Brandon and Celie Gervais came from St. Peters, Missouri, just down the road. They brought their three children, with the youngest riding in a carrier on his father’s back.
On Saturday, the Serra Route’s Perpetual Pilgrims — a group of young people committed to walking the entire route with Jesus — visited the Missionaries of Charity at their home in a low-income neighborhood in north St. Louis City. The pilgrims were warmly welcomed to St. Josephine Bakhita Parish, a historically Black congregation only a block or two from the Missionaries of Charity, for lunch and fellowship.
Sunday’s events began with Mass at a packed Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, celebrated by Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski, with the 5.5-mile procession beginning immediately afterward.
Outside the cathedral, a lone pro-abortion protestor stood with a sign, waiting for the procession to exit the church. A young Catholic mother of three, with her children in tow, attempted to block the man’s sign with her body as the Eucharistic monstrance approached.