{"id":188511,"date":"2026-08-30T12:18:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T12:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/188511\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T12:18:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T12:18:20","slug":"pilgrims-80-day-trek-to-celebrate-special-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/188511\/","title":{"rendered":"Pilgrims&#8217; 80-day trek to celebrate special anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Pilgrims are taking part in an 80-day walk to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the death of St Francis of Assisi, one of history&#8217;s most venerated Christian saints.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Carrying his message of peace across England, the pilgrims set out from Northumberland on 17 July and are due to reach London in October.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">They arrived in Gloucestershire on Saturday and a day of events is planned at Gloucester Mariners Church later.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Sister Judi, an Anglican Franciscan with the Society of St Francis in Gloucester, said: &#8220;All can join us, it is not necessary to be a Christian or of any faith at all.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"An artist working on a piece of artwork replicating Saint Francis. He has dark hair with a bald patch at the top and he is embracing an elderly woman who has a scarf draped on her head.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/bbc_us_articles_995\/5c1ddde370e6bdccc3f98132a8a448ae.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Saint Francis was a 13th Century Italian friar [EPA]<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Often regarded as one of the world&#8217;s most popular saints, St Francis was a 13th Century Italian friar renowned for his commitment to poverty, peace and care for creation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;I find him a fascinating character,&#8221; said Sister Judi.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;He literally lived the Gospel. He did what God told him, and he took the message of peace out into the surrounding area.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Sister Judi said joining the pilgrimage had given her a chance to reflect.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;I&#8217;ve learnt to let go of control, really, because I&#8217;m not really sure where I&#8217;m staying each night,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;It&#8217;s made me reflect on how some people simply haven&#8217;t got control of their lives, whereas many of us have a great deal of control over ours.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>More from Gloucestershire<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The pilgrims will take a day of rest in Gloucester on Sunday, with events planned at the Mariners Church in the afternoon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;There are going to be some activities for prayer there, suitable for any age, just to get people to think a little bit about peace and to help them pray,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The pilgrimage will continue over the Cotswolds, into Bristol and onwards over the Mendips, before heading back up towards Oxford and London.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Follow BBC Gloucestershire on <a data-ylk=\"slk:Facebook;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bbcgloucestershire\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>, <a data-ylk=\"slk:X;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BBCGlos\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">X<\/a> and <a data-ylk=\"slk:Instagram;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/bbcradioglos\/?hl=en\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>. Send your story ideas to us on email or via <a data-ylk=\"slk:WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/bbc.in\/47DEoQy\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Related internet links<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pilgrims are taking part in an 80-day walk to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the death of St&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,3323,59442,59441,5571,24917,59439,59438,59443,59440],"class_list":["post-188511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-canada","tag-christian","tag-franciscan","tag-gloucester-mariners-church","tag-gloucestershire","tag-italian","tag-judi","tag-saint-francis","tag-sister-judi","tag-st-francis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}