Organisers anticipate that a record 20,000 pilgrims will take part in the 44th annual Pentecost pilgrimage from Paris to Chartres between May 23 and 25, as they simultaneously issue detailed guidance on managing expected temperatures exceeding 30C during the three-day journey.

The pilgrimage continues steady growth that has seen participation rise from approximately 16,000 in 2023 to nearly 19,000 last year. The three-day walk, organised by Notre-Dame de Chrétienté and centred on the Traditional Latin Mass, will feature a new shorter route and close with a Pontifical High Mass celebrated by Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke in Chartres Cathedral.

Notre-Dame de Chrétienté has organised the event since 1983. This year’s pilgrimage, one of the largest foot pilgrimages in Western Europe, follows the theme “You will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth,” drawn from the Acts of the Apostles. Pilgrims will cover approximately 100 kilometres, or 60 miles, on the main route, with nights spent camping at designated stops and luggage transported by volunteer vehicles.

A new “Route of Jerusalem”, approximately 70 kilometres long, has been introduced to allow former participants who found the full distance too demanding, as well as newcomers, to join while maintaining the same spiritual elements of prayer, Gregorian chant and teaching.

In recent years, the Chartres pilgrimage has inspired similar traditional walks across French regions including Brittany, Provence and Normandy, many of which emphasise local Catholic heritage and popular devotions. Participants travel in chapters of up to 50 people, camping at nightly stops with luggage transported by volunteers, and benefit from structured spiritual accompaniment including daily traditional liturgies.

Ahead of departure, Notre-Dame de Chrétienté has issued a formal heatwave alert, warning of temperatures above 30C for the duration of the event. In a statement signed by Pierre Tandonnet, its chief medical officer, the association urged pilgrims to follow strict precautions.

The guidance reads: “We urge you to follow our chief medical officer’s latest recommendations as closely as possible. Cover your head throughout the day and regularly soak your hat... Even better, if possible, bring a light white cotton cloth to wear as a headscarf... Remember to apply sunscreen, SPF 50+ for children, every two to three hours... Drink regularly, always in small quantities: half a glass, 100-150ml, for children and one glass, 200-250ml, for adults every 20 minutes... Above all, take salt intake as well: salted crackers, crisps, etc.”

Mr Tandonnet’s statement further advised: “Rehydration solution recipe = one litre of water + half a tsp salt + one tbsp sugar + juice of half a lemon. Keep an eye on children and vulnerable pilgrims... Stop before the heat stops you.”

It also reiterated standard preparations, including wearing light-coloured, loose-fitting clothing, using properly broken-in walking shoes with cotton socks, applying preventive dressings to friction points and carrying individual medical kits with hydrocolloid blister plasters. The statement stressed that “the pilgrimage must remain a spiritual undertaking” and recommended consulting a doctor for those with chronic conditions or limited training.

Philippe Darantière, president of Notre-Dame de Chrétienté, said registrations had surged, with 14,000 places taken on the first day they opened. In comments reported by Aleteia, he said: “More than the numbers, what really matters is all these Catholics who gather together to draw closer to grace, and who thereby contribute to the spreading of the Gospel message.”

He drew a parallel with the increasing number of adult catechumens in France, describing it as “a phenomenon that must challenge us” and calling for greater efforts in evangelisation.

The average age of participants is reported as 22, with around 30 per cent said to be encountering the traditional liturgy for the first time. Organisers have expanded routes in recent years as numbers have grown, and the Chartres pilgrimage has inspired similar traditional walks in regions including Brittany, Provence and Normandy that emphasise local Catholic cultural roots and popular devotions.

Cardinal Burke will celebrate the closing Mass according to the Vetus Ordo in the 1,000-year-old Chartres Cathedral on Pentecost Monday, May 25, at 3pm. The senior American cleric, a former prefect of the Apostolic Signatura created a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010, previously attended the 35th pilgrimage in 2017. He is expected to meet pilgrims at the Gas bivouac on Pentecost Sunday evening and preach on the event’s missionary theme.

