Who Gave Us the Stations of the Cross Devotion?

Who Gave Us the Stations of the Cross Devotion?

During the coming season of Lent, one traditional and beloved Catholic devotion you may take up is the Stations of the Cross. Your parish might offer this devotion on Friday evenings in Lent (perhaps in combination with a tasty fish fry or meatless soup supper!).

This devotion is almost second nature to us as Catholics. In fact, nearly every Catholic church has the 14 Stations displayed on the walls of the nave.

But why do we do this? Where did this particular manifestation of devotion to the Passion of Jesus originate?

Jesus carries His cross

The Stations of the Cross, or the Way of the Cross, has a long history. Christians have performed this devotion in some form since the very beginnings of the Church. Tradition says that it was, in fact, Our Lady who made the first Way of the Cross, prayerfully retracing the steps of her Son’s journey to Calvary to commemorate His Sacrifice.

In the following centuries, pilgrims would travel to the Holy Land to likewise visit the important scenes of Our Lord’s Passion. In the early Middle Ages, some places began to construct replicas of the shrines in the Holy Land in order to venerate the events of Jesus’ life without traveling to Jerusalem (which comparatively few of the faithful could do).

The Franciscans were given custody of the Holy Land shrines in 1342, and this did much to solidify and formalize the devotion of the Way of the Cross. Because of this, the Franciscans have been closely associated with this devotion even to this day. Right here in the United States, the Franciscans of the Holy Land have a house in Washington D.C. with gorgeous replicas of these shrines—a “close to home” option if you can’t make it overseas!

According to Fr. William Saunders, in his detailed article on the topic, William Wey, an English pilgrim who visited the Holy Land in 1462, first used the word “stations” to describe the different stopping points where pilgrims would commemorate the events of Christ’s Passion.

During the 15th and 16th centuries, access to the Holy Land was limited and even impossible due to the incursions of the Muslims. For this reason, many replicas of the Stations of the Cross began to appear throughout western Europe, many of which you can still visit today. Also around this time, popular devotional prayerbooks for the Way of the Cross began to circulate among the faithful.

The stations of the cross

Pope Innocent XI granted permission for the Franciscans to erect Stations of the Cross in their churches in 1686, and this really kickstarted the tradition of putting the Stations in churches. 45 years later, Pope Clement XII extended this permission to all churches and Benedict XIV followed suit by strongly encouraging this practice among the clergy.

One particular Franciscan of this era, St. Leonard of Port Maurice, spread devotion to the Stations with great energy and fervor throughout Italy. He not only promoted the devotion, but did unbelievable work in constructing physical Stations. He erected 572—FIVE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-TWO—Stations of the Cross throughout Italy! The most famous of these are the Stations in the Colosseum, where the Vatican’s Good Friday service has been held for nearly 300 years.

So when you pray the Stations of the Cross this Lent, remember that you are continuing a sacred tradition begun by Our Blessed Mother and our very first forefathers in the Faith. May this be a fruitful method of entering more deeply into the story of Christ’s great love for us, as it has been for generations upon generations of the Christian faithful. +