Philadelphia is one of the ultimate destinations in America for the Catholic visitor. There are two saints of the universal church enshrined in the city, as well as beautiful churches all over town that point to the riches of our faith and many that link back to the nation’s founding.
The highlights of a Philly pilgrimage include:
- The National Shrine of St. Katherine Drexel
- The National Shrine of St. John Neumann
- Historic churches linked to the American Revolution
- The Basilica Shrine of the Miraculous Medal
Independence National Park
Philadelphia is America’s original capital and in the heart of the old city is Independence National Park. The Founding Fathers, from Washington and Adams, to Jefferson and Madison, all passed through these streets and buildings, as they hurried about drafting the founding documents of the nation. This is the district where you will find Independence Hall and the iconic Liberty Bell that proclaimed the nation’s independence in 1776.
Just beyond Independence National Park is Old St. Mary’s Catholic Church, with a history intimately linked to the nation’s birth.
Founded in 1763, it was the epicenter of the early Catholic community during the American Revolution and the federalist era. It was here that the first public religious ceremony to commemorate the Declaration of Independence occurred in 1779. In 1781, a victory mass was celebrated following the British defeat at Yorktown; the Revolutionary and French Armies jointly celebrated mass and laid the conquered flags of the British at the altar. The Continental Congress attended mass here on four occasions, as did Presidents Washington and Adams.
One block from Old St. Mary’s is another historic church, Old Saint Joseph. Located on picturesque Willings Alley, it has the distinction of being the oldest Catholic church in Philadelphia. It first opened its doors in 1733 and was the home base for eighteenth century Jesuit missionaries who traveled across the mid-Atlantic. At least eight neighboring dioceses can trace their heritage to those missionaries. This church’s existence underscores the uniqueness of the religious tolerance that defined Pennsylvania in the early eighteenth century. Nowhere else in the colonies, or in the British Empire at that time, could a Catholic congregation worship in relative freedom, protected by law.
About two blocks from the National Constitution Center, with its ornate steeple rising from behind the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, is St. Augustine’s Church. It was the first permanent establishment of the Augustinian Order in the U.S. It was founded in 1796 to serve the growing German and Irish community, financed in part by George Washington and Commodore Barry (the Irish Catholic who became the father of the U.S. Navy).
This church is also a living witness to the persecution that Catholics in Philadelphia endured in the mid nineteenth century with the onset of the nativist movement. It reached its peak during the riots of 1844, when torch-bearing mobs decried the influence of the foreign prince (the Pope) and questioned the loyalty of immigrant Catholics to America, burned down churches, convents and religious institutions, including St. Augustine’s. During that year, at least 45 people were killed in the sectarian fighting on the streets of Philadelphia, one of the worst outbreaks of violence in America’s cities since the American Revolution. The rebuilt church is an artistic masterpiece, with its frescoes and stained glass windows telling the story of the life of St. Augustine and depicting various Augustinian saints.
Benjamin Franklin Parkway
The Benjamin Franklin Parkway, one of America’s grand boulevards, is a charming mile long stretch connecting many of Philadelphia’s cultural institutions. The Parkway was also the venue of two enormous papal masses, the first celebrated by St. John Paul II during his first trip to the U.S. in 1979 and the other more recently by Pope Francis during the 2015 World Meeting of Families; for both occasions, it is estimated that over one million faithful lined the parkway to celebrate mass.
The Parkway starts at the world famous Philadelphia Museum of Art, one of the largest art museums in the U.S. It houses a priceless art collection – including works from Picasso, Greco, Rubens, Dali, Monet, and an impressive armor collection. Its front steps were made famous in the film, Rocky, with the unforgettable sprint up those steps by Sylvester Stalone. Less well known is that there is a gleaming golden statue of real life heroine, St. Joan of Arc, right behind the museum.
A short walk from the Museum is the Chapel of Divine Love, the chapel of the cloistered convent of the Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters. The Sisters came to Philadelphia from the Netherlands and are affectionately called the “pink sisters,” owing to the color of their robes. The sisters maintain perpetual Eucharistic adoration and visitors are welcome to enter their chapel to spend time before the Blessed Sacrament.
As the Parkway winds its way closer to the gleaming skyscrapers of downtown Philadelphia, it transforms into a beautiful European-style square at Logan Circle. Framed by the elegant public fountain that sits at the center of the square is the stunning Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul. Not only is it the seat of the Archbishop of Philadelphia, but it is also the final resting place and shrine of Philadelphia’s own saint, Katherine Drexel.
(Photo by B. Krist for GPTMC)
Completed in 1864, it is the only cathedral in America built in the Roman-Corinthian style. At the entrance, is a statue of Jesus breaking bread, which is a memorial to the 1976 International Eucharistic Congress that was held in Philadelphia and whose theme was Jesus, the Bread of Life, attended by then-Cardinal Karol Wojtyla (St. John Paul II) and St. Teresa of Calcutta.
Upon entering, you will notice that the windows are set quite high; this was intentionally designed to avoid stones thrown by anti-Catholic mobs, since construction began just two years after the 1844 riots that targeted Catholics in the city. To the side of the bishop’s throne is a gorgeous portrait of the Holy Family; this was the official image of the 2015 World Meeting of Families held in Philadelphia. The interior artwork is local, with murals telling the story of the events that define Catholic Philadelphia.
The highlight of the Cathedral is the National Shrine of St. Katherine Drexel.
