About 3,000 people gather in Washington, DC, for rosary pilgrimage

WASHINGTON — Thousands of Catholics who gathered at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on Saturday got a head start on the approaching month of the rosary by participating in a daylong event featuring prayer and talks centered on the power of the Marian prayer.

The fourth annual Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage drew an estimated 3,000 people, with tens of thousands of others joining via livestream broadcast.

Hosted by the Dominican Friars of the Province of St. Joseph, the event included opportunities for joining in Eucharistic adoration and receiving the sacrament of reconciliation.

“Every year the pilgrimage grows. Every year, more people join us and every year those prayers are lifted up to heaven with greater enthusiasm,” said Dominican Father Patrick Briscoe, promoter general for social communication of the Province of St. Joseph , which extends from New England to Virginia to Ohio.

Pilgrims sit shoulder to shoulder in the basilica, some with hands clasped in prayer, during the Vigil Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., for the Dominican Rosary Pilgrimage on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2026. |…