India Pilgrimage – Mother Teresa – St Francis Xavier – Taj Mahal

Arrive at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi.  After passing through Passport Control and Customs, you will be met by our tour guide, who will escort you to your waiting coach and bring you to your hotel,  our home for 4 nights.  After check-in, you will be shown to your room for a good night’s sleep.

This morning, breakfast is at your leisure and there are no activities planned, allowing time for recovery from the long journey. In the afternoon, we will gather to meet our fellow travelers for Holy Mass and a Welcome Dinner. Overnight in Delhi.

Enjoy a full-day tour of the capital today, including a visit to the Parliament Building, a circular colonnaded building housing ministerial offices, numerous committee rooms, and an excellent library. Conceived in the Imperial Style, the Parliament House consists of an open verandah with 144 columns, and the domed circular central hall with oak paneled walls and the three semi-circular buildings are used for the Rajya Shabha and Lok Shabha meetings.  A highlight of today’s tour will be a special Mass celebrated at the National Cathedral.  Sacred Heart is Delhi’s most prominent Catholic church and one of the oldest churches in the city.  Franciscan Father Luke took the initiative to build the church, and construction started in 1929.  Dinner and overnight in Delhi.

Leave Delhi in good time this morning to travel south to Agra. Upon arrival in Agra, we will visit the impressive Mughal Red Fort, a 16th-century red sandstone fortress built by the Mughal emperor Akbar. The fort was both a military base and the royal residence of the Mughal dynasty until 1638 when the capital was moved to Delhi. The Red Fort is a great preview to visiting the Taj Mahal, the two were built during the same period and have much shared history.

From here we will visit the iconic Taj Mahal—India’s most stunning homage to love, and learn how this World Wonder was built in 1631 – 1653 by the Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan for his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal. While the mausoleum is constructed of white marble inlaid with semi-precious stones, red sandstone was used for other buildings in the complex similar to the Mughal-era buildings. The construction project employed more than 20,000 workers and artisans under the guidance of a board of architects led by Ustad Ahmad Lahori, the emperor’s court architect. The Taj Mahal was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 for being the jewel of Islamic art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world’s heritage. It is regarded as one of the best examples of Mughal architecture and a symbol of Indian history. Enjoy lunch today in a beautiful hotel in Agra. Return to Delhi for dinner and overnight. 

After having breakfast at the hotel, we will transfer to the airport for our 2-hour flight to Calcutta. Upon arrival, we will be met by our guide.  

Depending on time and traffic, we will tour the highlights of Calcutta, including a visit to the beautiful Victoria Memorial Hall. This large marble monument, built between 1906 and 1921 by the British Raj, is dedicated to the memory of Queen Victoria, the Empress of India from 1876 to 1901. It is the largest monument to a monarch anywhere in the world. Encompassing 64 acres of gardens and a museum, it is one of the most popular attractions in the city. 

We will also try to visit the Cathedral of the Most Holy Rosary, commonly called the Portuguese Church. Over 200 years old, the Portuguese church is now painted in blue and white and stands like a sentinel of the colonial past of Calcutta, when the city was truly international and cosmopolitan.  We will transfer to your hotel. Dinner and overnight in Calcutta.

This morning we will travel to the slums of Entally to visit the “home of the pure heart,” or Nirmal Hriday, the place where Mother Teresa dedicated herself full-time to the service of the poor and abandoned. The Mother House is the headquarters of the International Religious Congregation of the Missionaries of Charity and has been home to Mother Teresa and her Missionaries of Charity Sisters since February 1953. It is here that Mother lived, prayed, worked, and guided her religious family spread across the world. It is from here that she went home to God and it is here that her body was laid to rest. Adjacent to Mother Teresa’s Tomb is a small museum that opened in 2005 which provides a glimpse into the life and work of Mother Teresa through a variety of exhibits that include: some of her personal belongings, artifacts used by Mother Teresa, copies of her handwritten letters, news articles, photos, books, a few awards, postal stamps, coins and paintings under the title, ‘Visions of Love.’ A special Mass will be celebrated here for the group. Other Homes for the Abandoned run by the Association Missionaries of Charity include Shishu Bhavan – Homes for the Children, Home for the Physically and Mentally Challenged Women, and Hansen’s Disease or Leprosy Centers. Dinner and overnight in Calcutta. 

This morning we will have Mass followed by breakfast at the hotel before departing for the airport to board our flights to Cochin (Kochi), a major port city along the Malabar Coast of India. Upon arrival, we will be met by our local representative and transferred to Brunton Boatyard, a 5-star Hotel at Fort Kochi inspired by colonial history. A former shipyard in British times, this restored period building evokes the era when great trading houses of British India when pepper from Kerala was considered as precious as gold. Fort Kochi, the oldest European settlement in India, still retains an old-world charm. There will be time to relax before gathering for dinner.  Overnight in Cochin (Kochi).

