Pilgrimage to Poland and Prague

• Depart the U.S. on your overnight flight to Krakow

• Arrive at Krakow Airport and transfer to the hotel (pilgrims will transfer on their own to the hotel)
• Gather as a group in the hotel meeting room for an Orientation Meeting and meet your professional, English-speaking tour guide
• Opening Mass at the Jesuit Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (pending final confirmation)
• Welcome Dinner at a local restaurant
• Overnight in Krakow

Accommodations: Indigo Wawel Castle

Meals Included: Dinner

• After breakfast, gather for a Morning Reflection in the hotel meeting room
• Begin your tour of Krakow at Wawel Hill outside the Wawel Royal Castle, the historic castle and former royal residence which served as the home of Polish kings from the 11th-17th centuries (exterior view only)
• Continue to Wawel Cathedral, Krakow’s most historic and important Catholic Church – site of royal coronations and burials which includes the tombs of several former kings of Poland, national heroes, and St. Stanislaus – Poland’s patron saint
• Visit Krakow’s first Baroque church dedicated Sts. Peter and Paul, commissioned for Jesuits and modeled after the Gesu, the mother church of the Jesuits in Rome
• Continue to the Market Square, one of Europe’s largest and oldest medieval town squares, a centrepiece of Polish history, culture, and daily life
• Lunch on your own
• Pray at Mariacki Church, the Basilica of St. Mary, famous for its breathtaking wooden Viet Stoss altarpiece, and listen to the call of the trumpeter from the church’s tower
• Finish the day with Mass (pending final confirmation) at the Church of St. Barbara, a conventual church of the Jesuits with Gothic influences
• Return to the hotel for a Faith Sharing in the hotel meeting room
• Free to continue exploring Krakow with dinner on your own
• Overnight in Krakow

Accommodations: Indigo Wawel Castle

Meals Included: Breakfast

• After breakfast, gather for a Morning Reflection in the hotel meeting room
• Visit to the Wieliczka Salt Mine, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where you will descend into the fascinating underground world with centuries-old chambers, chapels, and sculptures carved from salt
• Transfer to Lagiewniki for a group lunch at a local restaurant
• Mass at the Basilica of the Divine Mercy
• Visit the convent and Chapel of the Apparitions and see the tomb of St. Faustina Kowalska
• Visit the “Have No Fear” St. John Paul II Center and pray in the Sanctuary, where there are his relics
• Return to Krakow for a Faith Sharing in the hotel meeting room
• Dinner on your own
• Overnight in Krakow

Accommodations: Indigo Wawel Castle

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch

• Transfer to Wadowice, the hometown of St. John Paul II
• Visit the childhood home of St. John Paul II and the church where he was baptized
• Mass at the Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
• Lunch at a local restaurant, including a taste of kremówka papieska, the “pope’s cake,” a cream cake that was a favorite of St. John Paul II
• Return to Krakow for a dinner at a local restaurant with a folk show
• Overnight in Krakow

Accommodations: Indigo Wawel Castle

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

• After breakfast, gather for a Morning Reflection in the hotel meeting room
• Transfer to Oswiecim to visit Auschwitz Concentration Camp where St. Teresa Benedicta and St. Maximillian Kolbe were killed
• Tour the camp and visit the Martyrdom Museum
• Lunch at a local restaurant
• Return to Krakow for Mass (location pending final confirmation) and have a Faith Sharing in the hotel meeting room
• Dinner on your own
• Overnight in Krakow

Accommodations: Indigo Wawel Castle

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch

• Drive from Krakow to Prague
• Stop en route to celebrate Mass at a local church (exact time/location pending final confirmation)
• Stop en route in Olomouc or Brno for lunch at a local restaurant with a beer tasting
• Continue on to Prague
• Check-in and dinner at the hotel
• Overnight in Prague

Accommodations: Grandior Hotel Prague

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

• After breakfast, gather for a Morning Reflection in the hotel meeting room
• Explore Prague’s beautiful city center, with a focus on sites associated with the Jesuits, who arrived in the mid-sixteenth century
• Start the day in the New Town at Charles Square
• Celebrate Mass at the Baroque Church of St. Ignatius
• Continue up to the Old Town and visit St. Clement Cathedral, a prime example of the Baroque architecture that characterizes Prague and that was largely influenced by the Jesuit presence, located at the foot of Charles Bridge on the banks of the Vltava River
• Visit the Clementinum next to the Cathedral, the Jesuit’s first educational center in the city
  • See the Astronomical Tower and the Library Hall with its painted ceiling
• Time for lunch on your own
• Return to the hotel for Faith Sharing in the hotel meeting room
• Free for the rest of the afternoon and evening to continue exploring Prague’s Old Town, with dinner on your own
• Overnight in Prague

Accommodations: Grandior Hotel Prague

Meals Included: Breakfast

• After breakfast, gather for a Morning Reflection in the hotel meeting room
• Cross over the river to the Lesser Town to the Church of Our Lady Victorious and the Infant Jesus of Prague
• Celebrate Mass (pending final confirmation) followed by time to pray before the miraculous statue of the Infant Jesus
• Farewell Lunch at a local restaurant
• Have a final Faith Sharing over lunch
• Free for the rest of the afternoon and evening, with dinner on your own
  • Consider booking entrance to Prague Castle, built in the ninth century and Europe’s largest ancient castle complex, and the Gothic St. Vitus Cathedral
  • If time allows, go back to the Shrine of the Infant Jesus for closing prayers
• Overnight in Prague

Accommodations: Grandior Hotel Prague

Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch

• Transfer to Prague Airport for your return flight home to the U.S. (pilgrims will transfer on their own to the airport)

Meals Included: Breakfast