Roman Pilgrimage: The Station Churches by George Weigel

(New York: Basic Books, 2013), 466

The Station Churches of Rome

Christianity adopted the religious practice of pilgrimage from its Jewish parents. (3)
The pilgrimage tradition in Rome began with visiting the tombs of the martyrs. The Lenten fast in those days was all day until after work and mass. The Lenten pilgrimage was largely fixed by St. Gregory the Great. (4-5)
The lectionary developed side-by-side with the churches chosen for particular days of pilgrimage. (7)
Even when the practice of the station churches died out with the relocation of the papacy to Avignon, the memory lived on in the liturgy. (7)
The tradition of the station church was restored slowly in the 20th century (8), and gained momentum recently by anglophone seminarians at the Pontifical North American College (9).
"Along the pathways of the station church pilgrimage, the twenty-first-century pilgrim passes through multiple layers of the history of Western civilization and has the opportunity to ponder the rise and fall of empires...It can be a deeply moving reminder of the fragility of civilization as well as of the richness of regenerative powers embedded in the West." (9-10)
"The station church pilgrimage is an itinerary of conversion, and extended retreat: seven and a half weeks of reflection that synthesize the truths of Christian faith and offer pilgrims an opportunity to reflect on how well those truths have been integrated along the pathways of their lives." (10)
"Making the station church pilgrimage is also a marvelous way to discover the many faces of Rome." (10)
Rome: "The gemlike mosaics in the small Chapel of St. Zeno, in the completely out-of-the-way satio at St. Praxedes on the Esquiline, make this small space one of the most beautiful rooms on the planet." (12)
Rome: "The statio at St. Augustine houses Caravaggio's Madonna of the Pilgrims, one of the most strikingly earthy of his renderings of the Mother of God." (12)

Lent: An Itinerary of Conversion

"The rediscovery of the baptismal character of Lent, the ancient penitential season that precedes Easter, and the restoration of the Paschal Triduum—Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil—as the apex of the Church's liturgical year are two of the most important accomplishments of modern Catholicism." (17)
Lent should be less about what not to do, and more a season focused on conversion to Jesus Christ and the deepening of friendship with him. (17)
"The adult catechumenate offers an annual reminder to the Church that all Christians are always in need of conversion...To make the pilgrimage of lent is to follow an itinerary of conversion." (18)
"As the liturgical readings of Lent insistently press home, biblical religion is about God's search for us and our learning to take the same path through history that God is taking: to follow the itinerary of conversion and salvation that God has marked out." (19)
The 40 days of Lent remind us of the three paradigmatic forty-day periods of fasting and prayer in the Bible (20-21):
- Moses preparing to receive the Ten Commandments
- Elijah fasting at Horeb prior to hearing the still, small voice
- Jesus preparing for his temptation
The first two weeks of Lent are penitential in nature, which shifts to a baptismal focus on deeper imitation of Christ (22)

Text Notes

"Catholicism is realism. Catholicism means seeing things as they are." (29, cf. Carolyn Gordon Tate, Flannery O'Connor)
"The Exodus is the paradigm of redemption...History, like Israel in the desert, has a destination: eternal life with God, in the Wedding Feast of the Lamb." (36)
Justice divorced from charity is cold and impersonal, "whom you would change, you must first love" (43, cf. Martin Luther King Jr.)
"St. Monica never ceased praying that her supremely gifted son would, in his brilliance, come to know the God of the Bible, who is the Truth that makes all other truths make sense." (49)
"Sunday: the day on which the Church marks history's axial point, the Resurrection of the Lord." (55)
"Peter's chains invite a reflection on a deeper form of binding: obedience to the will of God for our lives." (62)
Universal call to holiness: "The true alternative to slavery, in its spiritual forms, is sanctity." (64)
The Our Father: "Christian prayer consists in acknowledging divine providence and then asking that our wills be conformed to the divine will." (68)
Mary's last recorded words point toward her son: "Do whatever he tells you." (75, cf. Jn-02)
Cites 2021-01-27-The Spirit of the Liturgy on freedom, followed by: "Israel confuses freedom with license...Dominican theologian Servias Pinckaers called it freedom for excellence: the freedom to choose the tings that are truly good and that make for genuine human flourishing. Genuine freedom consists in developing the moral habit—the virtue—of making good decisions. (168-169)
"In the Paschal Mystery of the Cross and Resurrection, the victory has already been won, in him. It remains to be won in us." (170)
Servais Pinckaers: Growth in the virtues can be compared to learning a language or mastering a musical instrument. The "freedom of excellence" which the cardinal virtues make possible is lived through the moral habits tha the grace of Christ enables us to develop over the course of a lifetime. (213-214, cf. The Sources of Christian Ethics)
"Wojtyła had a special affection for the gospel of St. John and used to read it aloud to himself in POlish when he lied at the Belgian College." (241)
O Deus Ego Amo Te (310)

