The Way of the Cross

From almost the very beginning, Christian have sought out places in Jerusalem and its environs associated with Biblical events.  Probably the best known pilgrim was St. Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine who supposedly 'discovered" the cross on which Christ was crucified.  Between Constantine's conversion and the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem in the 7th century, there was a veritable flood of pilgrims who traveled from Europe to the Middle East.  This flood slowed and stopped after Jerusalem was incorporated into the Muslim caliphate. The devotion we know as the "stations of the cross" or the "way of the cross" became a way to "walk where Jesus walked" without having to undertake a difficult and dangerous journey.  Churches set up "stations" (pictures, sculptures, or just numbers) around their interior walls so that the faithful could remember the Lord's journey to the cross as they walked from one to the other. Some of the events are legendary (e.g., the woman who wipes the face of Jesus at Station Six is nowhere mentioned in the Bible), but all of them are within the realm of possibility.

From March 13 through 26 I will be walking the way of the cross online and invite you to join me.

Useful links