STAZIONE LITURGICA

LITURGICAL STATION. – S. Quaesimale of S. Ciriaco: the procession in the church of S. Maria in Via Lata, which replaced the ancient church of S. Ciriaco, destroyed – Rome.

LITURGICAL STATION. – A church in which liturgical functions are celebrated under certain circumstances.

I. GENERAL NOTIONS

Originally, *statio* signified the act of stopping, the place where one stops, and finally the persons who stop at the indicated point. In these three fundamental meanings, the word had the most varied applications: residence, post of horses, quarter, military guard detachment, anchorage or port in nautical language. Examples include the *statio aquarum*, *annonae*, *municipiorum*, etc., as seats of particular magistrates or offices. The same word naturally entered Christian usage with derived meanings proper to it, but always connected to the primitive sense. Thus, for example, the word *statio* was used, as in military language, in the sense of an advanced sentinel, attentive and poised for action, to signify the state of the Christian during the fast, that is, entirely dedicated to II. The same word was taken up again by St. Ambrose at the beginning of Lent, where he compares the forty-day journey to military life and the *devotio ieiuniorum* to the *castra*, whence he derives the word *stationes*, because “stantes et commorantes in eis, in microrum insidias repellamus. Castra enim sunt ieiunia christianis” (Sermo 21: PL 17, 644). In this sense is also the meaning of the word *station* in the specific sense of a “station” fast, that is, a half-day fast, on the liturgical ferias of Wednesday and Friday, a custom that soon fell into disuse (cf. the Shepherd of Hermas, Similitudes, V, 1, ed. F. X. Funk, I, 528, and the Didache, VIII, ed. F. X. Funk-K. Bihlmeyer, Tübingen 1924, p. 5).

II. THE LITURGICAL STATION IN PARTICULAR

It was therefore natural that the word *s.* should come to denote the house, and later the church in which the divine Mysteries would be celebrated, and by extension the liturgical celebration itself and the gathering of the faithful. This usage is very ancient and is found in Tertullian, *De ieiunio* (ed. Oehler), ch. 1 (p. 852); ch. 2 (p. 853); ch. 10 (p. 864); and in *Ad uxorem* (ed. Oehler), II, ch. 4 (p. 688), and elsewhere; then in Cassian, *De institutis coenobiorum*, lib. I, ch. 5 (PL 49, 236-43) and in Isidore, *Etymologiae*, lib. VI, ch. 19 (PL 82, 258).

III. LITURGICAL STATIONS OUTSIDE ROME

In many ancient episcopal sees, equipped with numerous churches, bishops used to celebrate, on certain feast days or for other liturgical reasons, now in one church, now in another: these liturgical gatherings, and the churches themselves, were called *stationes*. Information about these liturgical stations outside Rome is rather fragmentary; they do, however, allow us to know that this usage and the related technical term were already known, for example, from the 4th century in Antioch, in Jerusalem (cf. the *Peregrinatio* of Egeria), in Egypt at Oxyrhynchus (papyrus of 535); in the West at Milan, Carthage, Ravenna, Vercelli, in the Gauls and in Germany, at Paris, Strasbourg, Mainz, Cologne. The liturgical stations in use at Tours are listed in the so-called Calendar of Bishop Perpetuus (c. 460), preserved by Gregory of Tours (*Hist. Francorum*, X, 31: PL 71, 556): the 3rd canon of the Council of Orléans (541) prescribed the celebration of major feasts and Easter with the bishop (Mansi, IX, 114). Bishop Chrodegang of Metz (766) established in his see an entire system of liturgical stations modeled on the Roman usage.

IV. THE PARTICULAR DEVELOPMENT OF LITURGICAL STATIONS IN ROME

The place where the liturgical stations had a particularly distinctive development and assumed general importance in liturgical life and practice is Rome. The solemn pontifical celebrations, to which, especially after the Constantinian peace, extraordinary external solemnity was given with the rapid development of the liturgical year, were not confined to the church annexed to the papal residence (the Lateran), but also took place in other great urban and cemetery basilicas and in the titular churches. Already in the correspondence exchanged between Pope Cornelius and Cyprian of Carthage (mid-2nd century), the term *s.* is used in the sense of a liturgical station as a regular occurrence (Cyprian, *Ep.* 43, to Cornelius; *Ep.* 48, of Cornelius to Cyprian; ed. G. Hartel, II, 597, 612). The Luciferian priests Faustus and Marcellinus, in their *Libellus precum* against Damasus, presented to Theodosius the Great in 384, speak of the *statio* held by Ursicinus, the antipope (PL 13, 81, 83). The *Liber Pontificalis* (I, pp. 244, 246) reports that Pope Hilarius (461-68) donated a magnificent liturgical service, including the sacred vessels necessary for the liturgical stations, to the Roman Church; but a regular system of liturgical stations must certainly have existed long before. Later, too, the *Liber Pontificalis* and other sources report papal gifts for station celebrations. The *Ordines* instead deal with the manner of celebration (cf., for example, G. Löw, *Il Codice A 14 della Biblioteca Vallicelliana* [of the 9th century] and its contribution to Roman liturgy, in *Misc. L. C. Mohlberg*, II, Rome 1949, pp. 246-48).

