Orlando is full of hidden treasures. While any tourist is automatically going to associate Orlando with the mega theme park resorts located here, there is also a world of unique attractions beyond these resorts just waiting to be discovered, including a few Catholic gems. To make a Catholic vacation to Orlando even more enriching, it can easily be paired with a day trip to St. Augustine – where the oldest shrine and church in the U.S. is located.
Orlando’s Theme Parks
Undoubtedly, most visitors will experience at least one of Orlando’s major theme parks during their stay in the city. Seaworld, Universal Studios, Walt Disney World and Legoland each offer their own distinct experiences and will surely create lasting memories.
The theme parks provide a great family experience, especially as they connect children with the characters and scenes from their beloved stories, television series and movies. While the parks bring to life these stories, you can also use the time at these parks to weave in some teaching on the faith. For example, at Epcot Center, as you tour each of the 11 landmark country pavilions – from France, to Mexico to Germany – you can pick a famous Catholic saint from that country to teach your children about as you explore the pavilions.
A trip to the theme parks, particularly the Magic Kingdom, you can’t help being surrounded by fictional Disney princesses and other royal characters. Little known, however, is that just a few miles from the gates of the Magic Kingdom is a shrine to a true queen, Mary Queen of the Universe.
National Shrine of Mary Queen of the Universe
Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary Queen of the Universe was built specifically as a shrine for the millions of Catholic tourists that come to Orlando annually. The 17 acre campus houses a large 2,000 seat church, modelled on the design of the very first Roman church, as well as a museum of religious art. The beautifully landscaped grounds have stunning statues, including an iconic 12 foot statue of the Christ child running to Mary, fountains and a quiet rosary garden. It gives families an opportunity to come for quiet contemplation, daily Eucharistic adoration, mass, and confession, amidst the many distractions of an Orlando vacation.
The shrine is the fulfillment of one priest’s vision to launch a tourist ministry; indeed, over 95% of attendees are tourists, sometimes with over 10,000 faithful at Sunday mass. The visionary was Monsignor Joseph Harte, who started in 1975 offering this tourist ministry out of his car. He drove from hotel to hotel with portable mass kit and vestments, to offer mass for the tourists flocking to Walt Disney World that had just opened four years earlier. He felt the call to establish this ministry while in prayer at the Grotto of Our Lady in Lourdes in 1979; he saw this project as a concrete expression of the call of the newly elected pope, St. John Paul II, to open wide the doors to Christ.
The universal queenship of Mary points to the universality of the Catholic Church, where in addition to the Roman Rite, there are 22 eastern rites fully in union with the Pope; what St. John Paul II often described as the “eastern lung of the Catholic church.” The art, music and ancient liturgies of these eastern churches are beautiful to encounter. There is perhaps no better place to do so than in Orlando, since many of these parishes are used to welcoming the tourists in their midst.
Just behind Universal Studios is the Maronite Catholic Church of St. Jude. The Maronite rite dates back to the fifth century, when it was founded by St. Maron who died in 410. It originated in Antioch, Syria, which was the first See of Peter, before he continued on his journey to Rome. It was the first community recorded in Acts of the Apostles where the believers are called Christian. The Maronite’s divine liturgy (mass) preserves the form of worship traced back to the earliest apostles and it is spoken in Syriac, a form of Aramaic, the language of Christ. Every 3rd Saturday of the month, there is Eucharistic adoration and veneration of the relic of St. Charbel.
On the other end of the Universal Studios Resort, near the Volcano Bay waterpark, is the Byzantine Catholic Church of St. Nicholas of Myra, which preserves the Greek Catholic divine liturgy. It is named after St. Nicholas of Santa Claus fame, and the church contains a shrine to St. Nicholas housing a three hundred year old icon of the famous saint that originated in Russia.
Downtown Orlando and the Cathedral of St. James
There are other attractions in Orlando beyond the theme parks. The downtown is quite pleasant to explore, with some fantastic dining and entertainment options.
In the heart of the downtown is the St. James Cathedral. The current cathedral stands over the site of the first parish that was established in the city in 1881. Today, the splendid cathedral is lined with murals depicting scenes from the life of Christ and the Apostles, and there is a dedicated Adoration Chapel which provides a quiet place for prayer before Our Lord in the midst of Orlando’s bustle.
Within the Cathedral is a reliquary with relics of Blessed Karl von Hapsburg, the last Emperor of Austria-Hungary. This is particularly significant for the diocese, as the miraculous healing of a Baptist woman from terminal cancer in 2008 is one of the miracles currently being studied by the Vatican to move the emperor forward to canonization.
Day trip to St. Augustine
From Orlando, it is about an hour and a half drive north along the Atlantic Coast to St. Augustine, Florida. In this historic town, you will find the site of one of the first Catholic masses to be celebrated in the United States, the oldest Marian shrine in the country (Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche), an important site to commemorate the heroic witness of the Martyrs of Las Floridas, and the first parish in America. For more information on St. Augustine, read my Catholic Travel Guide to St. Augustine here.
CATHOLIC CONCIERGE 
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