{"id":201074,"date":"2026-03-02T21:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T21:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/201074\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T21:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T21:05:11","slug":"high-school-students-embark-on-inaugural-camino-de-san-francisco-to-mark-800th-year-since-st-francis-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/201074\/","title":{"rendered":"High school students embark on inaugural Camino de San Francisco to mark 800th year since St. Francis\u2019 death"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A group of high school students completed the inaugural Camino de San Francisco, a 24.5-mile Catholic pilgrimage from San Rafael to San Francisco, to celebrate Saint Francis of Assisi on the 800th anniversary of his death.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Caminos are pilgrimages intended to provide an opportunity to step away from ordinary life and focus on faith and interior reflection. They date back to the ninth century.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>According to Franciscan tradition, St. Francis traveled a camino around 1214, preaching along the way and advancing his message of poverty and simplicity.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/sanfrancisco\/news\/group-embarks-on-inauguration-trek-of-camino-de-san-francisco\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">According<\/a> to CBS News, the pilgrimage began at Mission San Rafael Arc\u00e1ngel and concluded two days later at Mission Dolores in San Francisco. Father Christopher Iwancio, chaplain of St. Francis High School in La Ca\u00f1ada, California, led the journey.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Fr. Iwancio said the pilgrimage held particular significance for students of Junipero Serra.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are walking in the footsteps of Junipero Serra and following St. Francis of Assisi,\u201d Fr. Iwancio said. \u201cThis is a great connection between St. Serra and our students and our school. Also, this being the inaugural Camino de San Francisco, I really feel fortunate and blessed to be a part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the CBS News article, Cooper Smith, a student at Junipero Serra High School, reflected on the first 15 miles of the camino. He said he found following in the saints\u2019 footsteps meaningful.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou got to see a lot of sites that even Junipero Serra went on \u2014 a lot of places that have amazing views,\u201d Smith said. \u201cIt was all around amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fr. Iwancio encouraged others to consider taking part in similar activities that foster reflection and community.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTake a walk with somebody. Take a walk with your neighbors and meet people. Try to meet the people who are around you,\u201d he said. \u201cMaybe you might experience the world a little bit differently.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A group of high school students completed the inaugural Camino de San Francisco, a 24.5-mile Catholic pilgrimage from&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-201074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco","8":"tag-san-francisco","9":"tag-san-francisco-headlines","10":"tag-san-francisco-news","11":"tag-sf","12":"tag-sf-headlines","13":"tag-sf-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}