The devotion of the fourteen stations of the “way of the cross“ is a small pilgrimage to the Via Dolorosa that Jesus the Messiah took upon Himself for our redemption; fourteen stations representing fourteen essential moments during His way of the cross through the streets of Jerusalem – from the death sentence under the authority of Pontius Pilate to His resting in the tomb near the crucifixion site on Mount Calvary.
Saints like Simon of Cyrene, Veronica, and Joseph of Arimathaea were among the first partakers of Christ‘s holy Passion, assisting, consoling, and devoting themselves to Jesus in His sufferings. What follows ought to pay homage to all three of them.
The fifth station of the way of the cross: Saint Simon of Cyrene
There is a Franciscan chapel of Simon of Cyrene in Jerusalem, marking the fifth station of the way of the cross. It remembers the moment when the Roman soldiers force a certain man to carry the cross laid upon Jesus for a part of the way, most likely in order to speed up the procession to the crucifixion site as Jesus is already very weakened by the severe bloody floggings and violent abuses.
“They enlisted a passer-by, Simon of Cyrene, father of Alexander and Rufus, who was coming from the country, to carry his cross. They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha, which means the place of the skull.“
Mark 15: 21-22
“On their way out, they came across a man from Cyrene, called Simon, and enlisted him to carry his cross.“
Matthew 27: 31
“As they were leading him away, they seized on a man, Simon from Cyrene, who was coming from the country, and laid on him the cross to carry behind Jesus.“
Luke 23: 26
Cyrene was an ancient city in what is today Lybia, one of five Greek cities (pentapolis) in the coastal region of that area which were part of the Roman province of Crete and Cyrenaica. In those days there was a Jewish community present in Cyrene that later, in the year 115, took part in a revolt against Rome. This part of the Jewish diaspora kept close relations to the Jews still living in Jerusalem, Judea, and the surrounding areas of the Roman province of Palestine.
The Paschal feast would always draw plenty of pilgrims from the diaspora to the temple at Jerusalem. The gospel of Saint John the Apostle records, right after narrating Jesus‘ triumphant entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, only a few days before Pesach and His Passion, that “among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks“ who approached the apostle Philip with the request to “see Jesus“ (John 12: 20-21).
Due to the context and wording it is clear that “Greeks“ here refers to Jews from the Greek-speaking places (like Cyrene) – and not to pagan Greeks. The men talking to Saint Philip the Apostle are Jewish people who made their way to Jerusalem for worshipping at the temple during the great feast days of Pesach and who are now desiring to meet the one about whom they have heard that he might be the long awaited Messiah, the redeemer of Israel who will gather all the dispersed tribes.
The evangelist Saint John Mark1, a companion of Saint Paul and Saint Barnabas according to the Acts of the Apostles, assumes that his audience actually knows this man Simon from Cyrene, introducing him as the “father of Alexander and Rufus“, which suggests that alongside their father these two brothers were counted as well to be familiar fellow believers in the orally transmitted body of knowledge of the first Christian communities – or were even brothers in the faith that were personally known to them face to face, being still alive and active right among them.
Simon was a popular name among the Jews of antiquity, and Rufus has sometimes been explained as a version of the Hebrew name Reuben, while Alexander, on the other hand, is as Greek a name as it gets. Thus Simon, Alexander, and Rufus were most likely members of a Jewish family influenced to some degree by the surrounding Greek culture of their diaspora hometown.
Could the Rufus mentioned by Saint John Mark be the very same Rufus as the one Saint Paul the Apostle greets in his letter to the Church at Rome – mentioning also his mother?
Did Rufus, the son of a Jewish man from Cyrene who was enlisted by the Roman soldiers to carry Christ‘s cross, at some point in his life migrate to Rome (together with his mother?) to live with the first Jewish Christians there? In any case, the different waves of persecution during the first few decades of the Church (culminating in the martyrdom of the first bishop of Jerusalem, Saint James the Just, just a few years before the Jewish-Roman wars) scattered the believers of the Holy Land in all directions.
