Sunday, April 17, 2011

Rome Traditions: Via Crucis at Coliseum Every Friday in Lent




It is only thanks to blogs that wonderful news such as this is reported. Until 1874 there were even little chapels of the Stations of the Cross located here, inside the Coliseum, along with a large indulgenced cross. These devotionals had been placed here in 1750 by St. Leonard of Port Maurice whose Confraternity of the Lovers of Jesus and Mary visited every Friday for the Via Crucis. Then when the new Italian government came, the Goths from Piedmont, they tore out the Stations and it all ended, until now. This wonderful event is hosted by the lay members of the Pontifical Household. Of course Pope John Paul II also started a Via Crucis here each Good Friday and in the Holy Year 2000 was able to get a permanent cross placed back inside the Coliseum, the first since February of 1874.

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