The Grace Cathedral Labyrinth
San Francisco, California, United States
An Episcopal cathedral in San Francisco whose replica of the Chartres labyrinth turned the medieval floor maze into a worldwide walking-meditation practice.
Grace Cathedral is a twentieth-century Gothic cathedral on Nob Hill, built above the ruins of the 1906 earthquake, and in the nineteen-nineties its canon placed a replica of the Chartres labyrinth on the nave floor and began hosting open walks; the practice spread from there into hospitals, prisons, churches, and retreat centers worldwide, institutionalized by the organization she founded to carry it.
The cathedral keeps two labyrinths, the indoor Chartres-style path and an outdoor one in the courtyard, and offers open walking hours, quiet days, and organized pilgrimages. It is the clearest single point of origin for the modern labyrinth revival: a Christian sacred building that became, somewhat to everyone's surprise, a pilgrimage engine for walkers of every tradition and none.
Visiting
Grace Cathedral keeps the labyrinths open during visitor hours outside services; the walks are free, and the cathedral's own page carries the schedule.
Photo: [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Grace_Cathedral,_San_Francisco), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Associated traditions & practices
Visitor stories