What is the Via Dolorosa?
Many visitors to the Old City in Jerusalem take the opportunity to walk along a crowded pedestrian way that is marked in Arabic, English, and Hebrew as “Via Dolorosa.” The Latin name means “the Way of Sorrow,” “the Way of Grief,” or “the Way of Pain.” According to a tradition reaching back to Ricoldus de MonteCrucis in 1288, the Via Dolorosa as the route Jesus Christ trod from Pilate’s Judgment Hall, where Jesus Christ had been condemned, to Golgotha, the place of his execution (see Matthew 27:31-33; Mark 15:20-22; Luke 23:26-33; and John 19:16-17). During subsequent centuries, Stations of the Cross emerged, presumably marking specific spots where events in Jesus Christ’s last walk occurred, including the place where Simon of Cyrene was made to bear the cross, where Jesus’ face was wiped by Veronica, and where he fell a third time. Some of these events, however, like the three falls and the wiping of his face by Veronica, came from non-canonical sources-legends that are not rooted in the Gospel narratives.
Eventually, fourteen stations were firmly established along this route. Seven stations are found in the Muslim quarter of the city; two are found within the Christian Quarter but outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; and the last five are found within the walls of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Archaeologists and historians universally have rejected the route as tracing the actual steps of Jesus Christ. Most agree that Jesus was judged by Pilate in Herod the Great’s palace, located in the western part of the city, and not in the Antonia Fortress, located in the eastern part of the city, the place where the first Station of the Cross is located on the Via Dolorosa. Furthermore, the original path lies far beneath the present level of the Old City and was located in a different part of the city. Nevertheless, many pilgrims continue to walk along the Via Dolorosa to provide them an opportunity to contemplate Jesus Christ’s last walk on earth as the suffering Messiah.
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