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Wednesday, May 24, 2023

The Chartres Pilgrimage, 30 Years Later

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The Chartres Pilgrimage, 30 Years Later

It’s hard for me to fathom that many of our readers today would not even have been born the first time I walked the Pilgrimage from Paris to Chartres. Since then, not a few dear friends and allies of The Remnant have also gone to their eternal reward. The world has changed in ways we could not have imagined back in 1991. Come to think of it, about the only thing that hasn’t changed is the Pilgrimage to Chartres, based as it is on the unchangeable realities of Catholic Tradition – the Latin Mass, the Rosary, the Catholic family, the Four Last Things, and the Social Kingship of Jesus Christ.

 

In a few days, we will be heading back to France to walk the Pentecost Pilgrimage to Chartres for the 30th time. And I find it sad that in this day and age of selfies and social media bragging, people sometimes lose track of what this pilgrimage truly is. One thing it is certainly not is a vacation!

Another thing it is not is expensive. This is not an event tailored to the affluent. The 3-day event – including meals and sleep accommodations – comes to a grand total of 50 euros per pilgrim. It is also extremely difficult since it entails walking for about 12 hours per day and finding no shelter apart from floorless communal tents at night.

After last year’s pilgrimage, one young lad in our group spent five days recuperating in a French hospital. Why? Because he left everything on the Road to Chartres. He gave his all to finish the Pilgrimage.

This will be my 30th anniversary as leader of the US Chapter of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and I am so pleased to report that the U.S. presence on the French pilgrimage has expanded considerably since we organized the very first American chapter back in 1991.

So, yes, the Pilgrimage to Chartres is physically grueling, which is another reason it is so spiritually beneficial. Along the road to Chartres, you will suffer. PERIOD! Along the road to Chartres, you will get over yourself. PERIOD!

This will be my 30th anniversary as leader of the US Chapter of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and I am so pleased to report that the U.S. presence on the French pilgrimage has expanded considerably since we organized the very first American chapter back in 1991. This year, my team will be leading two U.S. chapters, as well as helping out a third chapter that will be walking the Pilgrimage for the first time. In addition, there are several “spinoff” chapters organized by Americans who first walked with us years ago. Altogether, there will be 350 American pilgrims this year.

Why does this matter? Because you helped build this amazing success story. Readers of The Remnant – many of whom are now deceased – trusted me back in the early 1990s when I first asked for support of this magnificently Catholic event. Together we have made a worthy contribution to the future of the Traditional Catholic restoration. And the little Remnant newspaper offered vital assistance to our French allies who needed help to make this not just a French event, but rather an international rendezvous of the “clans of Catholic Tradition” from all over the world.

This year, there will be 20,000 pilgrims on the road to Chartres, walking for the 3 days in support of the Faith of our fathers, the Latin Mass, the Queenship of Mary, and the Kingship of Jesus Christ. It is a massive demonstration of the youth and vitality of the traditional Catholic movement worldwide. And it offers all the hope in the world. In fact, the official theme this year includes Our Lord’s Own supremely hopeful promise: “I will be with you always, even unto the consummation of the world.”

Michael Davies described the pilgrimage as the “most important annual event happening in the Church today,” which is why I have returned to Chartres every year for three decades, so that more Catholics could experience this microcosm of Christendom and rediscover what has been stolen from us and what we must spend the rest of our lives restoring.

Back in 1994, after I’d invited Michael Davies to walk the Pilgrimage to Chartres for the first time, he described it in the pages of The Remnant as the “most important annual event happening in the Church today.” Not surprisingly, I quite agree, which is why I have returned to Chartres every year for three decades so that more Catholics could experience this microcosm of Christendom and rediscover what has been stolen from us and what we must spend the rest of our lives restoring.

Michael and I walked the pilgrimage together nine times before he died. We formed vital alliances and friendships with old warhorse Traditionalists from  many different countries, as well as newcomers, priests, sisters, even bishops, young people, children, old people – spending three days actually “walking together” (as opposed to the phony-baloney synodal walking), praying, and helping each other remain committed and engaged in the war to defend what’s left of Christendom until God saves His Church.

GUARDIAN of TRADITION

I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to walk the 70-mile Pilgrimage, but on this 30th Anniversary I want to thank all those readers of The Remnant who believed in this project as much as I do, and who not only believed in it, but also supported it financially for the past 30 years. Thanks to you, hundreds of young pilgrims were able to walk to Chartres, where so many of them heard God’s vocation to the priesthood, the religious life, the married life, and whatever it was that God has in mind for them.

It has been lifechanging for so many people, including the editor of this newspaper, that now – three decades later – the Pilgrimage to Chartres has become something which defines our movement, sustains our resistance, inspires our youth, and encourages those among us who can longer physically fight but who can pray, sing, and walk along the Road to Chartres in spirit knowing that, in the end, God wins.  

Please, let me inspire you by promising you that what will happen on Pentecost weekend is real, is changing lives, and is planting the seeds of faith that will grow into the mighty forests of Christendom, all in God’s good time.

I am proud of what we’ve all done together in support of the Chartres Pilgrimage, which also includes important spinoff projects that strengthened the Catholic restoration movement worldwide. For example, raising awareness of the Catholic uprising in the Vendee, and then imitating the Vendeans by founding of the International League of the Sacred Heart. (Merci, Saint Louis de Montfort! Priez pour nous.)

I will be praying for all the readers of The Remnant as we walk to Chartres over Pentecost weekend 2023. I invite you to please join us in spirit by visiting RemnantNewspaper.com every day and following along with the pilgrims. Also, I will be communicating in real time with “virtual pilgrims” via Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. If you’d like to follow my daily updates, please follow me on Twitter (Twitter.com/Michael_J_Matt) and on Facebook. And don’t forget to subscribe to The Remnant’s YouTube channel (YouTube.com/@TheRemanntVideo) and, of course, everything we cover – including the pilgrimage to La Salette, Paray-le-Monial, and St. Bernadette’s convent – will be posted here at RemnantNewspaper.com

Please, let me inspire you by promising you that what will happen on Pentecost weekend is real, is changing lives, and is planting the seeds of faith that will grow into the mighty forests of Christendom, all in God’s good time.

The war is not over. The Children of Light have just begun to fight. And next weekend they will assemble once again on the great battlefield of Christendom, Rosaries in hand, Te Deum on lips, marching under the banner of Christ the King Lord of History.

Chartres sonne, Chartres t'appelle !
Gloire, honneur au Christ-Roi !

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Michael J. Matt | Editor

Michael J. Matt has been an editor of The Remnant since 1990. Since 1994, he has been the newspaper's editor. A graduate of Christendom College, Michael Matt has written hundreds of articles on the state of the Church and the modern world. He is the host of The Remnant Underground and Remnant TV's The Remnant Forum. He's been U.S. Coordinator for Notre Dame de Chrétienté in Paris--the organization responsible for the Pentecost Pilgrimage to Chartres, France--since 2000.  Mr. Matt has led the U.S. contingent on the Pilgrimage to Chartres for the last 24 years. He is a lecturer for the Roman Forum's Summer Symposium in Gardone Riviera, Italy. He is the author of Christian Fables, Legends of Christmas and Gods of Wasteland (Fifty Years of Rock ‘n’ Roll) and regularly delivers addresses and conferences to Catholic groups about the Mass, home-schooling, and the culture question. Together with his wife, Carol Lynn and their seven children, Mr. Matt currently resides in St. Paul, Minnesota.