial Day weekend in St. Augustine, Florida, and concluded on 4th of July weekend in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

“We were obviously aware that it was the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and so we felt like we should lean into that with the theme of One Nation Under God, and by really, intentionally, visiting places not only of historical significance to the U.S. but also of Church significance, because the first Mass was celebrated here hundreds of years before the Declaration of Independence was signed,” explains Sarah Houde, a Maine native who serves as vice president of events and operations for the National Eucharistic Congress, which oversees the pilgrimages.

The 2026 pilgrimage began in St. Augustine because that is where the first Mass in the future United States was celebrated in 1565. It then passed through most of the original 13 colonies, reaching as far north as the Diocese of Portland.

“Having grown up in Brunswick and having worked for the diocese for a couple years, I said there’s no way we’re going up the eastern seaboard and not going all the way to Maine,” says Houde. “I was so happy when Bishop [James] Ruggieri and the staff here said yes.”

Bishop Ruggieri received the monstrance carrying the Blessed Sacrament from Bishop Peter Libasci, bishop of Manchester, outside Immaculate Conception Church in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on June 23. It was then driven to Kennebunk High School, where it joined in a car procession to St. Martha Church. There, parishioners stood along the roadside, ready to welcome Our Lord.

“This is exciting to witness this. The Eucharist and Jesus will be in there, and all these wonderful, faithful people. It’s just a very exciting moment,” says Gisele Roy from Biddeford. “Maine needs something like this for the people to experience and hopefully to make more people come back to the Church.”

Karenlee Gorman of Arundel says she took the afternoon off from work to be there.

“This is incredible to me. I don’t even have answers,” she says. “I can’t tell you how honored I feel to be here. The Holy Spirit told me that this is where I needed to be. Nowhere else. There was no question in my mind.”

Some people traveled for hours to join in the pilgrimage, including five sisters from the St. John River Valley, who attended all four days of Masses and events in Maine.

“I felt that it was a way of getting closer to the Lord. I feel that we need things like this to set a spark. I feel like processions are really very important in the life of the Church and that we should be doing that,” says Barbara Roy of St. David, who proposed participating in the pilgrimage to her sisters. “I just wanted to be a part of that.”

“It’s just beautiful,” says Elaine Crosby of Fort Kent and Florida. “We love to pray. We love to pray for people, and we love to spend time together as sisters with Jesus.”

“I love pilgrimages. It gives me a boost, a good boost to get through life,” says Nola Daigle of St. Francis. “It’s just knowing that the Lord is with us and all the graces we receive from all the Masses and the prayers that we do.”

During Mass at St. Martha Church, Bishop Ruggieri spoke of the pilgrimage’s importance, saying it is not simply an event passing through Maine.

“It is a reminder that Christ Himself walks with His people,” the bishop said. “He is not distant from our anxieties. He is not indifferent to the condition of the nation. He is not absent from the burdens of Maine, the burdens of the Church, or the burdens of our own hearts.”

Reflecting on the pilgrimage’s theme, the bishop said that the words “one nation under God” must not only be thought of as a civic or patriotic phrase.

“To be one nation under God is, first of all, to be a people who know how to place ourselves before the Lord and prepare His way. That knowledge originates not out of fear but love. When we know the truth that we are loved by God the Father, we know to whom we can turn at all times,” the bishop said. “It means that we bring before Him our country, our state, our Church, our families, our wounds, our fears, our sins, and our hopes. It means we do not pretend that politics alone can save us, that money alone can secure us, that technology alone can heal us, or that human strength alone can unite us.” 

The bishop stressed the importance of becoming more and more a eucharistic people, a belief that lies at the heart of the pilgrimage.

“I hope it produces a deepening of faith and a deepening of courage and conviction to share our faith about the Real Presence in the Eucharist,” says Mary Carmen Zakrajsek, an Indiana native, who was one of 10 young adults accompanying the Blessed Sacrament along the entire journey. “The goal is that everyone who encounters Jesus in this pilgrimage is able to then be sent out on mission and bring Him to others.”

“What I hope we accomplish is that every heart is opened to Christ and that those of us who have already opened our heart to Him, that our faith and our devotion to Him is deepened even more, and that, in receiving the beautiful grace that we do from attending Mass, from adoration, from those processions, that we then go out and we are Christ to others,” says Zachary Dotson, another of the perpetual pilgrims, who is also from Indiana. “It is also my prayer that each person who is touched or who participates in any capacity in the pilgrimage will realize that the Christ that we’ve been traveling with these few weeks is the same Christ already in the tabernacle in their home parish, and He wants nothing more than for you to be there with Him.”

After the Mass at St. Martha Church, people had an opportunity to spend time with Christ at St. Anthony Franciscan Monastery in Kennebunk, which hosted the pilgrims overnight. The next day, the pilgrimage continued with a Mass at St. John the Baptist Church in Brunswick, held on the saint’s feast day, followed by a eucharistic procession and then a drive to the Basilica of Ss. Peter & Paul in Lewiston for a sacred music concert and an exhibit featuring an exact replica of the Shroud of Turin.

On the third day of the pilgrimage’s Maine visit, a procession was held in Portland, from St. Peter Church to Sacred Heart Church for adoration and a witness talk, and then to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception for midday Mass. As the bishop entered the cathedral carrying the Blessed Sacrament, children participating in the Portland Peninsula & Island Parishes’ summer immersion program threw rose petals, creating a floral red carpet.

Lynn Levasseur of Westbrook says attending the procession and Mass was her birthday gift to herself.

“Today is my 60th birthday, and all I wanted was to experience this pilgrimage with the eucharistic Jesus and to bring renewal and hope, just to be in the joy of the presence of the Lord,” she says.

“I love Jesus, so I said, ‘This pilgrimage is not going to go on without me,’” says Solange Tchatat of Yarmouth, who also participated in the Portland procession. “I took the day off from work because I have so many people to pray for, and having the opportunity to place them into Jesus’s presence was the best thing ever.”

“I wanted to participate because God is in my life. God is my life,” says Maria Douglass of Kennebunk, who attended most of the pilgrimage events. “He leads the way.”

Among the many highlights of the pilgrimage’s time in Maine was a ferry ride to Peaks Island. The bishop, carrying the monstrance with the Blessed Sacrament, stood outside on the bow of the ferry as it crossed Casco Bay, while inside, the faithful continued to praise Christ in song.

Once on the island, a procession was held to St. Christopher Church for adoration, followed by a cookout.

Dotson says what he experienced at the end of that long day is something he won’t soon forget.

“We had a very small, private procession, which has probably been the single most profound spiritual moment of my life. It was the 10 of us and a few diocesan staff members processing with our Lord in a small group and being unafraid to publicly proclaim our faith that Christ is king and truly present with us,” he says. “Maine will always have a special place in my heart because of that moment.”

The pilgrimage’s Maine visit came to a close on June 26 with a Mass at St. Christopher Church in York.

“We have been so blessed over these past few days to be a part of this tremendous pilgrimage of the whole eastern seaboard on the 250th anniversary of our country. Everything just seemed to come together here to place ourselves before God, asking that we may be wise enough and open enough to discern His will and then to put that forward,” said Father Scott Mower, pastor of the Parish of the Ascension of the Lord, which includes St. Christopher Church. “We reflect today upon that as the pilgrimage moves onward.”

From the Diocese of Portland, the pilgrimage headed to Massachusetts and then Rhode Island before concluding in Pennsylvania.