On the tercentenary of the canonization of St. Peregrine Laziosi, the titular patron of this Church, the Apostolic Penitentiary in the Vatican has granted a plenary indulgence by devoutly visiting a shrine, or any church of the Order of Servants of Mary anywhere in the world from May 1, 2026 to May 4, 2027.

The Church officially defines indulgences as: “the remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins already forgiven as far as their guilt is concerned, which the follower of Christ with the proper dispositions and under certain determined conditions acquires through the intervention of the Church which, as minister of the Redemption, authoritatively dispenses and applies the treasury of the satisfaction won by Christ and the saints” (Indulgentiarum Doctrina 1967, norm 1).

Simply, it is the remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins, either wholly or partially under certain conditions.

The general requirements for one to gain such indulgences are the following:

  1. One has to be baptized
  2. Not excommunicated
  3. In a state of grace (at least at the completion of the prescribed works)
  4. And a subject of one granting the indulgence

Two kinds of indulgences

  1. Plenary: it frees one of his whole temporal punishment due to sin
  2. Partial : it frees one partially of his temporal punishment due to sin

For whom can they be gained?

  1. For oneself (but not for others who are living)
  2. For the souls in purgatory

For how often can they be gained?

  • For partial indulgences, “they can be gained as often in a day as one performs the pious work, sacrifice, or prayer…”
  • For plenary indulgences, they can only be gained ONCE per day except for those at the point of death who have already gained one that day.

General conditions for plenary indulgences

  1. Sacramental Confession**
  2. Eucharistic Communion [Not a Spiritual Communion].**
  3. Prayer for the intention of the Supreme Pontiff.**
    1. One Our Father and one Hail Mary
    2. One Our Father, Apostles Creed (when the indulgence rewuires to visit a particular Church)
  4. All attachment to sin, even venial sin, be absent.

** may be fulfilled several days before or after the performance of the prescribed work (although it is fitting that the prayers for the Pope and Communion be on the same day the work is performed)

Particular conditions specific to this occassion

  1. devoutly visiting – in the form of a pilgrimage – a church or shrine entrusted to the care of the Order of the Servants of Mary
  2. participating in a jubilee celebration
  3. spending a meaningful amount of time in Eucharistic adoration and meditation, concluding with the Our Father, the Creed, and in devout invocations to the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Peregrine.

Can the sick who are unable to come to church also benefit from these indulgences?

  1. The elderly, the sick, and those unable to participate in person (as well as those who assist them)
  2. they may be granted the Plenary Indulgence by:
    1. reciting the prescribed prayers and
    2. offering their sufferings and difficulties to the Lord.
    3. intending to fulfill the usual conditions as soon as possible.