History of the Stations of the Cross

History Why pray the Stations? Indulgences

An Exercise in the Way of
Stations of the Cross by: St.
the Cross by St. Alphonsus HOME
Francis
Maria Liguori

The Stations of the Cross are a Catholic devotion which commemorates the Passion and
death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Each of the fourteen stations represents an event which
occurred during Jesus' Passion and death at Calvary on Good Friday.

The Stations were originally performed many centuries ago by Christian pilgrims who
visited the Holy Land and the sites of Jesus' Passion. Promotion of the devotion to the
Stations began in earnest with the Franciscans, who were given custody of the Holy Places
in the Holy Land in the 1300s. Countless Catholics have all enriched their spiritual lives
with this powerful devotion.

The Stations of the Cross, also called The Way of the Cross, is a devotion to the passion of
Christ consisting of prayers and meditations on fourteen occurrences that were
experienced by Christ on His way to the crucifixion. During the time of the crusades (1095-
1270), it became popular for pilgrims in the Holy Land to walk in the footsteps of Jesus to
Calvary. After the Moslems recaptured the Holy Land pilgrimages were too dangerous. As a
result, the Stations of the Cross became a popular substitute pilgrimage throughout Europe.
The Stations represented critical events from Scripture or tradition of Jesus' journey to
Calvary. Originally done only outdoors, the Stations were allowed inside churches in the
mid-18th century. Eventually fixed at fourteen, the Stations soon became a familiar feature
in all Catholic churches. The devotion may be conducted personally by the faithful, making
their way from one station to another and saying the prayers, or by having an officiating
celebrant move from cross to cross while the faithful make the responses. The stations
themselves must consist of, at the very least, fourteen wooden crosses, pictures alone do
not suffice, and they must be blessed by someone with the authority to erect stations.

Origins of the Stations: 4th Century Jerusalem

The devotion originated in the late 4th century when pilgrims flocked to the Holy Land
from all parts of the world to visit the land of Jesus. Heading the list of places they visited
was the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which had been built by the Emperor Constantine in
335 AD atop Calvary and the tomb of Jesus.

Processions of pilgrims to this church were common. Egeria, a woman from Gaul who
traveled to the Holy Land in the 4th century, recalls in her diary how she joined Christians
from all parts of the Roman world walking westward on Holy Thursday from the garden of
Gethsemane to the church of the Holy Sepulcher, where they celebrated Jesus' death and
resurrection.

Take a look at her account of Holy Thursday in Jerusalem.

From the diary of Egeria,
a woman from Gaul who traveled to the Holy Land in the 4th Century

Egeria's account of Christians from all parts of the Roman world walking westward
on Holy Thursday from the garden of Gethsemane to the church of the Holy
Sepulcher, where they celebrated Jesus' death and resurrection:

And at the first cockcrow they come down from the Imbomon with hymns, and arrive at
the place where the Lord prayed, as it is written in the Gospel: and He was withdrawn
[from them] about a stone's cast, and prayed, and the rest. There is in that place a
graceful church. The bishop and all the people enter, a prayer suitable to the place and
to the day is said, with one suitable hymn, and the passage from the Gospel is read
where He said to His disciples: Watch, that ye enter not into temptation. The whole
passage is read through and prayer is made.

And then all, even to the smallest child, go down with the Bishop, on foot, with hymns to
Gethsemane. There, on account of the great number of people in the crowd who are
wearied owing to the vigils and weak through the daily fasts, and because they have so
great a hill to descend, they come very slowly with hymns to Gethsemane. And over two
hundred church candles are made ready to give light to all the people.

On their arrival at Gethsemane, first a suitable prayer is made, then a hymn is said,
and then the passage of the Gospel is read where the Lord was taken. And when this
passage has been read there is so great a moaning and groaning of all the people,
together with weeping, that their lamentation may be heard perhaps as far as the city.

From that hour they go with hymns to the city on foot, reaching the gate about the time
when one man begins to be able to recognize another, and thence right on through the
midst of the city. All, to a man, both great and small, rich and poor, all are ready there,
for on that special day not a soul withdraws from the vigils until morning. Thus the
bishop is escorted from Gethsemane to the gate, and thence through the whole of the
city to the Cross. Based on the translation reproduced in Louis Duchesme's Christian
Worship, London, 1923

The Via Dolorosa

Over the years, the route of pilgrim processions -- beginning

at the ruins of the Fortress Antonia and ending at the church
of the Holy Sepulcher -- was accepted as the way that Jesus
went to his death. It was known as the "Via Dolorosa," the
"Sorrowful Way;" Today, it winds through the crowded
areas of Jerusalem's Old City, and pilgrims still travel it in
prayer.

