No one was expecting 7,000 people to walk the streets of St. Paul with Jesus. 

Less than 3,000 had registered for the May 27 Eucharistic procession, and the combination of a foreboding forecast and the Memorial Day holiday dampened organizers’ expectations for an extraordinary turnout.

And yet extraordinary is exactly what happened on Summit Avenue, as an enormous crowd of Catholics braved ominous thunderclouds and forewent holiday relaxation to make the 4.5-mile walk with the Blessed Sacrament down the Minnesota capital city’s most iconic thoroughfare, past rows of Victorian-era estates — including the governor’s mansion.

Dubbed the “Source and Summit Eucharistic Procession,” a tribute to both the Second Vatican Council’s teaching on the Eucharist and the famed avenue the faithful were walking along, the journey from the Saint Paul Seminary to the Cathedral of St. Paul united the local archdiocese’s past, present, and future, and brought together thousands of Catholics of multiple backgrounds, ethnicities, and languages in a powerful expression of Church unity.

Archbishop Bernard Hebda, the ordinary of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, described the participants’ eucharistic faith as a “source of renewal” for the local Church, but also for himself.

“There were more graces than I even anticipated, which is a little bit embarrassing that I didn’t realize how good God was going to be,” Archbishop Hebda told the Register, adding that it was “a minor miracle” that so many attended amidst the three-day Memorial Day weekend, a time that in Minnesota is synonymous with the start of summer cabin season.

“I think the Lord and Our Lady were really working,” he said.

 

Largest NEP Event Yet

But the event didn’t just surpass local organizers’ expectations — as evidenced by the fact that an announcement had to be made after the final blessing at the cathedral imploring those gathered to let the children who had participated have first dibs at the frozen treats at the ensuing ice cream social.

It also set the bar for the ongoing National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, a two-month, four-route, cross-country journey to Indianapolis for the 10^th National Eucharistic Congress July 17-21. The St. Paul event was part of the Marian Route, which launched from the headwaters of the Mississippi River on May 19.

With its 7,000 participants, the Source and Summit Eucharistic Procession was the single largest NEP event thus far “by a good margin,” said Tim Glemkowski, who heads the organization leading the entire National Eucharistic Revival. The next largest pilgrimage event, a Eucharistic procession across San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge last weekend, had 3,000 fewer participants.

Attendance grew throughout the three-hour long procession as thousands joined along the route to the local cathedral, which sits atop the aptly-named Cathedral Hill overlooking the Minnesota State Capitol and downtown St. Paul. Rain that had threatened nearly the entire procession held off until the moment the Blessed Sacrament reached the cathedral, which is also the national shrine of the apostle Paul.

Throughout the procession, the faithful prayed the Rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet and a litany to the saints, while also singing joyful eucharistic and Marian hymns in both English and Spanish. 

Many said they were drawn by the opportunity to join Catholics from across the archdiocese for the historic celebration of the Eucharistic procession, a rare time when, aside from the Twin Cities Marathon in October, Summit Avenue was shut down to vehicles.

 

 

A Journey Through History…

In many ways, the procession was a journey through St. Paul’s rich Catholic heritage, especially considering the route’s origin and end. The Saint Paul Seminary was established in 1894, while the construction on the current Cathedral of St. Paul began in 1904, both on the initiative of the legendary Archbishop John Ireland.

The Eucharistic procession also incorporated another important part of St. Paul Catholic history: a dazzling, silver monstrance inspired by Christ’s transfiguration, that had first been used over 83 years ago, at the 9^th National Eucharistic Congress, which took place in St. Paul in 1941.

That congress included a procession of 80,000, and led not from the seminary to the cathedral, but from the cathedral to the Minnesota state fairgrounds. 

But although the route this past Memorial Day was different, the Source and Summit processors were very much following in the spiritual footsteps of their forebearers — a note that was struck when the hymn “Faith of Our Fathers” was sung during midday prayer at the start of the procession.

“Jesus has accompanied us generation after generation through His presence in the Blessed Sacrament,” preached Bishop Andrew Cozzens, a former archdiocesan auxiliary who now leads the Diocese of Crookston and is the U.S. bishops’ point person for the National Eucharistic Revival.

 

…And a Bold Step Forward

But the procession was also replete with encouraging signs of the local Church’s hopeful future.

Recent first communicants walked in procession directly behind the Blessed Sacrament and the bishops, wearing the white dresses or suits they’d had on when they’d first received the Eucharist during the Easter season.

When asked to describe what it was like to walk at the front of the procession with Jesus, Cloelia, who wore a white coat adorned with decorative roses, had one word: “Good!”

“It’s a very big deal to her because she’s been waiting so many years just to receive our Lord’s Body and Blood,” explained her mother, Chia Lor. “And now he’s right there, in front of her.”

