Transportation, on-the-ground coordination, and communications keep St. Bernadette safe and welcomed. This is what those three commitments are projected to add up to — where she'll go, how many people are likely to meet her, and what could grow in the dioceses she leaves behind.
Back to the Mission CaseA 12-month, coast-to-coast route built to reach far past the 45 communities visited in 2022.
The route is still being planned and will keep evolving through the year, so "200" describes a baseline, not a locked list. Miles are a rough proxy: the ~2,700-mile Miami–Los Angeles drive, tripled to account for a route that zigzags through four regional legs rather than running in a straight line.
A first estimate of the 200 baseline locations by type of venue.
Working assumption: about 83% of venues are parishes and churches, and 17% are universities and seminaries — still a meaningful push into campus ministry that's new to this tour, scaled back from an earlier draft that over-weighted it. There's no national database of how many U.S. parishes are "large," "medium," or "small," so the split within that 83% is our own planning reference, not a cited statistic, and will be refined as the route is finalized.
Attendance is the hardest number on this page to pin down — and the route isn't finished yet.
Ranges per venue type are drawn from turnout at comparable relic tours and major devotions, applied to the venue counts above. Actual turnout in 2022 sometimes exceeded these ranges — Green Bay alone drew 8,500 in one weekend at a single medium-sized shrine — so this is presented as a conservative planning band, not a ceiling. It will move as the route, and the marketing plan, come together.
In 2022, 45 parishes built an audience with zero ad spend. Here's what that audience could look like at 200 locations with a real marketing budget behind it.
Method: take the 2022 totals from 45 parishes (13,000 emails, 2,300 Facebook followers, ~400 Instagram followers), scale them proportionally to 200 locations, then add at least a 50% uplift for the marketing investment this tour will make that 2022 never had. These are floor estimates — a real campaign could beat them.
The 2026-27 tour is built for a lasting relationship with every diocese she visits — not just a single visit. These three items are how we'll know if that relationship took root.
A Diocesan Hospitalité is a standing lay association that organizes local pilgrimages and volunteer service to Lourdes. Today, there is exactly one in the United States — the Hospitalité de Miami, celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2027.
No organized effort exists today to start new Hospitalités anywhere in the country. Two dioceses have already asked how to form one, before a single stop of the tour has happened — reaching even 10 more would more than 10x the number of Hospitalités in the U.S.
This is the hardest outcome on this page to forecast, so we aren't putting a number on it yet. What we can commit to is making the invitation impossible to miss: every stop on the tour will point people toward the partner organizations that can actually take them to Lourdes.
Once the tour starts, referral tracking through these partners can turn this into a real, reportable number.
Every figure on this page is a planning estimate, not a guarantee. Locations, states, and mileage reflect the route as it's currently being planned, which will keep changing through the year. Attendance and venue-size assumptions are our own conservative reference points, built because a public case needs some stated number to work from — not because a national database exists to confirm them. Digital reach is scaled directly from 2022's actual, organic numbers. Hospitalité, Famille Notre Dame, and Lourdes pilgrimage figures depend on relationships this tour hasn't built yet, so where we don't have a defensible way to predict a number, we've said so rather than guess.
The 2026-27 tour of St. Bernadette's relics across the United States is more than a series of stops — it's the start of a lasting relationship between the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes and every diocese, parish, university, and hospital she visits.
The message of Lourdes has always been a message of hope, not only for the Catholic Church, but for the entire world. Wherever St. Bernadette goes this year, that message goes with her.
We can't do it without you.
La gira 2026-27 de las reliquias de Santa Bernardita por los Estados Unidos es más que una serie de paradas: es el comienzo de una relación duradera entre el Santuario de Nuestra Señora de Lourdes y cada diócesis, parroquia, universidad y hospital que visita.
El mensaje de Lourdes siempre ha sido un mensaje de esperanza, no solo para la Iglesia Católica, sino para el mundo entero. Dondequiera que vaya Santa Bernardita este año, ese mensaje la acompaña.
No podemos hacerlo sin ti.
La tournée 2026-27 des reliques de sainte Bernadette à travers les États-Unis est bien plus qu'une série d'étapes : c'est le début d'une relation durable entre le Sanctuaire Notre-Dame de Lourdes et chaque diocèse, paroisse, université et hôpital qu'elle visite.
Le message de Lourdes a toujours été un message d'espérance, non seulement pour l'Église catholique, mais pour le monde entier. Partout où sainte Bernadette se rendra cette année, ce message l'accompagnera.
Nous ne pouvons pas le faire sans vous.