"Stations" developed on this venerable route as early

pilgrims honored places where specific incidents took place
as Jesus went Calvary. However, the search for them was complicated because the
Jerusalem of Jesus' day had been almost completely destroyed by Roman armies in 70 AD.
In many cases, therefore, pilgrims could only guess where some incidents described in the
gospel took place.

From the Holy Land to Europe

Christian pilgrims contributed to the European development in Europe of the Stations of

the Cross in its present form. Returning from the Holy Land, they brought oil from the
lamps that burned around Jesus' tomb, soil. and relics from the holy places. More
important, they brought memories of the liturgies, devotions, and shrines they
experienced. Soon, churches and shrines were being built throughout Europe modeled on
the pilgrim sites, and Jerusalem's devotions and liturgies influenced the liturgical and
religious life of western Christians.

The Moslem conquest of Palestine in the 7th century contributed to the building of replicas
of the holy places in Europe, as Christians, finding access to the holy places more difficult,
sought places of pilgrimage nearer home. If they could not go to Jerusalem, they would
have reminders of Jerusalem close by.

Devotion to the Stations of the Cross spread rapidly throughout the Roman Catholic world
in the 18th century, largely as a result of the preaching of the Franciscan, St. Leonard of
Port -Maurice, who erected stations and promoted the devotion in over five hundred
churches and places throughout Italy. His work was supported by the popes of his time,
who saw the devotion as a means of strengthening faith.

Another 18th century saint, St. Alphonsus Liguori, wrote a brief work on the stations that is
still in use today. Religious communities like the Jesuits and the Passionsts made the
devotion part of their missions and retreats. By the l9th century, the Stations of the Cross
had become a staple in Catholic prayer books and in churches throughout England, Ireland,
and North America.

The 14 Stations of the Cross

Jesus is Condemned to Die
Jesus is Made to Bear His Cross
Jesus Falls the First Time
Jesus Meets His Mother
Simon Helps Jesus Carry His Cross
Veronica Wipes Jesus' Face
Jesus Falls the Second Time
Jesus Meets the Women of Jerusalem
Jesus Falls the Third Time
Jesus is Stripped
Jesus is Nailed to the Cross
 Jesus Dies on the Cross
Jesus is Taken Down from the Cross
Jesus is Laid in the Tomb

Why pray the Stations of the

Cross
The most important reason for reviving the practice of making the Stations of the Cross is that it
is a powerful way to contemplate, and enter into, the mystery of Jesus' gift of himself to us.
When you pray Stations of the Cross you are tracing the footsteps of Christ, in his journey from
being condemned to death to his resurrection. In knowing that Our Lord and Savior died such a
violent death for love of us, meditating on the Stations of the Cross becomes an experience
where one can unite with Christ. Upon beginning the Stations, we make a good act of contrition,
knowing that those sins are exactly the reason why Christ obediently died. Allow the Lord to
speak to your and give him complete reign in your heart. Meditating upon the passion of Jesus
Christ, draws a soul closer to God. You give yourself over to the Holy Spirit and become an
instrument in the salvation of souls. This one meditation allows you to contemplate Christ's
suffering and His victory over sin and Satan. With this knowledge and the abundance of graces
the Holy Spirit will fill your soul, you will gain souls (yours and others) for the kingdom of
heaven.

Teaching of the Catechism

Jesus' violent death was not the result of chance in an unfortunate coincidence of circumstances,
but is part of the mystery of God's plan, as St. Peter explains to the Jews of Jerusalem in his first
sermon on Pentecost: "This Jesus [was] delivered up according to the definite plan and
foreknowledge of God." This Biblical language does not mean that those who handed him over
were merely passive players in a scenario written in advance by God.

To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore he establishes his
eternal plan of "predestination", he includes in it each person's free response to his grace: "In this
city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered
together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your
plan had predestined to take place." For the sake of accomplishing his plan of salvation, God
permitted the acts that flowed from their blindness.

