A look at Stations from around the world

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

WEST BROOKFIELD – Depictions of Jesus’ Passion have taken many forms, some 35 people, aged 9 to 98, learned during a series this Lent.
Father Chester J. Misiewicz, pastor of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Parish, led them in “encountering Jesus in the Way of the Cross” at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church. His “tour” included pictures of Stations of the Cross and other artwork he’s seen in some of the 71 countries he’s visited.
Each week he read reflections about the traditional Stations, and biblical ones Pope John Paul II used on Good Friday in 1991, which reflect on scriptural accounts of Christ’s Passion.
“Some people now add a 15th Station – the Resurrection,” Father Misiewicz said. Other people say that’s anticipated in Christ’s burial.
“You can see how artists have interpreted” the Stations, the pastor said, as he showed a variety of styles.
“If you had a commission to design some Stations, what would you emphasize?”
Father Misiewicz said one reason he enjoys this Lenten devotion is that you can use your imagination; “you might just take one Station and meditate on it all day long.”
For the first 1,000 years of Christianity, Christians would express their devotion to the Passion by traveling the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, Father Misiewicz said.
Wanting to bring this devotion closer to home, Christians in Italy and other countries created their own Stations.    
Throughout the series he showed and described  some of them.
The countryside in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, Poland, reminded people of Jerusalem, and 40 chapels were built there, to which people processed, Father Misiewicz said; “so in a way it was like Stations of the Cross, but also uniquely Polish.”
Stations in Czestochowa, completed in 2001, include Polish history. To depict Jesus meeting his Mother, an icon of Our Lady of Czestochowa is shown near the cross-bearing Christ. Another Station includes representations of an Auschwitz prisoner, a Polish cardinal and Father Jerzy Popieluszko.
Father Misiewicz talked about a relic believed to be Christ’s crown of thorns being displayed each Good Friday at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.  The relic was feared lost in the April 15 fire that nearly destroyed the cathedral. This week he said it was rescued.
In Lourdes, France, cast iron Stations on a hillside were hard to get to, and new marble ones were made in a meadow for the procession of the sick, Father Misiewicz said. Pilgrim groups donated money for them and the artist donated Stations 15-17, depicting the Virgin Mary anticipating the Resurrection, the Resurrection itself, and Christ appearing to the disciples at Emmaus.
In Oberammergau, Germany, villagers promised to put on a Passion Play every 10 years in response to a plague in the 1600s. Father Misiewicz said he attended in 2010 and plans to go again in 2020. He said some performers post signs outside their shops indicating their role in the play, such as, “I am Nicodemus,” and travelers can talk to them.
In Barcelona, Spain, architect Antoni Gaudi began working on a church in honor of the Holy Family in the 1880s, but died without finishing. Father Misiewicz said sculptor Josep Subirachs, commissioned to complete the Passion façade a hundred years later, was told he could design it as he wanted. He depicted the last couple days in Jesus’ life, not exactly the traditional Stations, and copied Gaudi’s face for the evangelist recording the events of the Passion.
Father Misiewicz also showed colorful pictures of Stations in Puerto Rico and Africa depicting characters who look like natives there.
Some Stations he talked about are closer to home.
Father Misiewicz said that when he was pastor of St. Aloysius Parish in Gilbertville, “as we were going through the renovations, I decided we had to do something about the Stations.” He said having them repainted would have been expensive.
While traveling in Austria, he found Stations that reminded him of ones at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and bought them for the parish.
“These Stations are still in Gilbertville,” in the Mary Room, he said. He later bought the hand-carved set that’s in the church – at the Brimfield Flea Market.
“Our church upstairs has John and Mary at the foot of the cross” behind the altar, Father Misiewicz said. “You don’t always see that in churches. Father (Henry) Donoghue wanted that” when he was stationed there.
“I want you to start going around and visiting some of the local churches,” Father Misiewicz told attendees. He asked them to look at the Stations in St. Joseph’s in North Brookfield and St. John the Baptist in East Brookfield. He also mentioned large Stations – and stained glass windows depicting the sorrowful mysteries of the rosary – in Our Lady of the Rosary Church in Spencer.
The Stations in St. Aloysius-St. Jude Church in Leicester are unusual because they are stained glass windows, he said.
“If you like outdoor Stations I’d recommend you go to Fiskdale,” he said, speaking of St. Anne Shrine. “You could go to Charlton after you visit Fiskdale” and see the Stations Father Robert A. Grattaroti, pastor, got for the present St. Joseph Church when it was built – and another set outside.
When Father Paul J. Tougas  was building St. Mary of the Hills Church in Boylston, he had biblical Stations installed. Father Misiewicz said it’s the only set of those he knows of in the diocese.
Young and old expressed interest in the presentations.
“I did learn a lot of things,” said Caleb Mailloux, 9. “I never knew about the women of Jerusalem.” He wanted more explanations about some things, he said.
“Some of them I liked, some of them I didn’t,” Evan Small, 10, said. He’d just been baptized and was about to receive his first Communion with his mother, Leanne Small, at the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart’s Easter Vigil.
“I’ve enjoyed this program very much,” said Everett Allen, 98. “I’m a Congregationalist,” a retired deacon. “It’s been interesting because it’s different from what I grew up with.”