Monthly Spiritual Message, April 2025
By Fr Joe McKay OFM
The Stations of the Cross is a Franciscan devotion that has become mainstream across the western church. While Stations of the Cross were erected prior to the Franciscans, it was the friars and the Franciscan family that promoted the devotion across the world.
When the Franciscan Friars became Custodians of the Holy Land, pilgrims visited Jerusalem and walked in the footsteps of Christ through the streets of Jerusalem. The route through Jerusalem’s streets has changed over time but it has always been associated with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the historical site of Calvary and the Sepulchre (tomb). Today the way is marked in the old city of Jerusalem as the Via Dolorosa (the sorrowful way).
The mission to the Holy Land was one of the earliest mission communities of the Franciscans. It was established at the first Chapter of the friars in 1217. St Francis of Assisi longed to see the Holy Land, and joined the Fifth Crusade in 1219 which was seeking to liberate the Holy Places. He was given permission to travel to Jerusalem after his meeting with the Sultan Malik el-Kemil. From that period the Franciscan Friars have had a presence in the Holy Lands assisting pilgrims. In 1342 Pope Clement VI formalized the role the Franciscan Friars played in protecting the shrines and assisting pilgrims visiting the Holy Land.
When pilgrimage to the Holy Land became increasingly difficult in the fourteenth century, due to restrictions on public Christian worship imposed by the Turkish Sultans, Stations of the Cross began to be erected in Europe so that the faithful could mirror the procession in Jerusalem. A notable Stations of the Cross established at that time (1491) was that on Mt Varallo, near Milan, by friar Blessed Bernardino Caimi who had been Guardian of the Holy Land communities. The Stations became an increasingly popular devotion due to the work, during the early 1700s by St Leonard of Port Maurice, an Italian friar, who erected nearly 600 Stations across Italy including those found in the Colosseum today.
In 1686 Pope Innocent XI, recognizing the difficulty of going to the Holy Land, approved an indulgence for the Franciscan family for Stations erected in their own churches. By 1731 Clement XII extended the indulgence to all the faithful provided the Stations were blessed by a Franciscan Friar and approved by the local bishop. The newly reestablished English Catholic bishops in 1850 were given permission to erect Stations, due to the lack of friars, and privilege was extended to the rest of the Church in 1862. Originally it was a Franciscan who led the Stations of the Cross in the Colosseum in Rome, but since 1964 it has been led by the Pope.
Being a devotion, rather than a liturgy, the Stations do not have one approved form but can be adopted to suit the pastoral needs of congregations. The number of Stations, their order and naming, have evolved over time. The number of fourteen stations only becoming fixed in the sixteenth century. Older forms of the Stations included the non-Biblical story of Veronica, although most of the Stations are based on the Gospel narrative of the Lord’s Passion. The reflection for each Station can be written to address current issues facing the faithful through the lens of the Lord’s Passion.
Currently a plenary indulgence is obtained every time the faithful assist or participate in the Stations. To obtain the indulgence it is sufficient to move from Station to Station meditating on Lord’s Passion and Death. (Handbook of Indulgences)
The Stations of the Cross are a very Franciscan devotion because they focus on the humanity of Jesus. God experienced the Passion! In doing so Jesus pointed to the sacredness of the human experience. In our suffering we do not suffer alone but with and in Christ. In the midst of his own suffering Jesus was able to express forgiveness and compassion for others. When we suffer or imagine Jesus’ suffering in the Passion, we enter and share in the human and divine experience of Christ.
St Francis of Assisi attempted to feel what Christ experienced by following His footsteps, His words, His actions. The Stations of the Cross help us to follow Christ and enter into Christ’s life to understand the depth of his love and compassion. Many Franciscan communities today daily begin and end their prayers with the antiphon adapted from the Stations of Cross and commonly prayed by St Francis of Assisi:
We adore you most Holy Lord Jesus Christ,
here and in all your churches around the world,
because by your Holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
A common hymn sung while praying the Stations of the Cross was written by Bonaventure, the Stabat Mater. It touches on the experience of Mary as she watches her Son being crucified. This is an experience we enter when we participate in the Stations:
At the cross her station keeping,
Stood the mournful Mother weeping,
Close to Jesus to the last.
Through her heart, His sorrow sharing,
All His bitter anguish bearing,
Now at length the sword had passed.
Oh, how sad and sore distressed
Was that Mother highly blessed
Of the sole-begotten One!
Christ above in torment hangs;
She beneath beholds the pangs
Of her dying glorious Son….
This year, as the Holy Land is in the grip of war, we pray that our Christian brothers and sisters who live in the lands of the Bible may gain solace from a God who knows suffering. May they experience the peace and joy of the Resurrection.
Further Reading
Alston, G.C. (1912). “Way of the Cross.” In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15569a.htm
Apostolic Penitentiary, Manual of Indulgences (Enchiridion Indulgentiarum:Normae et Concessiones), 1999.
Copeland, Stephen. “The Franciscan Connection to the Stations of the Cross.” In St Anthony Messenger (April 2023) https://www.franciscanmedia.org/st-anthony-messenger/the-franciscan-connection-to-the-stations-of-the-cross/
Custody of the Holy Land. https://www.custodia.org/en/custody-and-its-history/
Fr Joseph McKay OFM
National Spiritual Assistant OFS
