Category: 12.iii.23 Quadragesima III

A Stational Church was chosen St John’s before the Latin Gate. Near the place where the Appian Way branches off, forming to the left the Latin Way, it was built on the spot where St John was, by order of Domitian, plunged into a cauldron of boiling oil. St John who with Mary shared the privilege of standing near the Cross, also joined his sacrifice to that of Christ when he gladly accepted martyrdom in the boiling oil.

The Station, at Rome, is in the church of St. Stephen on Monte Celio. This church of the great proto-martyr was chosen as the place where the faithful were to assemble on the Friday of Passion week. Until Maundy Thursday, in masses of the season, the Psalm Judica me Psalm 42 is omitted as well as the Gloria Patri after the Introit and the Lavabo.