What is the Origin of the Stations of the Cross? April 6, 2025

During Lent, the pious practice of the Way of the Cross is a common devotional.  This very Catholic form of Liturgical worship – though not based on Scripture – is heavily rooted in the tradition of the Church reaching back to the earliest times.  This week I present to you quotes from the Doctoral thesis on the Stations by Theresa Sherman, University of Notre Dame.

· “Christians have been practicing a devotion to the Stations of the Cross since the early centuries of Christianity, a devotion related to the tradition of “stational liturgy” in the early Church. The Latin statio comes from stare, which means to stand, halt, or take up a position. The first stational liturgies were thought to have taken place as early as the third century, though it is not known which churches in Rome were the original stational churches.” Bishops would travel from city to city, statio to statio, to say Mass.

· “Important locations associated with Jesus’ Road to Calvary were thought to be accurately preserved by Christians in Jerusalem during the fourth century. Constantine built churches on those spots, and they were honored for what they memorialized.” 

· Aquitaine said the way by which we worship is the law by which we believe (Lex  Orendi, Lex Credendi). This is seen in the Stations of the Cross.  The ancient remembering of the Church is: “not simply hearsay. Archaeological excavations support the locations for the Holy Sepulcher and Calvary identified at that time.”  The Stations of the Cross are the memory of the Church.