St Anthony of Padua Born into a wealthy and noble Portuguese family, St Anthony’s was a life that saw many twists and turns. Like many great saints of his time, the pleasures of this world held no great attraction for him. Instead a burning desire to follow Christ and dedicate his life to the needy, […]
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Our Lady of Fatima, Portugal: The altar of the world No place has captured the Catholic imagination as much as Fatima in Central Portugal. Home to less than 15000 residents, it is a major destination for Catholic pilgrims, attracting nearly 8 million of them annually. Its claim to a permanent place in the Catholic mind […]
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Assisi, Italy He who works with his hands is a labourer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist. – St Francis of Assisi For a small town of under 30,000 people Assisi in Italy has […]
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Our Lady of Lourdes, France Up until 1858, the French town of Lourdes situated at the foothill of the Pyrenees mountain range bordering Spain, was a quiet and modest place, home to some 4000 odd people mostly engaged in agriculture. It was in this year, Bernadette Soubirous experienced a series of Marian apparitions that changed […]
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Santiago de Compostela, Spain The Santiago de Compostela or the Cathedral of Saint James the Great in Santiago, Spain is a UNESCO World heritage site, built over the burial site of St James, one of the first Apostles of Jesus. It is located in the region of Galicia, in north-western Spain and is the destination […]
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Quite often a Christian is asked simple questions about his religion mostly by non-Christians. While many of the obviously basic queries are straightforward and can be answered off the cuff, some might require a deeper understanding. Pilgrim Stays has attempted to put some of these questions into a simple, easy to understand format. The casual […]
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The order that powers Potta Retreat Although the Vincentian Congregation is not so well known outside the Syro-Malabar community of Kerala, their flagship Retreat Centre is known to almost every Catholic in India. The institution in question, of course, is the Divine Retreat Centre at Muringoor in Kerala, more popularly known as the Potta Retreat […]
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Early history of the Jesuits Many a time, a seemingly commonplace incident sets in motion a chain of events that lead to far reaching changes which impact the world. In this case, it was a cannonball fired from a French gun in battle that hit a soldier and mangled his leg, which acted as the […]
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Traditionally eaten on Good Friday, hot cross buns have a history dating to as long back as the 14th century. A bun with a similar recipe called an ‘Alban Bun’ was said to have originated in St Alban’s Abbey in England. Brother Thomas Radcliffe, a 14th-century monk is said to have developed the recipe and […]
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Why is it called Good Friday when Jesus died on this day? The meaning of Good, though obsolete now, meant holy and pious. It was used in that sense to describe the passion of Jesus, as he underwent the ordeal and humiliation of a painful crucifixion. It is incomprehensible, why the Son of God willingly […]
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