Episode 634: The Rome Church Station Days

Gregory the Great set the classic order of churches for the Lenten station days in the sixth century. (The Procession of Saint Gregory to the Castle Sant'Angelo, c. 1465.) Station days were days of fasting in the early Christian Church, associated with a procession to certain prescribed churches in Rome, where the Mass and Vespers would be celebrated to mark important days of the liturgical year. Although other cities also had similar practices, and the fasting is no longer prescribed, the Roman churches associated with the various station days are still the object of pilgrimage and ritual, especially in the season of Lent.