The Scriptures had foretold this divine plan of salvation through the putting to death of "the
righteous one, my Servant" as a mystery of universal redemption, that is, as the ransom that
would free men from the slavery of sin. Citing a confession of faith that he himself had
"received", St. Paul professes that "Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures." In
particular Jesus' redemptive death fulfils Isaiah's prophecy of the suffering Servant. Indeed Jesus
himself explained the meaning of his life and death in the light of God's suffering Servant. After
his Resurrection he gave this interpretation of the Scriptures to the disciples at Emmaus, and then
to the apostles.

Consequently, St. Peter can formulate the apostolic faith in the divine plan of salvation in this
way: "You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers... with the precious
blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was destined before the
foundation of the world but was made manifest at the end of the times for your sake." Man's sins,
following on original sin, are punishable by death. By sending his own Son in the form of a
slave, in the form of a fallen humanity, on account of sin, God "made him to be sin who knew no
sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."

Jesus did not experience reprobation as if he himself had sinned. But in the redeeming love that
always united him to the Father, he assumed us in the state of our waywardness of sin, to the
point that he could say in our name from the cross: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken
me?" Having thus established him in solidarity with us sinners, God "did not spare his own Son
but gave him up for us all", so that we might be "reconciled to God by the death of his Son".

By giving up his own Son for our sins, God manifests that his plan for us is one of benevolent
love, prior to any merit on our part: "In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us
and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins." God "shows his love for us in that while we
were yet sinners Christ died for us."

At the end of the parable of the lost sheep Jesus recalled that God's love excludes no one: "So it
is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish." He
affirms that he came "to give his life as a ransom for many"; this last term is not restrictive, but
contrasts the whole of humanity with the unique person of the redeemer who hands himself over
to save us. The Church, following the apostles, teaches that Christ died for all men without
exception: "There is not, never has been, and never will be a single human being for whom
Christ did not suffer."

(From the Catechism of the Catholic Church, para. 599-605)

Indulgences of the Way of the Cross

History Why pray the Stations? Indulgences
An Exercise in the Way of
Stations of the Cross by:
the Cross by St. HOME
St. Francis
Alphonsus Maria Liguori

The Stations of the Cross constitute a major devotion in the Catholic World. They
surround the various Sacred places which were personally sanctified by the sufferings
and death of our Divine Savior.
Originally, this pious practice was limited to Jerusalem and its environs. Gradually it
became universal as several Popes granted plenary and partial indulgences to the
faithful who devoutly meditate on the Way of the Cross.

Making the Stations of the Cross carries with it a partial indulgence under the usual
conditions.

To gain a partial indulgence, one must:

Be in a state of grace (free of mortal sin). A good Confession isn't otherwise

necessary, but a contrite heart for even venial sin is.
Intend to receive the indulgence
Perform the prescribed action of the indulgence

To gain a plenary indulgence, the following norms must be followed, in addition to

the usual conditions:

The pious exercise must be made before Stations of the Cross legitimately erected.
For the erection of the Stations of the Cross fourteen crosses are required, to
which it is customary to add fourteen pictures or images, which represent the
stations of Jerusalem.
According to the more common practice, the pious exercise consists of fourteen
pious readings, to which some vocal prayers are added. However, nothing more is
required than a pious meditation on the Passion and Death of the Lord, which
need not be a particular consideration of the individual mysteries of the stations.
A movement from one station to the next is required. But if the pious exercise is
made publicly and if it is not possible for all taking part to go in an orderly way
from station to station, it suffices if at least the one conducting the exercise goes
from station to station, the others remaining in their place.

The usual conditions are:

Have the intention of gaining the indulgence

Receive the Sacrament of Penance (within several days before or after the
prescribed action of the indulgence, though the same day is best, if possible)
Receive the Eucharist (within several days before or after the prescribed action of
the indulgence, though the same day is best, if possible)
Pray 6 Our Fathers , 6 Hail Marys, and 6 Glory Bes for the intentions of the Holy
Father (within several days before or after the prescribed action of the indulgence,
though the same day is best, if possible).
Perform the prescribed action of the indulgence.
Be free from all attachment to venial sin
Those who are "impeded" can gain the same indulgence if they spend at least one half
an hour in pious reading and meditation on the Passion and Death of our Lord Jesus
Christ.