The Via Matris: Mary’s Stations of the Cross

According to tradition, after the Ascension of the Lord, the Virgin Mary returned daily to the places where the Passion, death and Resurrection of Jesus had taken place, instituting the first Stations of the Cross. The Church has preserved this devotional practice ever since.

Praying the Stations of the Cross is a way of sharing in the sufferings of the Virgin. But there is a devotion that is even more closely associated with the sorrows of Mary: the Via Matris Dolorosae, Via Matris for short (Latin for "the road of the sorrowful Mother”), a tradition dating back to the 16^th century. This devotion consists of meditating on the sorrows of the Virgin, who was intimately associated with the Passion of her Son.

Popular devotion emphasizes seven particular sorrows experienced by the Virgin, around which the Via Matris is articulated: 1. Simeon’s prediction to Mary that her Son will be violently opposed. 2. The massacre of the Innocents in Bethlehem and the flight to Egypt. 3. The loss of Jesus in the Temple at age twelve. 4. Mary seeing her Son carrying the cross. 5. Mary standing at the foot of the cross. 6. Mary receiving the lifeless body of her Son. 7. Mary mourning at the tomb of Jesus.

The stations of the Via Matris reconstitute the path of suffering and faith that the Virgin followed, ahead of the Church who is now walking it until the end of time.

The Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows, a congregation based in Italy and particularly established in the United States, prays the Via Matris on the first Saturday of each month.

Source: Aleteia