Stations of the Cross

noun

(Roman Catholic Church) a devotion consisting of fourteen prayers said before a series of fourteen pictures or carvings representing successive incidents during Jesus' passage from Pilate's house to his crucifixion at Calvary

• Syn: ↑Stations

• Usage Domain: ↑plural, ↑plural form

• Topics: ↑Roman Catholic, ↑Western Church, ↑Roman Catholic Church, ↑Church of Rome, ↑Roman Church

• Hypernyms: ↑devotion, ↑series

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Usage: often capitalized S&C

1. : a series of 14 (as in the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches) or more (as in the Eastern Orthodox Church) images or pictures that symbolize scenes of suffering in the successive stages of Christ's passion and are usually located in a church or on the road to a church or shrine

2. : a devotional exercise of a church in which a worshiper pauses before each of the stations of the cross, meditates, and recites appropriate prayers

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Eccles.

a series of 14 representations of successive incidents from the Passion of Christ, each with a wooden cross, or a series of wooden crosses alone, set up in a church, or sometimes outdoors, and visited in sequence, for prayer and meditation.

Also, Stations of the Cross.

[1885-90]

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noun [plural]

: a series of usually 14 pictures in some Christian churches that show the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