450th birthday: Pilgrimage to the homeland of St. Francis de Sales
A pilgrimage from the diocese of Eichstätt leads to the Savoy landscape and thus to the homeland of St. Francis de Sales. The program revolves around the life and work of the saint whose anniversary of birth is 450th this year . Elisabeth Graf will lead the tour from Wednesday 23 August to Tuesday 29 August. The participants of the trip take the bus from Eichstätt to the south side of Lake Geneva to Thonon-les-Bains, where a common service in the Basilica of St. Francis de Sales will be held. The program includes the visit of a chapel, which is at the place where the saint was born, and the parish church of Thorens. There, Francis de Sales was baptized and consecrated as bishop. The Bénite Fontaine pilgrimage complex is also a major pilgrimage site. The next destination is Annecy, where Francis de Sales resided as a bishop of Geneva. Tourists will visit the old town with the Cathedral of St. Pierre and the House of the Gallery, which is the foundation of the Visitation Order. A boat trip on the Lac d’Annecy is included. In the Basilica of the Visitation of Holy Mary, where the relics of the saint are kept, the participants celebrate a worship service. On the sixth day of the trip, the monastery of the Visitation in Friborg is on the agenda before the participants take the journey home on the seventh day after a final service in the Visitation monastery in Solothurn. For further information and registration, please contact the diocesan pilgrimage center Eichstätt, Tel. (08421) 50-690, E-Mail: pilgerbuero@bistum-eichstaett.de, on the Internet at www.pilgerstelle-eichstaett.de.