Stations of the Cross: A History

by Admin · March 30, 2023

Station 4 at St Patrick’s Church in Gretna, Nebraska

Many Catholics will be attending Stations of the Cross on Good Friday morning. This is a worthy devotion, but it should not replace attendance at the solemn liturgy of the Passion and Death of our Lord in the afternoon.

This devotion originated in Jerusalem after Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine, had identified some of the sites sacred to our Lord’s passion and death on her visit in 325.

Christianity had been granted toleration in the Roman Empire by Constantine. With his encouragement and the financial resources of the empire at her disposal, Helena set out on her pilgrimage of discovery. She was to spend five years in Palestine. There she identified the cave of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, the cave on the Mount of Olives, and most importantly, she excavated the tomb and Calvary which had been covered with a mound on which the Emperor Hadrian had built a temple to Venus in 135 to obliterate all memory of Christ’s passion and to thwart the spread of the Gospel. In fact he did Christianity a great favour by preserving its holiest site and marking it for posterity.

Egeria from Spain left a detailed diary of her visit of nearly two years some 70 years after Helena’s discoveries. She recorded how pilgrims would walk the Via Dolorosa from the Praetorium to Calvary, the original way of the cross. With the eventual occupation of the country by Islamic rulers from Syria and Egypt, pilgrimages became hazardous or well nigh impossible. This was one of the reasons that sparked the crusade movement in the 11th century.

So the way of the cross was developed in Europe to compensate for not being able to visit Jerusalem and walk the actual sorrowful way of our Lord. This devotion was promoted by the Franciscans and has had a varied history.

The number of stations has varied from five to 16. The traditional set of 14 in most churches date from 1731 when they were stabilised by Pope Clement XII. The Founder of the Redemptorists, St Alphonsus Liguori, wrote the traditional prayers.

Pope Benedict XVI continued this revision with the elimination of scenes not found in the Gospels such as the three falls and the encounter with Veronica and adding others to expand the scope of the passion event for the faithful to meditate on. I shall list the seven additional stations for our reflection.

The Stations

The first station takes place at the altar where the institution of the Eucharist and the inauguration of the New Covenant promised by Jeremiah is remembered. We nourish our souls on the Body and Blood of our Lord, truly present in the consecrated bread and wine, and we renew that covenant that binds us to God in a never-ending bond of mutual love and promised protection.

Then Jesus led the disciples across the Kidron valley where there was a garden. He said to them: My soul is sorrowful even to death. Advancing, he fell on his face and prayed: Father, all things are possible for you. Take this cup from me, but your will be done, not mine. No one wants to suffer; no one wants to be crucified. But Jesus was obedient to his Father, obedient even to death.

Now Judas arrived, accompanied by guards with swords and clubs sent by the high priest. His betrayer had arranged a signal: The man I shall kiss is the one. Arrest him. He came forward to Jesus, saying Rabbi, and kissed him. At this they laid hands on him and arrested him.

Then they took him bound to the court of the high priest, who asked: Are you the Messiah? Jesus answered: I am. You will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power, coming with the clouds of heaven. The high priest tore his garments saying: What further need have we of witnesses? He is guilty of death. Meanwhile, in the courtyard Peter had denied Jesus his Lord who had foretold this: I do not know the man.

Taken to the Roman governor, Pilate had Jesus scourged and the soldiers mocked him by crowning him with thorns before leading him away to be crucified.

Crucified and slowly dying in great agony on the cross, Jesus can promise eternal life in heaven to the penitent criminal. And struggling to inhale from exhaustion and the pain of the nails, Jesus took care of his widowed and soon-to-be childless mother by entrusting her to the beloved disciple: Woman, this is your son.

Finally, bearing in mind St Paul’s re-iterated teaching that the cross can never be separated from the Resurrection, the glory of Christs rising from the tomb and his continuing living among us brings the stations to an end.

Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.