It is often said that Saint John Mark‘s gospel was written specifically for the Christian community sojourning in Rome – which would fit the puzzle pieces together.
“Greetings to Rufus, chosen servant of the Lord, and to his mother – a mother also to me.“
Romans 16: 13
If this is the same Rufus, then the whole family of Simon of Cyrene – or at least not only him, but also his wife and two of his however many children – became followers of Christ. Different legends of Eastern and Western origin connect Saint Rufus with eventually presiding as a bishop either in Theben, Greece, receiving the crown of martyrdom there, or in Avignon, France.
It was part of the destiny of Simon of Cyrene to share Jesus‘ burden of carrying the cross through the narrow streets of Jerusalem up to Mount Calvary. The gospel accounts do not tell us why the Roman soldiers chose him among all the by-standers and passers-by present to become an active partaker of Christ‘s holy Passion, laboring and suffering together with Him. He “came from the country“, the evangelists say, which might make us imagine that he had just entered Jerusalem very recently, maybe just the day before, for the celebration of Pesach – maybe after a stay with some relatives or friends in one of the villages of the surrounding Judean hills. Who knows if he was not actually on the way to the temple for praying and worshipping there when he came across Jesus‘ way.
In any case, according to tradition, this was the moment that changed the life of this man forever, his moment of a personal and intimate encounter with the suffering Son of God, the true Paschal Lamb, as he took the load of His cross upon his body for some minutes, walking with Jesus, submitting himself under His yoke.
Should we really believe that Simon of Cyrene did what he did involuntarily? This in the end freely willed act of mercy and devotion towards the Son of God shedding His precious blood for Simon‘s salvation was the beginning of his journey to sainthood. Through this encounter he must have begun to understand who Jesus actually is.
There are certain accounts according to which Simon later accompanied Saint Paul and others on their evangelical missions. His feast day is the 1st December.
Saint Simon of Cyrene, pray for us! Saint Rufus, pray for us!
“Anyone who wants to be a follower of mine must renounce self and take up the cross and follow me.“
Mark 8: 34
The sixth station of the way of the cross: The veil of Saint Veronica
A woman, with boldness and determination, makes her way through the watching crowd to hand Jesus her veil so He may wipe with it His holy face that is dripping with sweat and blood.
There is nothing else she can give to Jesus in this moment, as the procession passes by, but she finds her own special way to disclose that she is attentive to His sufferings, willing to accompany Him in them. This woman thus comforting Him is known as Saint Veronica.
Traditional legends often claim that she is the very same woman as the one who was healed from a chronic health issue by touching the hem of Jesus‘ garment next to the Sea of Galilee, a story narrated in the gospels.
Back then she, ceremonially unclean, touched Jesus only from behind before He called her out of her state of both daring and timid seclusion to know her face to face, calling her His “daughter“, and to be known by her, challenging her to give a public testimony of what has just happened to her; now during His way of the cross she is meeting Him eye to eye right away. She already believes that this Jesus who healed her with the power of His holy flesh the way no physician ever could truly is the Messiah of Israel.
“When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered round him and he stayed by the lake. Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came up (…). Jesus went with him and a large crowd followed him; they were jostling him. Now there was a woman who had suffered from a haemorrhage for twelve years; having endured much under many physicians, she had spent all she had without getting any benefit from it; in fact, she was getting worse. She had heard about Jesus, and she came up through the crowd and touched his tunic from behind, thinking, ‘If I can just touch his clothes, I shall be saved.‘ And at once the source of bleeding dried up, and she felt in her body that she was cured of her sickness. And at once aware of the power that had gone out from him, Jesus turned around in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?‘ His disciples said to him, ‘You see how the crowd is jostling you: how can you say, ‘Who touched me?‘‘ But he began looking round to see who had done it. Then the woman came forward, in fear and trembling because she knew what had happened to her, and she fell before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, ‘My daughter, your faith has saved you; go in peace and be free of your sickness.‘“
Mark 5: 21-34
“Seeing that she could not remain hidden, the woman came forward trembling, and falling before him explained in front of all the people why she had touched him and how she had been cured immediately.“
Luke 8: 47
The gospel of Matthew adds the line “And from that hour the woman was saved“ (Mt 9: 22).
