National Eucharistic Pilgrimage Coming Through Effingham

Effingham will be welcoming the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage July 11-12, an unprecedented nationwide pilgrimage where Catholics will pray and publicly follow Jesus in their cities through Eucharistic processions.

A portion of the Eucharistic procession through Effingham will be held Friday, July 12 at 8:30 a.m., starting at HSHS St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital, 503 N. Maple Drive, with a brief service in front of the hospital, and processing to St. Anthony's of Padua Parish, 101 E. Virginia Ave., for Mass at 9:30 a.m. The Mass at St. Anthony Church will be livestreamed on their website, church.stanthony.com.

Bus transportation will be provided from St. Anthony Parish to the hospital on Friday morning. Return transportation will be provided after Mass.

The community is invited to this once-in-a-lifetime experience being called “our national Emmaus moment,” after the biblical passage in which Jesus walked with two of his disciples along the road to Emmaus.

HSHS St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital and St. Anthony of Padua have a long history together in the Effingham community. Since 1858, St. Anthony Parish has been the worshipping Catholic Community on the north end of Effingham. In 1875, Father Weis, St. Anthony Church Pastor, invited the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis to come to Effingham from Germany. Three Hospital Sisters arrived in Effingham in November 1875, greeted by the pastor and parishioners, and began serving in the area. HSHS St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital will commemorate their 150th anniversary of caring for the community on Nov. 15, 2025, and will begin a year of celebrations this fall.

Other local portions of the Eucharistic procession will be led by Sacred Heart Church in Effingham and St. Francis of Assisi Church in Teutopolis.

For more information about the Eucharistic Pilgrimage, visit the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois website, dio.org, or follow their Facebook page, facebook.com/diospringfield.