Gregory the Great also reorganized the Roman stations, not only in the liturgical texts and chants, but, it seems, also with adjustments to the order of the station churches. In any case, he did everything to keep the liturgical stations alive and operative as a great means of pastoral liturgy. John the Deacon reports in his *Life* (II, 18, 19: PL 75, 94) not only on the aforementioned reorganization, but above all on the zeal of the Pontiff in preaching and the religious enthusiasm of the people, who came even from afar to take part in the liturgical station. The station system established by Gregory the Great was completed by Gregory II (d. 731) with the addition of the stations for the Thursdays of Lent, which, by ancient tradition, had remained free from the heavy station service (Lib. Pont., I, p. 402), so that by the 8th century all the days of Lent had the same service. From the *Ordines Romani* it is known that the Roman liturgical stations continued to take place with unchanged splendor and decorum until the time of Avignon. After the decline and the return of the Pope to Rome, the liturgical station was no longer considered a pontifical function. It continued, however, in smaller and more modest forms, as can be seen from later *Ordines Romani* and other sources. Very interesting in this regard is, for example, the description of Lent with its stations left by the priest (parish priest and court preacher of Munich in Bavaria) Jakob Rabus, during the Holy Year 1575 (ed. K. Schottenloher, Munich 1925).

V. THE ROMAN STATION CHURCHES

1. Lent

The most complete system of liturgical stations is found in Lent, though even here the completion took place over time. The first to have stations were the ferias II, IV, VI and Saturday; then followed the ferias III, V and the aliturgical Sundays because of a vigil celebration.

a) The great Basilicas as Lenten liturgical stations. — S. JOHN IN THE LATERAN, the Pope’s cathedral: 1st Sunday of Lent (i.e., the original beginning of the great fast); Palm Sunday (i.e., the beginning of Holy Week); Holy Thursday, and the Paschal Vigil from Holy Saturday evening to the Matins of Easter Sunday, i.e., the days of the greatest Sacraments. S. PETER IN THE VATICAN: Passion Sunday (i.e., the beginning of the most primitive fasting period; but the station is relatively recent, as it followed a vigil celebration that concluded on Sunday). S. PAUL OUTSIDE THE WALLS: Wednesday (4th week of Lent), the day of the great scrutiny of the catechumens. S. MARY MAJOR: Wednesday of Holy Week, which originally had a great liturgical service similar to that of Good Friday (as well as in *Tempore*, see below). S. CROSS IN JERUSALEM: 4th Sunday and Good Friday. S. LAWRENCE OUTSIDE THE WALLS: 3rd Sunday.

b) The oldest Lenten liturgical stations. — The “collect” (i.e., the church where the people gathered to proceed in procession to the stational church, generally nearby) is indicated in parentheses. The stations for the second week of Lent: I week of Lent: (SS. Cosmas and Damian), St Peter in Chains (it was the second day of the primitive Lent, hence the presentation of the Roman community to the Prince of the Apostles); II week: (S. Cosmas and Damian), St Clement; III week: (S. Adrian), St Mark; IV week: (S. Stephen on the Caelian), SS. Four Crowned Martyrs; Passion Week: (S. George in Velabro), St Chrysogonus (two churches of martyrs believed to have been soldiers); Holy Week: (S. Balbina), SS. Nereus and Achilleus, St Praxedes (until the 10th century there were several changes between the two stational churches indicated).

The stations for the third week: I week: (S. Nicholas in Carcere), St Anastasia (it should be noted that S. Nicholas exists only from the 9th century); at St Anastasia, as a quasi-palatine church, it was the second station after the first Sunday; II week: S. Balbina; III week: (S. Sergius), St Pudentiana (currently with equal right also St Agatha in the Goths); IV week: (S. Mary of the Woman Rose), St Lawrence in Damaso; Passion Week: St Cyriacus (destroyed in the 15th century; the station was transferred to St Mary in Via Lata); Holy Week: (S. Mary in Portico), St Prisca.

The stations for the fourth week: I week: Ember Days, see below; II week: (S. George in Velabro), St Cecilia; III week: (S. Balbina), Old St Sixtus; IV week: St Paul (see above); Passion Week: (S. Mark), St Marcellus; Holy Week: (St Peter in Chains) St Mary Major (see above).

