CHARLOTTE — Every Friday during Lent, Catholics gather at their parishes to meditate on Jesus’ sacrifice as they pray the Stations of the Cross. Every church has a unique set – some are made of wood, some plaster, some fabric, some large, some small, some old, some new. Here is a closer look at the 14 stations as depicted in 14 different churches around our diocese:
STATION I:
Jesus is condemned to death
St. Matthew, Charlotte
These fabric stations from Canada were hand-painted for St. Matthew Church’s opening in 1996. The edges are sewn, creating a three-dimensional appearance. They also act as a sound buffer in the hard-surfaced church. In a recent re-working of lighting, each station can be lit individually.
STATION II:
Jesus takes up His cross
Immaculate Conception, Forest City
Father Gabriel Meehan purchased these plaster scenes and wooden framed 2-foot-by-3-foot stations from King Richard’s Liturgical Design & Consulting out of Georgia, which obtained them from a church that closed. They were originally designed in Chicago by Daprato Statuary Co.
STATION III:
Jesus falls the first time
St. Pius X, Greensboro
These wood-carved stations were crafted in 1905 for a church in New Bedford, Mass., and purchased for St. Pius X Church’s dedication in 2010. They were blackened from age when purchased and were restored to their original beauty by Phil Barker Furniture Refinishing of Greensboro.
STATION IV:
Jesus meets His mother
STATION IV:Sacred Heart, Salisbury
When the set was originally purchased, the name of each station was written in Polish and set against a cloudy blue background with no additional color. In 2018, Mrs. Hudson-Tolles, an art teacher at Sacred Heart School, added color to the grapes, vines, Mary, Jesus, and the cross to give the stations more depth, and she repainted the backgrounds.
STATION V:
Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the cross
STATION V:Holy Spirit, Denver
The stations were purchased from Henninger’s Religious Goods in Ohio, from a closed Slovak church. The 60-year-old stations are fabricated of wood and plaster of paris. They are about 32 inches in height, and weigh about 70 pounds each. The stations presently need repair, with figures that need to be recast and sculptured. The one pictured above was refinished by local artist Lisa Autry. After repairs, sanding and finish coats are applied, each of the stations will be professionally repainted with dark, rich colors and finished with an antiquing stain to give them an aged look.
STATION VI:
Veronica wipes the face of Jesus
STATION VI:St. Charles Borromeo, Morganton
There are two sets of stations at St. Charles Borromeo Church. The first is a traditional wood-carved set that was purchased from St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte in 1996. The second set sits above the first and is made of real vines and thorn bushes. That set was made by San Diego artist Gary Kornmyer, who had moved to Tryon and was a member of St. John the Baptist Parish. Father Ken Whittington considered the stations unique and interesting, and he ended up buying them for $1.
STATION VII:
Jesus falls the second time
St. Lawrence Basilica, Asheville
These Stations of the Cross are made of horsehair plaster, and the castings have a faux finish to resemble carved marble. They were created by the Chicago studio of the Daprato Statuary Co., which was established in 1860 and is now known as Daprato Rigali Studios.
STATION VIII:
Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem
STATION VIII:Our Lady of Mercy, Winston-Salem
The architects of Our Lady of Mercy were a Polish couple who commissioned a folk artist in Poland to make their stations. The 3-foot-by-3-foot, hand-carved wooden stations are uniquely connected by a wooden crown of thorns, each featuring the North Carolina state flower, the dogwood, in a lighter wood stain.
STATION IX:
Jesus falls the third time
STATION IX:St. Benedict the Moor, Winston-Salem
These stations were recently purchased by Father Melchesideck Yumo after a benefactor donated money when seeing the condition of the old stations, which were essentially framed posters faded by sunlight and age. The new stations were made in Italy and are 1.5 feet by 2 feet. The illustration is a print inside a wooden frame with walnut accents.
STATION X:
Jesus is stripped of His garments
St. Thomas Aquinas, Charlotte
When St. Thomas Aquinas renovated its church in 2018, the parish bought these modern, wood-carved stations full of symbolism. For instance, Station X, instead of having an image of centurions stripping Jesus of His garments and casting lots for them, features a simple set of dice – leaving it up to the audience’s interpretation. Jacob Wolfe, a sculptor well known around the diocese, took the free-standing floating stations and added a cast stone white plaster niche for each.
STATION XI:
Jesus is nailed to the cross
STATION XI:Our Lady of the Rosary, Lexington
The wooden stations were hand-carved from Italy and purchased in 1988 by Father Joseph Schaefer. They hung on plain white walls until the church’s 75th anniversary renovation. Father Ambrose Akinwande, with the assistance of a parishioner, the late John Bloxsom, redesigned the interior of the church. With a limited budget and the manual labor of parishioners, the church layered the walls with cultured stone, creating niches for each station.
STATION XII:
Jesus dies on the cross
STATION XII:St. Joseph Vietnamese, Charlotte
Sixteen larger-than-life stations donated by an anonymous family were crafted in Saigon, Vietnam. Each station stands at least 6 feet tall, weighs more than 16 tons and took 10 months to create. Each sits on a large concrete base and is individually lit with spotlights. The eye-catching stations ring the church’s property.
STATION XIII:
Jesus is taken down from the cross
St. Benedict, Greensboro
Parishioner Bob Nutt, a commercial artist with an advertising design degree from the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale and a self-trained painter in oils and acrylics, touched up the church’s original 1899 stations during a 2017 restoration, and he also painted the church’s Pietà. Carpenter and parishioner Don Tredinnick crafted a new base for the statue.
STATION XIV:
Jesus is laid in the tomb
St. James the Greater, Concord
Stations were donated by a parishioner and were installed in 2004 by the late pastor, Father James Geiger. They were made at Demetz Art Studio in Italy. The studio was established in 1872.
Explore your Stations
Holy Week is the ideal time to contemplate the faith and artistry of your local church’s Stations of the Cross. Make time to stop by, and check your parish bulletin or website for more information about Holy Week liturgies as we look forward to the Resurrection of the Lord.
— Lisa M. Geraci