In which place alongside the Jewish – Western – shores of the Sea of Galilee exactly did this miraculous healing, this act of salvation happen? It was in or close to Capernaum, on the way to the house of one of the synagogue leaders of this town, identified as Jairus.
The newly founded city of Tiberias, established by Herod Antipater, son of Herod the Great and tetrarch of Galilee, and named this way in honor of the Roman emperor Tiberius, is only about 16 kilometres away from Capernaum, as are the Tiberias Hot Springs (Hammat Tiberias). Why am I including this piece of information?
According to ancient Jewish sources like the Talmud the Jewish sages ascribed special healing powers to the mineral water of these seventeen hot steam springs which were also favored by the Romans for taking a salutary bath. The rabbinical tradition has it that even Jacob the patriarch visited those springs. This gift of nature, with so much allure of bringing health to people, was a good argument for Herod Antipater to build a new Hellenistic city there.
Along the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem there is a small chapel of the Holy Face, regarded to have been built where Saint Veronica once lived, indicating that Saint Veronica was an inhabitant of Jerusalem. What if this woman with her chronic issue of blood flow, what if Saint Veronica had travelled all the way from Jerusalem to visit the shorelines of the Sea of Galilee for taking a bath in those springs in the hope for healing and health, led by the recommendation of some Jewish physician or rabbi? Surely this is merely speculative – but it might help with picturing, with the aid of one’s imagination, the full force of the scene.
What if during her days of visit there, of yet another attempt at spending “all she had“ for the sake of attaining the desired cure of her sickness, she “heard about Jesus“ as talk was going around everywhere between Capernaum and Tiberias referring to all the many people who had already been cured by Jesus? What if, once again, yet another potential remedy had just failed to deliver on its promises, had just during the days before meeting Jesus disappointed her one more time? “In fact, she was getting worse.“ (Mk 5: 26)
The supposedly salutary hot springs of Tiberias are no joke, as the water steams out of the ground with a very high temperature that can even easily burn, wound one’s skin. This woman had already “endured much under many physicians“ (ibid.), the evangelist Saint John Mark tells us.
A physician’s advice according to which a treatment with very hot mineral water might be able to cure a haemorrhage, an issue of blood, sounds like a piece of medicinal theory and practice flowing right out of the traditional Greek doctrine of the four humors which determine bodily health and sickness, a doctrine that was the foundational approach to healing in antiquity. Yet all medical (and rabbinical) advice did in fact not heal, save her, make her whole again. But the Messiah did when she came in touch with Him. The fountain of life is found in Him, not in the hot springs of Tiberias.
And then, some time later, as Saint Veronica‘s veil was receiving His sweat and His blood, He left an imprint of His Holy Face on it, in the streets of Jerusalem, when she had once again fought her way through the crowd to meet her Savior.
This miraculous icon on her veil is preserved among the treasury of holy relics at Saint Peter‘s Basilica in Rome, venerated on Passion Sunday each year. The name by which this saintly woman who pressed forward to comfort Jesus in His sufferings is known to the Church is probably not her original Jewish name, for Veronica means “true image“ (vera = true, icon = image).
How did this sacred relic come into the possession of the Church of Rome? It is said that Saint Veronica was part of the Christian community in Rome, in close contact with Saint Peter and Saint Paul, handing the veil to Saint Clement of Rome, the third Holy Father, when she died, her feast day being the 12th July.