The stations for the sixth week: I week: Ember Days, see below; II week: (S. Agatha in the Goths), St Vitalis; III week: (S. Mary ad Martyres, i.e. the Pantheon, consecrated for worship in 613), St Lawrence in Lucina; IV week: (S. Vitus), St Eusebius; Passion Week: (S. John and Paul), St Stephen on the Caelian.

c) The Saturdays: I week: Ember Days, see below; II week: (S. Clement), SS. Marcellinus and Peter; III week: (S. Vitalis), St Susanna; IV week: Saturday called “Sitientes,” of particular importance in the system of preparation of the catechumens, St Lawrence in Lucina, later replaced by St Nicholas in Carcere, a church known only from the 9th century.

2. Additional stations with their churches

a) Under Gregory the Great: this Pope having advanced the beginning of Lent to the Wednesday before the first Sunday of Lent, i.e. to Ash Wednesday, in order to bring the days of actual fasting to the number of 40, instituted two stations: Ash Wednesday: (St Anastasia), St Sabina; Friday after Ash Wednesday: (S. Lucy in Septizonio), SS. John and Paul.

b) Under Gregory II (d. 731): the fifth week of Lent: after Ash Wednesday: (S. Nicholas in Carcere, 9th century), St George in Velabro; I week: (S. Agatha in the Goths), St Lawrence in Panisperna; II week: (S. Chrysogonus), St Mary in Trastevere; III week: (S. Mark), SS. Cosmas and Damian; IV week: (S. Quiricus and Julietta), SS. Sylvester and Martin; Passion Week: (S. Mary in Via Lata), St Apollinaris.

c) At an unspecified time (probably during the 9th–10th centuries) some aliturgical days acquired their station: Second Sunday, aliturgical because preceded by the Ordinations of the Ember Days at St Peter with vigil: St Mary in Domnica, seat of the Roman archdeacon. Saturday after Ash Wednesday: St Tryphon, now destroyed, replaced by the nearby church of St Augustine. Saturday of Passion Week: St John before the Latin Gate.

d) The stations of “Pre-Lent,” of later origin than the primitive Lenten stations but earlier than Gregory the Great. Septuagesima Sunday: St Lawrence outside the Walls; Sexagesima Sunday: St Paul outside the Walls; Quinquagesima Sunday: St Peter in the Vatican: the three great patrons of the Urbe.

3. Easter Time

The octave of Easter, with stations among the most ancient, as it was customary to visit, with the neophytes, the most renowned churches of the city to celebrate the solemn Easter stations. Easter Sunday: St Mary Major (of later institution, since originally the Easter Vigil concluded on the morning of the same Sunday at St John Lateran); Monday: St Peter in the Vatican; Tuesday: St Paul outside the Walls; Wednesday: St Lawrence outside the Walls: thus visits to the principal churches of the three great patrons of the Urbe. Thursday: SS. Apostles; Friday: St Mary ad Martyres; Saturday in Albis: St John Lateran, the true “octave” of Baptism; Sunday “in Albis”: St Pancras, the young martyr model of the neophytes: this last station is therefore an addition, though quite ancient. The Sundays after Easter, although having very ancient Mass formularies, did not have stations; only for the Second Sunday after Easter is there an isolated notice indicating the station at SS. Cosmas and Damian, but this must have been a late and short-lived custom. Ascension: St Peter in the Vatican, station at least since the 7th–8th centuries.

4. Pentecost and its octave

It should be noted at once that the summer Ember Days were fixed in the same octave of Pentecost only between the 7th–8th centuries. Saturday, i.e. the Vigil of Pentecost: baptismal celebration as at the Easter Vigil, hence station at the Lateran. Sunday: perhaps without a station, as originally on Easter Sunday, then St Peter in the Vatican; Monday: St Peter in Chains; Tuesday: St Anastasia; Wednesday: St Mary Major; Thursday: Twelve Apostles, an ancient station, but soon abandoned; Thursday remained without a station until the 10th century; then St Lawrence outside the Walls was assigned to it; Friday: SS. John and Paul, after the fixing of the Ember Days replaced by the church of the Twelve Apostles; Saturday: St Stephen on the Caelian, later in the Ember Days replaced by St Peter in the Vatican.

