(Originally published in the Catholic Times by Tim Puett) The Stations of the Cross in the form most American Catholics know best are of comparatively recent vintage in Church terms, dating back to the year the U.S. Constitution was ratified.
But their history goes back well before that, to the days when pilgrims were first openly able to go to Jerusalem and walk in the footsteps of Jesus on Good Friday.
The emperor Constantine permitted Christians to legally worship in the Roman Empire in 313 after 250 years of persecution. In 335, he erected the Church of the Holy Sepulcher at the site where Jesus’ tomb was believed to have been.
Processions of pilgrims to the church, especially during Holy Week, began soon after its completion.
A woman named Egeria, a pilgrim from France, described one such pilgrimage which took place in the fourth century. [click here to read the rest of the article]
