How to Make a Pilgrimage to Every American Saint

Several years ago, I started falling in love with the Saints, with the witness they provide and the encouragement I find in their holiness despite their brokenness. And since I spend a good amount of time abroad, I got to visit lots of different Saints. It’s much harder to do in the US, I thought, but then I flew back from Europe and accidentally visited five Saints in six weeks. Turns out, it’s not as tricky as it might be, if you’re being intentional about it. So over the course of about 14 months, I managed to visit every Saint and Blessed in the US.

It’s much easier when you’re a hobo, of course, but some of these Saints might be driveable from your home–or a good excuse for a family vacation to paradise. If you’re looking to join me in visiting every American Saint, here’s how to do it–in the most epic Catholic road (/air) trip of all time.

We’ll begin just across the border in Montreal (though since we’re about to visit St. Kateri’s hometown you can skip this one if you must. This is where she’s buried, though, and you’ll get three extra Canadian Saints, too).

St. Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American Saint, is buried in the mission church on the Kahnawake Mohawk reservation just south of Montreal. The church is called St. Francis Xavier and is a beautiful witness to authentic inculturation, with prayers written in English and Mohawk throughout the church. You can pray in front of the tomb of the young woman who endured ridicule and persecution but never gave up her faith.

A few miles north is the incredible shrine to St. Joseph, built by St. André Bessette. In all honesty, I really don’t like the upper basilica, but there are some beautiful images of St. Joseph down below, as well as thousands of crutches left by people who came with disabilities and left walking on their own. Also, the body of St. André, the first Saint of the Congregation of the Holy Cross.¹

Not too far from St. Andre is the church housing the body of St. Marguerite Bourgeoys, though it’s closed for half of January and all of February, so plan accordingly. We didn’t get to go inside, but said hi from the street.

Half an hour north of the city is a beautiful church stunningly situated on the banks of the St. Lawrence River, where St. Marguerite d’Youville is buried, a woman whose life reads like a soap opera but ends with a halo.

Heading south from Canada (though really, you ought to make a detour to visit the Canadian shrine to the North American martyrs–it’s amazing), we’ll spend a little more time with St. Kateri in her hometown of Ossernenon. The shrine at Auriesville is the burial ground of St. Rene Goupil, St. Isaac Jogues, and St. Jean de Lalande. Ten years after the martyrdom of St. Isaac and St. Jean, St Kateri Tekakwitha was born in this town. The blood of the martyrs is truly the seed of the Church.

Continuing south, we’ll stop in northern Manhattan to visit St. Francis Xavier Cabrini. While you’re in town, swing by St. Patrick’s Cathedral to visit a handful of Venerables and Servants of God (Ven. Fulton Sheen!) and make your way down to Staten Island to see Dorothy Day and Fr. Vincent Capodanno, both Servants of God.

Because she’s not far out of our way, we’ll swing through Convent Station, New Jersey to say hello to Bl. Miriam Teresa Demjanovich, a sort of American St. Thérèse. The church will probably be locked, but if you go through the convent, you may find a Sister who’s excited to tell you all about her. (Look for the Holy Family Chapel on the grounds of the College of Saint Elizabeth.)

From there, we’ll head down to Philadelphia, where we’ll visit St. Katherine Drexel and St. John Neumann. Though I visited St. Katherine Drexel at her motherhouse just north of the city, apparently her relics will soon be moved to the cathedral in downtown Philadelphia, not far from St. John Neumann’s shrine. If you’re headed to visit her, I’d call the motherhouse and see what the status is. If she hasn’t been moved yet, you can always go try to sweet talk one of the Sisters into letting you make a visit–it’s worth the detour from St. John Neumann to give it a shot.

Next we’re off to see the very first native-born American Saint to be canonized, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Emmitsburg, MD, just down the street from Mount St. Mary’s University.

Now it’s finally time to leave the East Coast and head inland to visit some more Saint friends. Our first stop will be in Saint-Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana, to see St. Theodore Guerin (spoiler: she’s a woman). Make sure to visit the adoration chapel while you’re there–it’s beautiful.

Further west, we’ll find St. Rose Philippine Duchesne (and Imo’s Pizza) in St. Charles, MO. It’s an…interesting chapel. But Jesus is there, and so is our Saint friend, so we’re calling it a win.

Now we have to drive the rest of the way across the country, so we might as well stop by Oklahoma City to see Bl. Stanley Rother. He’s the United States’ first native-born martyr and our first beatified native-born priest, plus he’s an Oklahoma farm boy, so he’s all around awesome. He used to be buried out in his hometown, but his body has been moved to a chapel at the cemetery by the OKC Pastoral Center while they get an amazing shrine built.

Stop through Chimayo if you like on your way to the Carmel Mission, one of many mission churches established by St. Junipero Serra, our most recently canonized Saint.

From there I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to hop a plane to Hawaii. If you can make it out to Molokai to spend time in the leper colony where St. Damien de Veuster and St. Marianne Cope worked, that’s awesome! But if not, you can stop by the cathedral in Honolulu and visit their relics there.

Apologies to Bl. Solanus Casey and Bl. Francis Xavier Seelos, who didn’t make this road trip because they were geographically inconvenient. If you want to add Detroit and New Orleans to your list, you will have hit every single (U.S.) American Saint and Blessed.² Don’t even get me started on Venerables and Servants of God…. (Pro tip: www.findagrave.com is your best resource for all of them.)³

So there you have it, folks: how to visit every American Saint (and Blessed). Share your pictures with #AmericanSaintsPilgrimage and tag me (@mhunterkilmer on Instagram) so I can be excited with you. And to make it even easier, here’s a map!

1. Go Irish!! [↩]
2. And you can visit Ven. Henriette DeLille while you’re in NOLA. [↩]
3. Pretty sure nobody voice searches “Where is [X] buried?” as much as I do. [↩]