5. Christmas Time

The stations of Advent are of more recent date, i.e. from the 9th century, except for those of the Ember Days in December; the stations of the great Christmas feasts are partly older, partly even more recent.

a) The Sundays of Advent: 1st Sunday: St Mary Major; 2nd Sunday: Holy Cross in Jerusalem; 3rd Sunday: St Peter in the Vatican: perhaps the first station created in Advent. It was a vigil celebration, held with great splendor until the 12th century. 4th Sunday: as the term of the Ember Days, originally the Vigil without a station; from the 9th century a church of St Eugenia appears (unknown from any other source, perhaps for St Euphemia, a famous monastery in the Middle Ages); only in the Avignon period does the church of the Twelve Apostles appear.

b) The Christmas feasts: the preferred stational church for this time is St Mary Major, the church of the “Mother of God” since Sixtus III, and at which, perhaps already from that time, there existed a representation of the Nativity. Vigil: of more recent institution, since the true vigil Mass was the current first Mass. From the 8th century the vigil (as the preceding day) also has a station: St Mary Major. Christmas: 1st Mass, the true midnight Mass: station at St Mary Major “ad Presepe,” i.e. in the underground chapel of the “Nativity.” 2nd Mass: St Anastasia, from the Byzantine period, since the feast of the saint fell on the same 25 December; 3rd Mass: St Peter in the Vatican (this was the original station for Christmas); it seems that under Innocent II (1130–43) the current station at St Mary Major was substituted (the triple celebration in three churches so distant being too burdensome). 26 December, feast of St Stephen: St Stephen on the Caelian, the station is noted explicitly only from the 12th century. 28 December, feast of St John the Apostle: perhaps at the Lateran; certainly the missals of the Avignon period bear this indication; only with printed missals does the current station appear: St Mary Major. 28 December, feast of the Holy Innocents: St Paul outside the Walls; the station is noted from the 8th century; perhaps from this time, and certainly later, relics of these saints were venerated there.

STATION LITURGICAL — Lenten station in the church of St Marcellus: final blessing with the relics of the Holy Cross — Rome.

d) The Octave of Christmas (Circumcision), originally at the Pantheon, i.e., at Santa Maria ad Martyres, replaced from the Avignon period by Santa Maria in Trastevere. e) Epiphany: St Peter’s in the Vatican; 2nd Sunday after Epiphany: SS John and Paul; 3rd Sunday after Epiphany: St Eusebius; yet these stations appear only briefly in the 8th century.

6. The *Tempore* Stations

The *Tempore* stations, irrespective of their later arrangement—some in Lent, some in the Pentecost Octave, some in Advent—were from their institution assigned to particular churches of grand dimensions, capable of holding the entire throng of the faithful; these stations are fixed and identical for all *Tempore*. Wednesday: St Mary Major; Friday: SS Twelve Apostles; Saturday, for the night-long vigil extending into the following Sunday morning: St Peter’s in the Vatican. The reason for choosing the Vatican Basilica is immediately apparent: the dignity and power of the sacred Orders had to proceed from the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles.

7. The Litanies

The Greater Litanies, of Roman origin and linked to the date of 25 April (independent of the later feast of St Mark), with their grand procession, originally had one collect and three stations: collect: St Lawrence in Lucina; I station: St Valentine outside Porta Flaminia (a cemetery basilica); II station: the Holy Cross oratory beyond the Milvian Bridge, toward the Vatican; III station: St Peter’s in the Vatican. The Minor Litanies, introduced into Rome from Gaul during the 9th century (Leo III, 795–816), were celebrated in the three great major basilicas: Monday: St Mary Major; Tuesday: St John Lateran; Wednesday: St Peter’s in the Vatican.

8. The great Marian feasts

The four great Marian feasts—Candlemas (2 Feb), the Annunciation (25 Mar), the Assumption (15 Aug) and the Nativity of Mary (8 Sept)—were celebrated in Rome with great solemnity, namely with the collect at St Adrian’s on the Roman Forum and the procession to the station at St Mary Major.

9. Present practice

With the fall of the Papal States (1870), public religious observance had to be confined within church walls, and the celebration of the stations, with their processions, vanished from the external life of Rome. Recovery was slow. Credit for their restoration belongs to the *Collegium Cultorum Martyrum*, and it may be said that in recent decades the liturgical celebration of the Roman stations has been fully revived, though no longer as a service of the Supreme Pontiff but as a public liturgical celebration drawing large numbers of the faithful, both Roman and foreign. In the station churches relics are exposed, the pavement is strewn with laurel leaves, and the solemn Mass of the station is celebrated in the morning; toward evening there often takes place, with great solemnity, a procession with the singing of the Litany of the Saints and prescribed prayers, concluding with the blessing with a relic of the Holy Cross.

From the Middle Ages the pious practice of the stations was enriched with special indulgences revised by Pius VI (9 July 1777) and now set forth in the *Enchiridion Indulgentiarum* (Rome 1952, no. 780). As early as the early Middle Ages there are instances of imitations of the Roman stations: some bishops have recently arranged in their cathedral cities a kind of station, with visits to certain churches and religious services similar to those of Rome. – See pl. LXXXIX.