The pilgrimage chaplain is Fr Jean de Massia of the Priestly Fraternity of St Peter (FSSP), founded in 1988 to serve priests and seminarians attached to the pre-conciliar liturgy who remain in full communion with the Holy See. This sets the organisers apart from the Society of St Pius X (SSPX), which has announced plans for episcopal ordinations on July 1 in Ecône, Switzerland, without pontifical mandate.

In remarks reported by OSV News on May 21, Mr Darantière described the Vatican’s response to those plans as “painful”. He recalled the division caused by the 1988 ordinations by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre: “Our pilgrimage to Chartres itself had split in two years ago. We chose to remain faithful to the pope, but some of the organisers then left us.”

He added: “Today, the pilgrims who followed Archbishop Lefebvre walk in the opposite direction from us, from Chartres to Paris, over the Pentecost weekend. And divisions still exist within some families. We therefore pray that the Holy Spirit may enlighten hearts and that the Holy Father may fully exercise his ministry of unity to prevent a new schism.”

The event occurs as the French bishops consider the integration of communities attached to the traditional liturgy. At their assembly in Lourdes in March, they received a message from Pope Leo XIV, conveyed by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, which said: “It is troubling that a painful wound continues to open in the Church concerning the celebration of the Mass, the very sacrament of unity. To heal it, a fresh regard from each person towards the other, with a greater understanding of the other’s sensibility, is surely needed – a regard that could allow brothers enriched by their diversity to welcome one another mutually, in charity and in the unity of faith.”

The message encouraged bishops to seek “concrete solutions that would generously include those sincerely attached to the Vetus Ordo, while respecting the orientations set forth by the Second Vatican Council regarding the Liturgy”.

Bishop Olivier de Cagny of Évreux, who helped lead the discussion on liturgy at the assembly, observed: “It is the first time I have heard so clearly that the subject must be addressed at a theological level, and not merely in a pastoral and emotional way.” He added that the ultimate goal discussed was “a single rite – which allows everyone, whatever their sensibility, to coexist in a common prayer”.

Mr Darantière welcomed the papal message as “a very positive sign”, telling OSV News that Pope Leo “is showing interest in those attached to the traditional liturgy” and “highlighted the vitality of these communities”. He noted recent signs of easing tensions after the restrictions that followed Pope Francis’s 2021 motu proprio Traditionis Custodes, which led some French bishops to limit celebrations of the Tridentine rite and, in certain cases, ask FSSP priests to leave their dioceses.

“Things have been calming down recently,” he said. “I hope we can take advantage of that so that we can work to get to know one another better on both sides. For now, we know very little about one another. Contacts are fairly rare.”

In a comment article published in La Croix on May 22, Mr Darantière addressed the deeper appeal of the traditional liturgy. “If the traditional liturgy were nothing more than a cultural conservatory, it would be a museum; yet it is manifestly alive. It moves from the cultural to the cultic,” he wrote.

He continued: “We do not come to Mass first for ourselves. We come because we have with God a debt that cannot be repaid.” Describing the liturgy as “a lived catechism,” he said: “The ancient liturgy teaches not only who God is, but who man is before God.” He added the widely noted phrase: “The liturgy does not seek to please the age. And therefore the age returns to it.”

The sustained increase in pilgrims, many of them young families and recent converts to the traditional practice, has been accompanied by detailed logistical planning. Participants are organised into chapters of up to 50 people, with dedicated spiritual accompaniment. Upon reaching Chartres, they will enter the historic cathedral closely associated with French Catholic pilgrimage tradition and the poet Charles Péguy, who walked there in the early 20th century.

As the columns depart from Paris this weekend, the pilgrimage will once again demonstrate the scale and organisation of traditional Catholic life in France, with its structured formation, communal charity and public witness to the Faith.