Pilgrimage Church Notes

Travel-Rome

St. Sabina (Aventine hill): First station church, doors are original (420s) and the upper left panel is the oldest image of the crucifixion, Dominican church where both Dominic and Thomas lived.
St. George (Velambro): 2nd station church, apse by Cavallini, relic of St. George's head
Sts. John and Paul (Caelian Hill): on the site of the home and martyrdom of the brother knights, also the site of the relics of eleven martyrs from Carthage killed in 180 after refusing to hand over one of St. Paul's letters
St. John Lateran: "Mother and Head of All the Churches in the City and the World"
St. Peter in Chains: contains the tomb of Pope Julius II with Michelangelo's Moses
St. Anastasia: this was Jerome's church, and it has a side altar to the left that was his, along with a chalice; it was a sanctuary for 700,000 consecrated hosts during World Youth Day 2000, and was the first church in Rome to have perpetual adoration in 2001
St. Mary Major: the first Marian church, a miraculous snowfall on August 5, 532 showed Pope Liberius where it should be built
St. Lawrence in Panisperna: built on the site where he was roasted alive in 258: "Turn me over; I seem to be done on this side"
Twelve Holy Apostles: houses the relics of the apostles Philip and James the Less
St. Peter's: 91 of the 266 popes are buried in St. Peter's, including all since Leo XIII
St. Mary in Domnica: nautical theme and a taste of Florentine Renaissance art
St. Clement: contains the tomb of St. Cyril, and a fresco has the first written Italian
St. Balbina: Cavallini's Madonna and Child is on the third chapel on the right
St. Cecilia in Travestere: The crypt has remains of the chapel where Cecelia was martyred, adn the convent next door has Cavallini's Last Judgment.
St. Mary in Travestere: one of the original Marian shrines, with Cavallini's scenes from her life in the apse
St. Vitalis: appointed a Lenten station church by Gregory the Great; fake windows have what seem to be beautiful panoramas but which actually depict many martyrs
Sts. Marcellinus and Peter: Peter was a third-century exorcist whose "rough personality was forged in combat with demons" and Marcellinus was his assistant
St. Lawrence Outside the Walls: the greatest of Rome's Laurentian churches
St. Mark: St. Mark perhaps started writing his gospel here while an aide to St. Peter
St. Pudenziana: Peter began his work in Rome here with the help of the senator's daughters, Praxedes and Pudenziana. The altar contains fragments of wood said to be from teh table where St. Peter first celebrated the Eucharist in Rome.
St. Sixtus: Honorius III entrusted the church to St. Dominic when he arrived in Rome, where Dominic restored life to a worker who fell while rebuilding the church.
Sts. Cosmas and Damian: remarkable apse mosaic is its oldest decoration, and has the last naturalism until the eleventh century
St. Lawrence in Lucina: The third chapel contains the skull of Pope St. Alexander I, martyred in 116, and the baptismal chapel is a rare example of Roman Rococo
St. Susanna: "the many angels throughout the Basilica, emerging from the gilt stucco surfaces, give the walls a sense of movement"
Holy Cross in Jerusalem: Rome's spiritual gateway to Calvary
Four holy Crowned Martyrs: dedicated to two groups of martyrs killed during the Diocletian persecution of 303-306: four soldiers who refused to offer pagan sacrifice, and five stonemasons who refused to carve an idol
St. Lawrence in Damaso: here Pope St. Damasus I compiled the stories of the martyrs assisted by St. Jerome
St. Paul Outside the Walls: The church was destroyed by fire in 1823 but reconstructed into Rome's closest approximation of a Constantinian Basilica
