Since 1956, HCPT has offered life-changing week-long pilgrimage holidays to Lourdes, France, for disabled and disadvantaged people. Such holidays are with small groups of prepared volunteer helpers.

HCPT’s Easter pilgrimage holidays are for disabled and disadvantaged children and young people. HCPT groups stay in hotels in Lourdes.

Since 1975, Summer pilgrimage holidays have been offered by HCPT, for disabled and disadvantaged people of all ages. Groups stay at HCPT’s Hosanna House in Bartres, in the hills above Lourdes.

Click here for more information about the spiritual foundation of HCPT’s work and its pilgrimages to Lourdes.

What is a pilgrimage?

A pilgrimage is a journey a pilgrim makes to a sacred place for the purpose of asking for heavenly aid, and ultimately to come to know God better. Christian pilgrimages were first made to sites connected with the birth, life, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Shortly after, pilgrimages started being made to Rome and other sites associated with the Apostles, Saints and Christian martyrs, as well as places where there had been apparitions of the Virgin Mary - one of them being Lourdes.

In the past, pilgrims would leave their homes, families, and comforts to walk for hundreds of miles with nothing but what they could carry on their backs. Just as the pilgrims from the early centuries, we modern pilgrims also leave our homes, families and comforts in order to journey to sacred places.