Stations of the Cross

The stations grew out of imitations of the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, which is a traditional processional route symbolising the path Jesus walked to Mount Calvary.

It has become one of the most popular devotions and the stations can be found in many Western Christian churches, including those in the Roman Catholic,[1] Lutheran,[2][3] Anglican,[4] and Methodist traditions.

These devotions are most common during Lent, especially on Good Friday, and reflect a spirit of reparation for the sufferings and insults that Jesus endured during his passion.

[7][8][9] As a physical devotion involving standing, kneeling and genuflections, the Stations of the Cross are tied with the Christian themes of repentance and mortification of the flesh.

[14] Although several travelers who visited the Holy Land during the 12–14th centuries (e.g. Riccoldo da Monte di Croce, Burchard of Mount Sion, and James of Verona), mention a "Via Sacra", i.e. a settled route that pilgrims followed, there is nothing in their accounts to identify this with the Way of the Cross, as we understand it.

In 1731, Pope Clement XII extended to all churches the right to have the stations, provided that a Franciscan father erected them, with the consent of the local bishop.

[29] Pope John Paul II led an annual public prayer of the Stations of the Cross at the Roman Colosseum on Good Friday.

Just days prior to his death in 2005, Pope John Paul II observed the Stations of the Cross from his private chapel.

In 1931, French organist Marcel Dupré improvised and transcribed musical meditations based on fourteen poems by Paul Claudel, one for each station.

Peter Maxwell Davies's Vesalii Icones (1969), for male dancer, solo cello and instrumental ensemble, brings together the Stations of the Cross and a series of drawings from the anatomical treatise De humani corporis fabrica (1543) by the Belgian physician Andreas van Wesel (Vesalius).

In Davies's sequence, the final "station" represents the Resurrection, but of Antichrist, the composer's moral point being the need to distinguish what is false from what is real.

[34] Stefano Vagnini's 2002 modular oratorio, Via Crucis,[35] is a composition for organ, computer, choir, string orchestra and brass quartet.

James Matthew Wilson's poetic sequence, The Stations of the Cross, is written in the same meter as da Todi's poem.

[37] Dimitris Lyacos' third part of the Poena Damni trilogy, The First Death, is divided into fourteen sections in order to emphasise the "Via Dolorosa" of its marooned protagonist during his ascent on the mount of the island which constitutes the setting of the work.