The Stations of the Cross

While only tangentially related to the topic of chant (there are a couple of chant mp3s at the links), I thought I'd point out that Full Homely Divinity has posted a new article about the Stations of the Cross, and a set of 14 Stations pages.

Here's the first page of the Stations, which begins with the Stabat Mater:

At the Cross her station keeping,
stood the mournful Mother weeping,
where he hung, the dying Lord.

For her soul of joy bereaved,
bowed with anguish, deeply grieved,
felt the sharp and piercing sword.

An embedded YouTube video/sound file of the Allegri Misere Mei is on that page, too, following Psalm 51. And you can go through the (illustrated) stations, one by one. There's more music at the end, including a beautiful chanted Vexilla Regis Prodeunt and a Byrd Agnus Dei.






Here's an interesting set of paintings of the Stations. An example:






The artist has also included many pencil-drawing, and pencil-and-oil-wash studies of the Stations of the Cross; interesting to go through them. For some reason I haven't figured out yet, I really like his style, and these Stations; intriguingly, the final oil versions are quite different from the studies. I wonder if he was commissioned to do this, or if his own interest in the topic produced these? At another page of his stuff, you find many pieces with religious themes, so I suspect the latter. Anyway, here's a link to his own home page.

And I also really like this image I found at Flickr, also labeled "Stations of the Cross":






And don't forget the Postulant's Julian of Norwich-inspired Stations. Here's the PDF file he posted.