St. Leonard of Port Maurice and Propagation of Devotion to the Way of the Cross

ST. LEONARD OF PORT MAURICE AND PROPAGATION OF DEVOTION TO THE WAY OF THE CROSS The history of die Way of die Cross may be summed up in two main considerations: First, what is the origin of this devotion, and how did it happen diat die Passion of Jesus was represented in this exact form, numbering exactly fourteen mysteries, no more and no less? Second, how did tiiis practice achieve such universal propagation diat in the whole wide world today diere is hardly a church or chapel to be found without a Via Crucis? Many authors have explored die first question, especially the Jesuits' Herbert Thurston1 and K. A. Kneller.2 From diese studies we know diat German piety and art in die 15th and 16th centuries had a substantial part in the rise and development of the Via Crucis; that this art carried the consideration of Christ's Passion from the Low Countries to Spain; where in many places it was zealously fostered; especially in Franciscan houses. There, it received substantially its present form. In 1628, the Franciscan Salvator Vitale, returning from Spain, erected the first Via on Italian soil on the road leading up to the Franciscan Monastery of S. Francesco al Monte from the city of Florence. According to Father Vitale, the Stations were at this time in use in Spain, Belgium, the East and West Indies, and not only in the cloisters of the Franciscan Observants, Discalced, and Recollects, but among the Capuchins, in many convents, and even in die houses of lay people.8 The Friars Minor identified tiiemselves ever more closely with this devotion, the heads of the Order seeking indulgences which were granted by die church in generous measure to die participants. A brief of Innocent XI, September 5, 1686, contained die first bestowal of a Stations Indulgence. From this brief stems die conception that erection of Vias and promotion of the devotion is a responsibility and privilege of the Franciscan Order: Only the Stations erected in tiieir churches The present article, originally published in German in Kirchengeschichtliche Studien, pp. 286-305, edited by Ignatius M. Freudenreich, O.F.M. (Alsatia Verlag, 1941— issued 1944), was unavoidably held over from last year, the Centenary of St. Leonard of Port Maurice. The translation into English was done by Miss Helen Navin, Boston. 1.H. Thurston, The Stations of the Cross (London, 1906). 2.K. A. Kneller, Geschichte der Kreuzwegandacht von den Anfängen bis zur völligen Ausbildung (Freiburg, 1908). Cf. also M. Bihl's articles in Arch Franc. Hist., vols. I & II; J. M. Freudenreich, Origines du Chemin de La Crois, in Revue d' Histoire Franciscaine, VIII (1931), 371 ff. 3.Bihl, in Arch. Franc. Hist. II (1901), 340. 47 48ST. LEONARD AND THE WAY OP THE CROSS enjoyed the indulgence, only die faitiiful in any way subject to the Minister General of this Order could share in tiiem. This was the situation in 1700, when Saint Leonard entered on die scene.4 It is interesting to note how tiiis Saint himself described die origin and spread of the devotion: The Mother of Jesus, after the Ascension ofher Son, with otherpious Christians daily walked die road whichher Son walked during His Passion, from Pilate's house to Calvary. Wherever Jesus had stopped, she also stood, describing to her companions die torments suffered diere by her Son, witii the deepest feelings of sympathy and love. Since Jesus had made fourteen stops on His road of agony, twelve before His deatfi and two after die descent from die Cross, the road was called die Way of the fourteen stations, or die Way ofthe Cross. The Christians of the first centuries continued this pious custom. From it, the processions of the Church also derive their origin. During die reigns of the heathens and Mohammedans, tiiis Christian tradition was for a long period interrupted. But when King Robert of Sicily and Jerusalem entrusted die care of the Holy Places to the Friars Minor in 1333, it was dieir first concern to reestablish the practice of the Stations of die Cross. They sought rich indulgences for die performance of this exercise from the Popes, and made it known throughout...