Sts. Sylvester and Martin: Associated with defending Christ's divinity: the orthodox party met here in 324 before the Council of Nicaea, and the first public refutation of Arianism took place when the writings of Arius and Sabellius were burned here
St. Eusebius: One of the oldest house churches in Rome
St. Nicholas in Prison: a center of devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe, with mass said in her honor on the 12th of every month
St. Peter: St. Leo the Great is buried under a marble relief of his confrontation with Attila.
St. Chrysogonus: an ancient church that was largely rediscovered during archaeological exploration in 1907
St. Mary in Via Lata: pious tradition say St. Paul, Luke, Peter, and john lived here at one time, and it has "Rome's most beautiful organ"
St. Marcellus: Baroque beauty, including an unusual colorful, multifigured image of the Crucifixion
St. Apollinaris: a portal for Byzantine customs to find their way to Rome, with Rococo frescoes; has a chapel dedicated to St. Josemaria Escriva
St. Stephen on the Caelian Hill: a circular church in honor of St. Stephen; St. Gregory the Great preached here
St. John Before the Latin Gate: built on the place where tradition holds that John was thrown into boiling oil by Domitian, but was unharmed and then exiled to Patmos
St. John Lateran: has Cosmatesque floors by Cosmati who took shards of precious stones from the rubble of imperial Rome and laid them into colorful geometric patterns
St. Praxedes: gem of a church with many mosaics behind St. Mary Major that contains the relics of 2,300 martyrs form the catacombs as well as the pillar o the flagellation
St. Prisca: recalls the house hailed by St. Paul in Romans as the home of Prisca and Aquila
St. Mary Major: "Rome's Bethlehem". The Madonna Salus Populi Romani (which was at Pope Francis' funeral on 2025-04-26-Sat) has a tradition that St. Luke painted it, but "what is more liekly is that the panel was at St. Mary Major in the sixth century and that Pope St. Gregory the Great carried it in procession through the city to rid Rome of the plague"
St. John Lateran: The twelve statues of the apostles were donated by different benefactors
Holy Cross in Jerusalem: Has a relic of the cross, the titulus (sign above the cross), nails, and Dismas' cross: St. Jerome said, "By devoutly respecting the instruments of Christ's Passion, we profess our faith in him who suffered for us, we excite our hope in his merit, enkindle his love in our breasts, and renew the grateful remembrance of his death."
St. John Lateran: Pope Leo XIII was the last Pope buried outside St. Peter's (until Pope Francis at St. Mary Major)
St. Mary Major: the Easter Sunday station!
St. Peter: The Station for Easter Monday (we were in St. Peter's on Easter Monday!)
St. Paul Outside the Walls: The sword on the statue of Paul symbolizes not only his martyrdom but the "sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." (cf Eph-03)
St. Lawrence Outside the Walls: according to the Golden Legend, Lawrence rolled over in his sarcophagus to make room for Stephen's relics. Fran Angelico panted these two together in the Nicholas V Chapel of the Apostolic Palace.
Twelve Holy Apostles: Has the relics of the apostles Philip and James the Less
St. Mary "at the Martyrs": the Pantheon, built as a Roman temple to all the gods in the second century and rededicated as a church in 609
St. John Lateran: Octagonal baptismal font with poem by St. Gregory the Great: "Here springs the fount of life why which the entire world is laved since from Christ's wound it take its origin and source."
St. Pancras: "I may be a child in body but...but by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ in me, your terror means no more to me than the idol we are looking at"

Topic: Lent

Source

UA Library

Created: 2023-09-15-Fri
Updated: 2025-06-02-Mon