Lighting the way to Easter: A brief history of the Way of the Cross

By Aaron Lambert

As the Lenten season guides the path to Easter, the Church offers a beautiful tradition of prayerfully entering into Christ’s passion and retracing His steps on the road from Gethsemane to Golgotha.

The Way of the Cross, more commonly called the Stations of the Cross, brings to vibrant and somber life the final hours of Jesus’ life as He endured His passion and death. It invites the faithful to walk alongside Him and bear the weight of His cross, carrying it with Him, as Simon of Cyrene did, and meditating on each moment of His passion to allow each lash, thorn and nail that Jesus endured for our sake to pierce our own hearts and souls during the Lenten season.

Parishes generally hold a Way of the Cross prayer service on each Friday during Lent as a means of anticipating and honoring Jesus’ sacrifice that is commemorated on Good Friday. At parishes, the stations are generally located on the walls surrounding the nave of the church, though this is not always the case. The most common form of the devotion has 14 stations in total, but this number has fluctuated throughout history. The stations usually come in the form of artwork depicting each moment, or station, whether they be paintings, icons, sculptures, engravings or even stained-glass windows.

The origins of the Way of the Cross can be traced all the way back to fourth-century Jerusalem, which one might call the original Way of the Cross, for as history recounts, it was there that Jesus was led up Mount Calvary to His crucifixion. After the Roman emperor Constantine came into power and legalized Christianity in the year 313, he erected the Church of the Holy Sepulcher over the site where tradition held Jesus’ tomb was located. Around this time, pilgrims began flocking to Jerusalem, especially during Holy Week, to walk along the path Jesus walked on Good Friday. This way can still be walked today, of course, but it is this pilgrimage that the modern Way of the Cross devotion still imitates in spirit at churches all around the world.

This route through Jerusalem is also called the Via Dolorosa, Latin for the “Sorrowful Way.” It is along this route that each moment of Jesus’ passion, which later became more commonly known as the stations, can be found. Though the devotion finds its roots in ancient times, it was not until the medieval ages, around 1200, that the Way of the Cross began to grow in popularity. Various saints of the Middle Ages such as St. Bernard of Clairvaux, St. Francis of Assisi and St. Bonaventure had strong devotions to the Via Dolorosa and laid the spiritual groundwork for the devout practice to grow.

In 1342, the Franciscan order was given tutelage over the pious shrines and other holy sites of devotion in the Holy Land, which included the various sites along the Via Dolorosa. Over the next several centuries, the modern and most common form of the 14 stations were developed by the Franciscans. The stations are as follows:

Jesus is condemned to death.

Jesus carries the cross.

Jesus falls the first time.

Jesus meets His mother.

Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the cross.

Veronica wipes the face of Jesus.

Jesus falls the second time.

Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem.

Jesus falls the third time.

Jesus is stripped of His garments.

Jesus is nailed to the cross.

Jesus dies on the cross.

Jesus is taken down from the cross.

Jesus is laid in the tomb.

While earlier versions of the devotion vary in number and include variations of each station (either in order or in moment of Jesus’ passion), the Church has prescribed the above 14 stations to be those which comprise the devotion. However, not all of the stations are recorded in the Gospels but are included based on the traditional stations that had been included since the early days of the devotion’s development. St. John Paul II sought to provide an alternative version of the stations more closely aligned with biblical accounts, and on Good Friday in 1991, he introduced the Scriptural Way of the Cross, which was approved by Pope Benedict XVI for meditation and public celebration in 2007. It was also then that a yearly tradition, which continues today, of the Holy Father praying this particular form of the stations at the Roman Colosseum on Good Friday began.

Over the years, prayers and hymns to accompany the stations have been composed as a means to encourage deeper devotion to and practice of the Way of the Cross by the faithful. The most popular of these, and the one that’s used at most parishes around the world during Lent, was composed by St. Alphonsus Liguori and published in 1750. Another popular version of these prayers is attributed to St. Francis of Assisi. They are comprised of 14 prayers that correspond to each station and are generally led by a deacon or a priest on Fridays during Lent. The congregation follows behind from station to station in a solemn procession, stopping to pray and meditate on each one using the prayers as a guide.

The Lenten journey finds its purpose in the Way of the Cross. As a penitential season, Lent grants us an opportunity to unite our penances and sufferings to Christ on the cross and open our hearts to the redemption that only He can offer. By walking the Way of the Cross and meditating on each station of Jesus’ passion, that sorrowful way lights the path to experiencing joy — the true, triumphant and everlasting joy that Easter brings.

Aaron Lambert is a writer from Denver.