In 1341, nature carved out Kochi’s harbor with a massive flood and the city became the first port of call for Arabs, Chinese, and, finally, European sea merchants, who sailed for barter into what came to be known as the Queen of the Arabian Sea.  Lured by the promise of pepper, the Portuguese under Vasco da Gama arrived in 1500, and the Franciscan friars who accompanied the explorer Pedro Alvarez Cabral established a church and set about converting the locals. By 1553, the Maharaja of Kochi had granted permission for the construction of the first European fort in India, and what had been an obscure fishing hamlet became India’s first European settlement. In 1663, Kochi fell to the Dutch, and 132 years later, to the British. Each of these foreign influences left its mark, resulting in a distinctly Indo-European culture, most evident in the architecture. This morning we will have Mass and breakfast before heading to Cochin Port from where we will board your boat for a two-hour cruise around the Kochi Harbor area and Bolghatty Island, a picturesque little island in the Ernakulam district. After the cruise, we’ll visit the two famous churches: Santa Cruz Basilica and St. Francis Church, the initial burial place of the famous Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama.  da Gama died in Kochi in 1524 on his third visit to India. His body was originally buried in this church, but after fourteen years his remains were moved to the Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon.  Other highlights include a visit to Paradesi Synagogue, the Mattancherry or Dutch Palace, and the market area where we’ll take in the fragrant scents of Kerala’s spice warehouses. Dinner and overnight in Cochin a.k.a. Kochi.

After breakfast at the hotel, we will depart for the Saviour’s Home where we will see the works they do including the Saviour’s Foundling Home For Children, the Saviour’s Home For The Destitute Women, and the Saviour’s Home For Abandoned Girls. We will enjoy a special cultural program and celebrate a special Mass here.

They will provide lunch at Saviour’s Home and organize a culture /engagement program with children and other beneficiaries of the center. A short visit to two campuses in the area – a new girl’s home that is currently under construction, and a proposed site for a new home for elderly persons that is on the drawing boards. Return to the hotel.

We will board an early flight to Goa, the Pearl of the Orient.  Old Goa was the original capital of the former Portuguese colony of Goa and once rivaled Lisbon in size and splendor. It was the first Jesuit colony in the Indian subcontinent and in 1565 could boast a population of 200,000. However, malaria and cholera epidemics ravaged the city in the seventeenth century and it was then largely abandoned. 

Today’s highlight will include a Special Mass at the Basilica of Bom Jesus, which houses the incorruptible body of the missionary St. Francis Xavier, who was based in Goa in 1541–49.  When the saint’s body was transferred here a year after his death it was said to be “as fresh as the day it was buried.” The ornate tomb was a gift from Grand Duke Cosimo III of Tuscany and the silver-covered casket containing St. Francis’s remains is a magnificent hybrid of Italian and Indian art.

After mass, we will visit the Museum of Christian Art on the picturesque Holy Hill in Old Goa within the 17th-century Convent of Santa Monica. Recognized globally as a perfect symbiosis of two cultural manifestations, Indian and European, the art objects at MoCA are known for their antiquity and distinct Indo-Portuguese influence and have attracted visitors and research scholars from India and worldwide.  It is marked as a must-see in most international travel guides and art objects from the collection have been sought for international exhibitions. Lunch will be offered at the Museum followed by a music program. After the music program, a special exhibition will be offered to visitors to purchase iconography, religious items, authentic food, species, and souvenirs. We will return to the hotel for a special dinner.

After breakfast at the hotel, we will travel to Our Lady of Pillar, home to the remains of Venerable Angelo D’Souza, a Missionary Priest responsible for the evangelization of Goa. After mass, we will begin our tour of various historic churches, homes, and villages in Goa. We will visit the Figueiredo Home, Loutolim, which dates back to 1590. We will get an opportunity to learn the history of Goa through the lens of one of the oldest families in the region. After the visit we will travel to Salvador do Mundo, Saligao, and stop by lunch at Fort Tiracol Heritage Hotel, a historic fort that overlooks the ocean. After lunch, we will travel to Panjim for a short tour of Our Lady of Immaculate Conception, (Panjim Church), and solar andrade, a historic home in the Latin Quarters. After these activities, we will return to our hotel.

Today we will enjoy a break from the tour to allow for shopping and exploration of the beautiful old city on our own.  Two personal shoppers are available for guests to purchase unique clothing items, souvenirs, alcohol, and other items. The Personal shoppers ensure you will obtain good prices from the right vendors.

This morning we will arrive back home.