Embedded Files
A Short History of the Station Church Pilgrimage after the Middle Ages
A number of developments converged after the turn of the first millennium, when the location of the primary Papal residence was moved from Rome to Avignon, in France, eventually leading to the cessation of the classical station church pilgrimage almost entirely. But eventually the Popes moved back to Rome, and after the Council of Trent, with the birth of so many new religious orders, old customs were revived in new forms. For example, in the 1500’s, St Phillip Neri and his Oratorians, began the custom of a Seven Church Walk on the Wednesday of Holy Week, visiting 7 of the old station churches in one day, singing the litany of saints as they processed from one to the next, and enjoying catechesis and lessons from history at each station.
Philip Neri's Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome - 17th century illustration map
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Seven_Churches_of_Rome_-_Giacomo_Lauro_-_1599.jpgHowever, it was not until the 20th Century that recovery of the Station Church Pilgrimage in its classical form was reborn. Pope Benedict XV (1914-1922) made it his practice to celebrate Mass at Santa Sabina on Ash Wednesday, the ancient traditional station for the first day of Lent. Later, Pope Pius XI (1922-1939) attached special indulgences to the attendance of stational liturgies during Lent, with local pastors in Rome encouraged to organize processions to the various stationes. This revival was interrupted by WWII and the German occupation of Rome, but restored again by Pope Pius XII after the war.
Pope John XXIII encouraged the revival in 1959, by receiving penitential ashes himself on Ash Wednesday at Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill, and Pope Paul VI, in 1967, went to the station at St Eusebius, on its appointed day, making a statement that the station church pilgrimage tradition was not done away in the Vatican II reforms. Pope St John Paul II continued the tradition of saying Mass at Santa Sabina on Ash Wednesday, with reception of ashes, as have Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis.
There are two organizations that have done the most to reestablish the tradition in our day, the Pontifical North American College (PNAC), the house of formation for seminarians from the U.S. studying in Rome, and the Pontifical Academy Cultorum Martyrum. Beginning in the 1970’s, the PNAC began a practice which has truly rejuvenated the ancient tradition in its classical form. Since then, daily during Lent, seminarians and other pilgrims from all over the globe, trek across the city to the station church of the day to hear the stational liturgy in English. In the evenings, the Pontifical Academy Cultorum Martyrum sponsors a stational liturgy in Italian. Pilgrims who participate in these liturgies, and follow in the footsteps of the martyrs, the popes, and the early Christians, discover the magnetic attraction of the stational churches, their martyrs, and the Mass. Only the thin veil of time separates the pilgrims today from those ancient, medieval, and early modern saints, as they join themselves to that great cloud of witnesses from throughout the Christian Age.
Following Quinquagesima Sunday (The Sunday before Ash Wednesday), we will prepare our minds, on Preparation Day 3, for this very Catholic journey, by exploring the concept of Catholicity.
Google Sites
Report abuse