St. Katherine Drexel was no ordinary Philadelphia nun. She came from one of the wealthiest families in America and was a remarkable female trailblazer whose charity was felt across the United States, particularly among the Black and Native communities.
Katherine was born in 1858, one of three daughters of Francis Drexel, a Philadelphia financier and one of America’s richest men. In spite of a pampered childhood in high society, she developed a keen sense of compassion and love for the marginalized that would guide her throughout her life.
When St. Katherine’s family moved to the western plains, she was moved by the plight of the Native Americans. When she raised the issue in a private audience with Pope St. Leo XIII in 1887, he suggested that Katherine herself become a missionary. She quickly abandoned suitors who had been seeking her hand in marriage and invested her considerable wealth in service of the Native American missions and educating African Americans. This shocked Philadelphia society. Not only did this fabulously wealthy heiress give herself completely to the Church, but she also chose two causes that were the subject of much scorn in the nineteenth century. She died in 1955 and was canonized by Pope St. John Paul II in 2000.
Adjacent to the Cathedral on Logan Circle are two popular museums: The Franklin Institute, which is an interactive science museum paying tribute to the scientific discoveries of Benjamin Franklin, complete with a planetarium and a walk-through heart. On the other end of Logan Circle is the Academy of Natural Sciences, which is the oldest continuously operating natural history museum in the Western Hemisphere, with an impressive dinosaur collection as well as a multitude of mounted animals from around the world.
Shrine of St. John Neumann
Philadelphia’s other saint was its second bishop, the German missionary John Neumann. In fact, he is the only American bishop ever canonized and his shrine is in the revitalized Northern Liberties neighborhood.
The shrine is located inside the Redemptorist Church of St. Peter the Apostle. The glass enclosed altar containing the saint’s body is located in the Lower Church, surrounded by stained glass windows depicting his life. St. John Neumann visited the church often, both as priest and bishop, and he celebrated his last midnight mass on Christmas Eve at the parish a few days before his untimely death in 1860.
St. John Neumann was a tireless priest and bishop who touched the lives of thousands of faithful Catholics from the pioneer communities of upstate New York and the coal mining villages of western Pennsylvania to the wealthy and powerful elite of Philadelphia. Born in Bohemia (in the modern day Czech Republic), St. John joined waves of German speaking immigrants that moved to the United States in the mid nineteenth century. Ordained a priest in New York City, he eventually chose to join the Redemptorists in 1842. His greatest challenge came in 1852, when the Pope appointed him to become the fourth bishop of Philadelphia, at a time when the diocese was just emerging from the nativist attacks on Catholics, as well as ethnic tensions within the Philadelphia church. With great humility, he took on the challenge and was a remarkable church builder in his eight years as bishop. His episcopal motto was, “Passion of Christ, Strengthen Me.” During his short tenure, he built 80 churches and 35 schools. He also mastered eight different languages in order to more effectively meet the needs of his flock.
Little Italy and the National Shrine of St. Rita of Cascia
The Irish, Italian, and German immigrants to Philadelphia brought with them many religious traditions from their homeland, reflected in the region’s many shrines. In South Philadelphia, right along the metro line and across the street from Ellsworth-Federal station, is the National Shrine of St. Rita of Cascia.
The church, with its relic of the saint, was established in 1907 by the Augustinians to honor the patron saint of impossible causes. It was built just seven years after her canonization. The upper church and lower chapel are lined with statues and stained glass windows telling the fascinating story of this fourteenth century Italian saint, who famously united herself to Christ’s suffering and was pierced by a thorn from the Crown of Thorns, leaving an open wound in her forehead until the day of her death.
The parish was built to serve the bustling Italian-American community that settled in this area of South Philly, and the shops, bakeries and restaurants of the Italian Market (Philly’s Little Italy) is located just around the corner from the church.
Germantown and the Basilica Shrine of the Miraculous Medal
“Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee”
Across town near the historic Germantown neighborhood, with its cobblestone streets and 300 year old buildings, is Philadelphia’s newest basilica, the Basilica Shrine of the Miraculous Medal. The church received this honor in January 2023 by Pope Francis and commemorates one of the most significant devotions coming out of France: the miraculous medal devotion revealed to St. Catherine Laboure by Our Lady in 1830.
The church is crowned by a 125 foot belltower with an immense statue of Mary Immaculate overlooking the city. Inside, the church has been the venue for a perpetual novena of the miraculous medal for several decades. The devotion to the miraculous medal originated in nineteenth century Paris, where St. Catherine Laboure received an apparition from Our Lady in which she asked that a medal be emblazoned promising that all who wear it would receive special graces; the medal design was revealed during the apparition and bears the simple pray: “Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.” The shrine church beautifully depicts the story of the medal and each of the three apparitions. Some of the treasures in the Shrine include one of the first ten medals made in France following the apparition, as well as a piece of the fabric from the chair in Paris in which Our Lady sat during the apparition.
At the shrine, a perpetual novena in honor of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal has been prayed here continuously since 1930. The novena became so popular that it had branched out to over 4,000 places across America by the mid 1960s. Countless graces and healings have been attributed to the novena and prayers offered at the shrine.
Stepping outside of the Basilica, the Germantown neighborhood is worth exploring. Known as “Freedom’s Backyard,” it is full of historic buildings, including the site of the only Revolutionary War battle in Philadelphia (the Battle of Germantown), an underground railroad stop, the home where the first protest against slavery in America was written, and the oldest White House in the U.S.; where George Washington lived as President and held Cabinet meetings when Philadelphia was the capital.
CATHOLIC CONCIERGE 
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