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Italy opens its shrines to highlight holiness in everyday life
The Night of the Shrines will feature nearly 150 activities on October 31. Padua, Pompeii, and Como are preparing Eucharistic adoration, art tours, and prayer vigils as the initiative moves, for the first time, to the eve of All Saints’ Day.
CHURCH IN ITALY
Ana Paula Morales (Poli)
10/30/20263 min read
A nighttime view of the Basilica of St. Anthony in Padua, Italy, which will take part in the Night of the Shrines on October 31 with prayer, Eucharistic adoration, and meditation. File photo taken in September 2017. Photo: Zairon / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0.
Italy will open the doors of its shrines on the evening of Saturday, October 31, offering a time for prayer and encounter centered on a calling that runs through the life of every baptized person: holiness. Nearly 150 activities, including vigils, pilgrimages, personal testimonies, and artistic and cultural events, are included in the Night of the Shrines program, according to the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI). This year, the initiative moves for the first time from early June to the eve of All Saints’ Day.
Its theme, “Aspire to holiness, wherever you are,” draws on words spoken by Pope Leo XIV during his homily at Tor Vergata on August 3, 2025. The initiative’s official presentation explains that it invites people to recognize this vocation in their everyday willingness to give of themselves to others. Shrines are presented as places where that search can find welcome, accompaniment, and a history of faith with which to engage.
Father Marco Fagotti, who heads the Religious Tourism section of the National Catechetical Office, explains that the new date highlights the connection between these sites and the saints, their relics, and communities’ experiences of faith. The aim, he says in remarks published by the CEI, is to rediscover them as “privileged places in which to reflect on the meaning of one’s own life.”
Launched in 2019, the initiative is organized by the Collegamento Nazionale Santuari, Italy’s national network of shrines, together with the CEI bodies responsible for this pastoral ministry. The organizers provide materials to prepare celebrations and times of prayer, with activities that allow communities to rediscover their shrines’ history and spiritual heritage.
In Padua, the Basilica of St. Anthony, which houses the Franciscan saint’s remains, will open from 9 p.m. until approximately 10:15 p.m. The community will offer Eucharistic adoration, a reading of the Word of God, and a meditation on holiness. In the basilica’s announcement, its rector, Father Antonio Ramina, explains that the prayer is intended to renew the desire to make one’s life a gift to others “in the simplicity of each day.”
Other sites in the city will also take part. The Diocese of Padua announced the participation of the Shrine of St. Anthony in Arcella, where prayer and Eucharistic adoration will take place from 9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., and the Shrine of St. Leopold, served by the Capuchin Friars Minor.
In Pompeii, the evening will bring together the artistic heritage of the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary and the memory of the saints associated with its history. As the Italian news agency SIR reported on October 29, visitors will be welcomed beginning at 8:30 p.m. A free guided tour will begin at 9 p.m., taking in the basilica and other parts of the complex, including the chapel of St. Bartolo Longo, the Garden of the Pilgrim Saints, and the Marian art gallery. Organized with the Pompei Tutors association, the program will conclude at 10:30 p.m. with a Marian vigil and the ritual closing of the image of Our Lady of Pompeii.
The Diocese of Como is offering several ways to participate. Its cathedral will host an All Saints’ vigil with the New Horizons community at 9 p.m.; at the same time, the Shrine of Our Lady of Help will offer prayer and Eucharistic adoration. In Colda, near Sondrio, the Santo Spirito Fraternity will hold adoration from 9 p.m. Saturday until 9 a.m. Sunday, November 1. Meanwhile, the Shrine of Our Lady of Tirano will offer an artistic, spiritual, and meditative itinerary titled “The Way of Beauty.”
These local events give concrete expression to an initiative that retains its focus on vocation: providing time to recognize the gifts people have received and discern how to place them at the service of others. On the eve of All Saints’ Day, the Night of the Shrines invites people to bring their work, relationships, and service to the community into prayer — the everyday settings in which every baptized person is called to live the Gospel. The national program continues to be updated as participants add their activities.
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