Children from St. Stephen’s in Minneapolis, a local Latino hub, strew rose petals on the pavement ahead of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, while throngs of young families and parents pushing strollers made up a significant portion of the procession. At several places along the route, children knelt down in adoration, a parent pointing out the Eucharistic Lord in hushed tones.

Archbishop Hedba was moved by the participation of so many families, making a point to thank parents for bringing their children so that “they could experience this devotion in its fullness.”

He shared with the Register his confidence that the experience would have a longlasting impact on the young people who participated — in part because he’d met attendees in the Source and Summit Procession who also took part in the 1941 procession, and still had moving memories of that day. 

The archdiocese’s youthfulness was also manifest in another way. Joining the 50 or so clergy at the head of the procession were some of the local Church’s 13 new priests, ordained just two days earlier in the Cathedral of St. Paul. At least 150 priests processed along the streets. 

For ordinandi like Father Frankie Floeder, the procession retraced the spiritual journey made throughout formation, from the seminary to the cathedral, with Christ’s presence in the Blessed Sacrament as the constant.

“The Eucharist has played an instrumental part in my own vocation, a source of strength for me,” Father Floeder told the Register, sharing his gratitude for now being able to celebrate the Holy Mass “and bring heaven down to earth for the people of God.” 

Archbishop Hebda said that when people ask why the Saint Paul and Minneapolis archdiocese is blessed with so many vocations — priestly, but also to the permanent diaconate and consecrated life — he and others always point to the local Church’s strong culture of Eucharistic adoration.

“We certainly hope that in the midst of some challenging statistics across our country that if we’re able to stay focused on Jesus in the Eucharist, we don’t have to go in that direction.”

 

Unity in Diversity

The Eucharistic procession unified not just the archdiocese’s past and future but also its diverse present.

Catholics from across the Twin Cities participated, some proudly wearing t-shirts celebrating their home parishes, others holding banners aloft representing various apostolates.

Various ethnic groups that make up the local Church were also well-represented.

The Vietnamese Eucharistic Youth Movement played a prominent role, with one member expressing his gratitude for the opportunity to come together with “everyone in the archdiocese.”

“It’s amazing,” said Stephen Pham, who took part with his wife and young daughter. “We have always been faithful in our own, and it’s been great to really be an active part of the archdiocese.”

Members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in America, an Irish heritage association, walked alongside Knights and Ladies of St. Peter Claver, a fraternal organization of black Catholics.

“This is a continuance of black Catholics’ presence in the Twin Cities,” said John Carter of KSPC, who is also a parishioner at St. Peter Claver, the archdiocese’s historically black parish. 

Amy Tadlock, the archdiocesan staffer responsible for organizing the Marian Route’s weeklong stay in the Twin Cities, said it was “really beautiful” to see “all the different cultures and faces in the archdiocese” represented at the procession.

Given the Eucharist’s centrality in making the Church the one Body of Christ, Archbishop Hebda said that it shouldn’t surprise anyone that a Eucharistic procession would draw a diverse array of Catholics together.

“There is that beautiful connection, no matter what our background is, no matter what language we speak, that we as Catholics have that love for the Eucharist that unites us.”

 

 

The Witness of Communion

At one of the procession’s four stops for Eucharistic benediction, Auxiliary Bishop Michael Izen said that perhaps onlookers were skeptical of what the group was up to—and understandably so. The bishop said that although Christ is truly present in the Eucharist, he is also hidden—and it’s up to those Catholics who believe in him to witness to others.

If so, there were plenty of opportunities along the route. The procession passed people watching from the front porches, curious bikers, and even kids playing in a front yard bouncy castle. At one point, a local club of croquet players politely paused their match as Bishop Joseph Williams, an archdiocesan auxiliary who earlier in the week had been named coadjutor of the Diocese of Camden, New Jersey, gave a Eucharistic blessing in a park.

Archbishop Hebda added that the various landmarks passed by the procession provided plenty of on-the-go prayer requests for the local Church and community: vocations at the seminary, a renewal of Catholic higher ed at the University of St. Thomas, ecumenical and inter-faith relations alongside the Greek orthodox and Protestant churches and synagogue, the archdiocese’s parishes at St. Thomas More Catholic Community, and elected officials at the governor’s mansion. 

As the pilgrimage reached its conclusion at the cathedral, Bishop John Levoir, the retired ordinary of the Diocese of New Ulm and a local son of the archdiocese, told the Register that the joyful Eucharistic gathering of local Catholics of various ages and backgrounds “is the way God works.” He said he expects the day’s procession will bless the Twin Cities abundantly going forward, whether or not it makes the front pages or evening news reports. 

“Not many people are going to pay attention to this, but this is the most important thing happening not only today, but for a long time.”