The Station Churches of Rome

Welcome to a 1600 year old Pilgrimage to the Station Churches of Rome  

We're glad you are here!  If you choose to come along on our Virtual Pilgrimage, you will get an email every day throughout Lent, giving you a link to this specially constructed website — one new church each day, with the associated saints and events.  It will plunge you deep in the early history of the Church as you walk throughout Lent with Our Lord and His Saints  on His journey to Calvary and beyond.  This site has been newly updated for 2025, and incorporates new material not previously included.  

Introduction to the Station Church Pilgrimage of Rome

Religious participation in pilgrimage is as ancient as mankind.  One can almost imagine the descendants of  Adam and Eve making pilgrimage to the gates of Eden to gaze upon what their parents had lost.  Pilgrimage is not unique to Christianity, but is a feature of most religions, e.g. pilgrimage to Mecca in Islam, or the thrice a year pilgrimage to the Jerusalem Temple in ancient Judaism.  Christianity adopted the practice of pilgrimage from ancient Judaism; a longing for Holy Places was deeply embedded in Christian culture and heritage from the beginning. 

In the first few centuries of the persecuted Church, clandestine pilgrimages were made to the tombs of local martyrs.  Rome became a special pilgrimage site very early, with its extensive catacombs and tombs of famous martyrs, like St Peter, St Paul, and St Lawrence.  After the legalization of Christianity by Constantine in the 4th century, Christian pilgrimage expanded to include journeys to the Holy Land, to the tomb of Our Lord, the site of his Nativity, and the other Holy Places in Israel. 

In Rome, built on the foundation of pilgrimage to the tombs of the martyrs, a practice arose  very early, which came to be called the Station Church Pilgrimage of Lent.  It originated as the final portion of the preparation of Catechumens for their Sacraments of Initiation - Baptism, Confirmation, and First Eucharist at the Great Vigil of Easter.  Almost as soon as  Constantine declared the Church legal in the 4th century, this practice of Lenten pilgrimage to certain churches, built over the tombs of martyrs or at the site of their martyrdom, began to take shape.  By the time of Pope St. Gregory the Great in the late 6th and early 7th centuries, the classic form of the Station Church Pilgrimage had emerged, with the Pope, all the clergy, choirs, and great crowds of lay Christians from throughout the city, escorting the cluster of Catechumens, all coming together daily at a series of specially designated churches to celebrate Mass together in a common Lenten Sacrifice to God.

Allow me to explain what would take place. Toward the middle of the afternoon, the Christians of the city would gather at a Collect (gathering place) Church, where the Pope, the priests of the parishes of Rome, the 7 deacons of of the City of Rome, the subdeacons and acolytes of the various neighborhoods, along with a crowd of laity, would lead the Catechumens in procession through the streets of the city to the Station Church or Statio of the day, all chanting the Litany of the Saints as they walked.

At the Statio, the Pope would celebrate a solemn High Mass, sending fragments or fractions of the consecrated bread to the other stationes of Rome, symbolizing the unity of the people of Rome gathered in worship around their bishop.  In those early days, the daily Lenten fast lasted all day, and so after the liturgical services were finished, the ancient Christians were ready to break their fast, and a common communal meal  (an ancient potluck dinner!) completed the events of the day.

Now it is important to know that the Statio is not the Church itself, but rather is the Saint (or Saints) associated with that place.  You might think of it this way: the Saint is the host or hostess at that place.  Symbolically, it is the Statio or Saint who welcomes pilgrims to each particular Station Church.  Anciently, the Church at that location had often been an early house church, where the Saint was the owner, and opened that home for worship at a time when the Church was persecuted and poor, and there were no official church buildings.  The Saint usually also offered hospitality to visiting Christians from other cities and far away parts of the Empire when they came to Rome.  Today as you begin your journey through this Pilgrimage, allow your imagination to have free reign, and you will find that each of the Stationes will greet you solemnly as you enter their Station Church on their designated day.

During the preparatory days, we will take a look at the series of churches which were included in the Pilgrimage as it developed in those early days, as well as the order of their visitation, so that on Ash Wednesday, we will be ready to begin our actual Lenten Pilgrimage.