MIRACULOUS MIRACLES™

Prayer — Penitential Prayers

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Via Crucis

The Stations of the Cross

Franciscan, c. 1300; formalized at 14 stations by 1731 (Clement XII)

Fourteen scenes from the Passion of Christ walked in succession — the prayer in which a Christian retraces the Lord's path to Calvary.

The Prayer
English (the fourteen stations) · Original
Before each station:
V. We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee.
R. Because by Thy holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world.

  I. Jesus is condemned to death.
 II. Jesus carries His Cross.
III. Jesus falls the first time.
 IV. Jesus meets His Mother.
  V. Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the Cross.
 VI. Veronica wipes the face of Jesus.
VII. Jesus falls the second time.
VIII. Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem.
 IX. Jesus falls the third time.
  X. Jesus is stripped of His garments.
 XI. Jesus is nailed to the Cross.
XII. Jesus dies on the Cross.
XIII. Jesus is taken down from the Cross.
XIV. Jesus is laid in the tomb.

(Some forms add:)
 XV. Jesus rises from the dead.

At each station, after meditating:
Our Father... Hail Mary... Glory be.

Final prayer:
Lord Jesus Christ,
who for our redemption didst walk this path of sorrow,
grant that we who follow Thee in suffering
may also share in Thy glory.
Who livest and reignest forever and ever.
Amen.
When the Prayer is Said

Fridays of Lent; Good Friday; the First Friday of each month; in pilgrimage at Jerusalem and Rome.

History & Background

The custom of walking the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem — the path Christ walked from Pilate's praetorium to Calvary — was practiced by pilgrims from the 4th century. After the fall of the Crusader kingdom in 1291, the Franciscans (granted custody of the Holy Land in 1342) developed a substitute devotion for Catholics who could not travel to Jerusalem: a series of paintings or sculpted scenes set up in a church or along a path, before which the faithful would walk in succession, meditating on the Lord's Passion.

The number of stations varied widely in the late medieval period (seven, twelve, fourteen, even twenty-three). Pope Clement XII fixed the number at fourteen in 1731, and the Franciscans were authorized to erect them in any church that requested them. Pope John Paul II added an unofficial fifteenth station of the Resurrection in 1991, prayed in many parishes during Eastertide.

The devotion is observed especially on the Fridays of Lent and on Good Friday, when the pope himself prays the Way of the Cross at the Colosseum in Rome.

Indulgences Attached

A plenary indulgence is granted to those who pray the Stations before legitimately erected stations, under the usual conditions; partial otherwise (Enchiridion of Indulgences, no. 13).

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