The Significance of the Stations of the Cross in Our Worship Space

This traditional devotion of the church dates back to the early pilgrims in Jerusalem who traced the route of Christ Passion from the house of Pilate to the tomb of Christ known as the Via Dolorosa or the Way of Sorrows. The Franciscans have long been the custodians of the religious sites of the Holy Land. It was St Leonard of Port Maurice who avidly preached the Stations of the Cross to the poor who could not travel to the Holy Land. Beginning in 1686 he is credited with erecting 571 stations in forty-three years, including at the Colosseum in Rome. To this day the Via Dolorosa is celebrated on Good Friday by the Pope at the Colosseum.

The church encourages this devotion to be retained, prayed individually or as an assembly. Each of the fourteen stations is marked with a cross and the appropriate Roman numeral, often an image of the designated station may accompany the station marker. In warmer climates these stations sometimes are located outside of the church. The Lumen Christi stations were donated by Parishioners in the 1990’s. In the newly remodeled worship
space these stations will be retained and made more visibly prominent with the new architecture.