There is even a legend according to which emperor Tiberius was healed by the image of the Holy Face of Jesus brought to him by Saint Veronica.
“(…) it was announced to Tiberius, who was seriously ill, that in Jerusalem there was a physician who cured all diseases by his word alone. Therefore the emperor, not knowing that Pilate and the Jews had put this physician to death, said to one of his intimates, whose name was Volusian: ‘Cross the sea as fast as you can, and tell Pilate to send this healer to me so that he may restore me to health.‘ Volusion came to Pilate and delivered the emperor‘s command, but Pilate, terror-stricken, asked for a fortnight‘s grace. During this time Volusian made the acquaintance of a woman named Veronica, who had been in Jesus‘ company, and asked her where he might find Jesus Christ. (…) So Volusian came to Rome with Veronica and told Tiberius: ‘The Jesus you have long desired to see was unjustly given over to death by Pilate and the Jews, and, by reason of their envy, nailed to the gibbet of the cross. However, a lady came to me with a picture of Jesus, and if you look at it devoutly, you will obtain the benefit of your health.‘ Caesar therefore had the road carpeted with silk cloth and ordered the image brought to him, and the moment he looked at it, he won back his pristine health.“
Jacobus de Voragine: The Golden Legend. Readings on the Saints, Princeton University Press 1993, p. 212
Saint Veronica, pray for us!
“His head is golden, purest gold, his locks are palm fronds and black as the raven. His eyes are like doves beside the watercourses, bathed in milk, perched on a fountain rim.“
Song of Songs 5: 11-12
The fourteenth station of the way of the cross: Saint Joseph of Arimathaea (together with Saint Nicodemus) anoints and buries the body of Christ
Arimathaea is a city of Judea, according to the church historian Eusebius the very hometown of the prophet Samuel (Ramathaim-Zophim), near what is today the city of Lod. The prophet Samuel once anointed king David; Saint Joseph of Arimathaea anointed the deceased body of the Son of David.
“Now as soon as evening came, since it was Preparation Day – that is, the day before the Sabbatih – Joseph of Arimathaea, a respected member of the council, who was himself awaiting the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. (…) he granted the corpse to Joseph. Joseph bought a linen cloth, and taking him down from the cross, wrapped him in the shroud, laid him in a tomb which had been hewn out of the rock and rolled a stone against the doorway of the tomb.“
Mark 15: 42-46
“When it was evening, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, called Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be handed over. So Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and put it in his own new tomb which he had hewn in the rock. Then he rolled a large stone to the doorway of the tomb and went away.“
Matthew 27: 57-60
“Now a man named Joseph, a member of the council, a good and righteous man, had not agreed with their plan and their action. He came from Arimathaea, a Jewish town, and was awaiting the kingdom of God. This man approached Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then he took it down, wrapped it in a linen cloth and laid it in a rock-hewn tomb in which no one had ever yet been laid.“
Luke 23: 50-53
“After his, Joseph of Arimathaea, who was a disciple of Jesus – though a secret one through fear of the Jews – asked Pilate to let him remove the body of Jesus. Pilate gave permission, so he came and took it away. Nicodemus came as well – the same one who had come to Jesus at nighttime – and he brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about fifty kilograms. They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it in linen cloths with the spices, according to the Jewish burial custom. In the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in this garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. Since it was the day of preparation for the Jews and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.“
John 19: 38-42
If we take all four gospel narratives together, then we come to know several things about the man who, in a bold act of mercy, made sure that Jesus receives a proper burial in accordance with the Jewish tradition.
Joseph was a well-off and respected member of the Sanhedrin, of the council of 71 elders who were meeting daily in the temple of Jerusalem to govern the Jewish community as the highest court of religious authority. At the same time this “good and righteous man“ was, secretly, “a disciple of Jesus“ and “awaiting the kingdom of God“, and being a friend of Jesus he had not agreed with the decisions and actions of the Sanhedrin. As a council member he had access to Pontius Pilate from whom he then gained permission to take Jesus‘ deceased body from the cross.
