The Chartres Pilgrimage, also known as the Le Pèlerinage de Chartres, is a walking pilgrimage organized each year in France in conjunction with the Solemnity of Pentecost.

Pilgrims walk 100 km in three days from the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris to the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Chartres.   

The event has been described as one of the most significant “re-discovered” medieval pilgrimage routes on the European mainland.

Although the pilgrimage route from Paris to Chartres dates from the 9th century, as the first leg of the famed Camino de Santiago (the Way of St. James), this pilgrimage was re-established in 1983 by a handful of traditional-minded French Catholics.  This year marks the 36th year. 

The pilgrimage is hosted by Notre-Dame de Chrétienté, a Catholic lay association based near Paris. Over 800 dedicated helpers volunteer, placing themselves under the care and protection of the patroness of the pilgrimage, Our Lady of Hope. 

The pilgrimage gained attention during the 1990s due to the growing number of participants.  Today the event draws over 10,000 walkers from across France and beyond. 

Nearly 800 foreign pilgrims participate each year.  In fact, many vocations and marriages have come from the encounter, drawing even more youth to what has become the largest annual traditional Catholic event.   

This year Canadian participants came from British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick.  

They were led by their chaplain, Vancouver-born Father Garrick Huang, FSSP, a priest working in Montreal. 

Before entering the seminary, Father Huang was a professional opera singer in New York.  During the pilgrimage he put his singing skills to good use, helping to lead fellow English and French-speaking walkers in song and prayer. 

Pilgrims do not walk alone.  They walk in “chapters” or small groups under a special title and patronage. Each chapter is led by a volunteer carrying a cross flanked by others holding banners.

Each chapter is based upon a language category and is assisted by one or more priests. These chaplains accompany the walkers, helping to lead prayer and song while hearing confessions along the way. 

The Canadians walked with the chapter for North Americans known as Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary, a unique chapter constituted specifically for both American and Canadian participants, which this year was led by Father Huang (www.chartrespilgrimage.org).

The pilgrimage has a total of about 250 chapters, each grouping about 50 pilgrims. Hundreds of colourful banners are carried in procession, gathered at the end for the final entrance into Chartres cathedral.

Food and bottled water is provided, including a meagre spread of bread and coffee for breakfast, bread and water for lunch, and bread and soup for dinner. Pilgrims supplement these meals with with their own food, carried in backpacks.     

First-aid stations with ambulances dot the route, maintained by multi-lingual volunteer physicians and trained medical staff of the Order of Malta.

Pilgrims unable to walk further are met by volunteers who transfer them to the next stop in vans and cars with the intended purpose of coming to the aid of those too tired to continue. 

The transfer of luggage is well-organized, placed in lorry trucks and driven ahead to the campsites and unloaded in designated areas. 

The modern day pilgrims follow the footprints of the medieval pilgrims, walking by foot to the Marian shrine of Chartres – the mighty Chartres cathedral – which holds the veil of Our Lady, one of the most precious relics of Christendom.

Chartres cathedral, renowned as the “high point of French Gothic art,” is a world-famous site, a combination of both Gothic and Renaissance styles. It was constructed between 1194 and 1220.

Not much has changed over the years. The cathedral looks the same, with the majority of the stained glass windows original and intact. Today the entire interior is being restored.    

Since the time of its construction and even before, the cathedral has been a place of pilgrimage, attracting large numbers of Christian pilgrims from nearby Paris and beyond.

Chartres became a site for veneration of the Blessed Mother even before the present cathedral was constructed. The cathedral acquired in 876 what is known as the Sancta Camisa, the “veil of Our Lady,” making it forever one of the most important pilgrimage destinations. 

This precious relic is said to have been given to the cathedral by Charlemagne, who received it from the Emperor Constantine VI. Others say it was a gift to the cathedral by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles the Bald, grandson of Charlemagne.

Pilgrims arrive on pilgrimage, a metaphor for life, a journey to God. 

Participants in the Chartres pilgrimage begin their walk on Saturday morning, the Vigil of Whitsunday (Pentecost), a traditional day of fasting. 

The day begins with morning Mass at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. The first half of the day is spent walking through downtown Paris and its suburbs. Breaks are taken for brief rests in parks, forests and farmers’ fields. 

Two nights are spent camping in tents in the countryside. The first night there is a bonfire and torch-lit procession hosted by the scouts who lead skits telling the story of Catholic France, also known as the “Eldest Daughter of the Church.”

The second day is spent walking through the French countryside with afternoon Mass in a field, the Solemn Mass of Pentecost. Although its importance is often forgotten, Pentecost remains the second greatest feast of the liturgical year, second only to Easter.   

Later that day, after rounding a bend in the trail, there is a touching moment when the pilgrims catch their first glimpse of Chartres cathedral, seen on the distant horizon. Fittingly, the pilgrims kneel briefly and sing a Marian hymn.

The second night in the campsite there is outdoor Exposition and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament under a covered outdoor altar in the moonlit twilight.   

The third day is a half day, walking toward the distant cathedral, seen rising above the fields, getting larger and larger as pilgrims arrive in Chartres. 

Finally, the pilgrims arrive at their final destination amid the clash and peal of bells and festive music while Pontifical Mass begins with a massive and colorful procession into the cathedral. 

This year the visiting prelate was African-born Robert Cardinal Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship in the Vatican.  

The pilgrimage is no easy task. Inclement weather is common, including rain or intense sun.  Pilgrims arrive exhausted.  The walk and camping constitute a great challenge. 

The “way” of the walk expresses the very condition of the Christian life which is to be a long pilgrimage and a long march towards an ultimate goal, the reward of paradise to those who persevere to the end. 

Renowned French prelate Cardinal Pie once stated in 1855: “"I dare to predict it: Chartres will become, more than ever, the centre of devotion to Mary in the West.”

The walking pace of the pilgrimage is maintained at a marching speed, reflecting in some ways the enthusiastic military character of the French scouting movement.

The young scouts sing their hearts out with a mixed repertoire including Marian hymns, soccer chants, and various cheers. The eager scouts also sing the Rosary in French. 

The average age is 21, drawing young participants from the international scouting movement and various other youth organizations.

There is also a separate pilgrimage for children and families with strollers, the elderly, and those with disabilities. It follows an abbreviated route and meets up with the pilgrimage each day at various points and walks the final leg into Chartres. 

The return to Paris is done by train after the concluding Mass in Chartres cathedral, when the chapel of the veil, located behind the main altar, is opened for pilgrims to enter and reverence the relic, exposed for the pilgrims to venerate up close.  

This year the heart of Padre Pio was also displayed, on temporary loan from San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy. 

J.P. Sonnen is a tour operator and history docent with Vancouver-based Orbis Catholicus Travel.