The fourteenth station of the “way of the cross“ devotional always remembers how Saint Joseph of Arimathaea, having taken the lifeless body of Jesus down, places Him in the arms of His mother.
Jesus died at three in the afternoon (the “ninth hour“) – thus only very few hours remained for the burial before the onset of the Sabbath by sundown when all work ought to cease. Besides that, it is anyways part of the Jewish custom to bury the dead as early as possible for this is viewed as a good deed done unto them which according to Jewish tradition “refreshes“ the deceased and grants them rest.
Saint Joseph of Arimathaea is the right man in the right place at the right time for he owns a fresh tomb built into a rock in a garden very close to the crucifixion site on Mount Calvary that he can now donate to his Master. Stone tombs, caves in a rock were the customary style of an ancient Jewish burial place. As everything needed to be done in haste and as it was best not to carry Jesus’ body a great distance, this tomb is truly the very best place for burying Jesus.
Whoever has ever visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem knows that the two spots of Jesus‘ death and of Jesus‘ burial and resurrection as marked within the compound of this magnificent church are indeed very close to one another.
Though time is so short, Saint Joseph of Arimathaea and Saint Nicodemus make sure that Jesus‘ body is properly prepared for burial (and for the resurrection of the dead in which many ancient Jews believed). That means that according to the Jewish custom the body is ritually washed (an act that is called tahara and which has to be done by men in the case of a man, by women in the case of a woman, preserving modesty) and afterwards anointed with oils and fragrant herbs before being wrapped into fresh linen cloths. The gospel accounts describe that the oil they used, spreading it over Jesus’ broken and wounded body, was a mixture of myrrh and aloe with spices.
According to tradition these linen cloths (a face cloth and a body cloth) were preserved by the faithful in Jerusalem and venerated by them. The face cloth is known as the Sudarium, a relic that eventually, centuries later, ended up in the city of Oviedo in northern Spain, where it can be visited en route to Santiago di Compostela. The body cloth saw many stations on its pilgrimage through history and has been in Turin since the end of the 17th century: the Shroud of Turin.2
Saint Joseph of Arimathaea attended to the maltreated, wounded and deceased body of the Messiah whose follower he was. He poured balm into the salvific wounds of the Savior which he touched with his own hands. Thus, being the patron saint of funeral directors, he could as well serve as a patron for the devotion to the five Holy Wounds of Christ.
“yet he was wounded for our rebellions, crushed on account of our evil deeds. The punishment that made us whole was on him: his wounds brought healing to us.“
Isaiah 53: 5
Many legends about the life story and whereabouts of Saint Joseph of Arimathaea after this act of mercy rank themselves around him which we will leave aside, except for briefly mentioning that the apocryphal gospel of Nicodemus reports that he was imprisoned for burying Christ but that the risen Christ broke him out and that he and Saint Nicodemus then built the Christian community in Lydda (Lod), a community referred to also in the Acts of the Apostles (“the saints living in Lydda“ (Acts 9:32)). The Roman Martyrology records for his traditional feast day, the 17th March, that he died at Jerusalem.
Saint Joseph of Arimathaea, pray for us! Saint Nicodemus, pray for us!
- In the following I will refer to the evangelist Saint Mark as Saint John Mark to highlight the identity of these two men. Saint John Mark is mentioned repeatedly in the Acts of the Apostles.
For example it says in Acts 12:12: “As soon as (Peter) realised this he went to the house of Mary the mother of John (also called Mark), where a number of people had assembled and were praying.“; and in Acts 12:25: “Barnabas and Saul returned to Jerusalem, bringing with them John, who was also called Mark.“ ↩︎ - For more detailed information read e.g. A Catholic Quest for the Holy Grail by Charles Coulombe, TAN Books 2017. ↩︎