The Carrying of the Cross

The Carrying of the Cross is the fourth of the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary. It commemorates the journey of Christ from the praetorium of Pilate to the place of execution on Calvary (also called Golgotha, "the place of the skull"). The narrative is recorded in all four canonical Gospels: Matthew 27:31-32, Mark 15:20-22, Luke 23:26-32, and John 19:16-17.

The mystery

After the sentence and the mockery, the soldiers led Christ out of the praetorium toward the place of execution outside the city walls. Roman custom required the condemned to carry the patibulum, the horizontal beam of the cross, to the site where it would be affixed to the upright. The route from the praetorium of Pilate to Calvary, traversing the streets of Jerusalem, has been honored from very early times as the Via Dolorosa (the Way of Sorrow) and is the foundation of the Catholic devotion of the Stations of the Cross.

The synoptic Gospels record that, en route, the soldiers compelled a passerby named Simon of Cyrene (modern Libya) to carry the cross. Saint Mark notes that he was "the father of Alexander and Rufus" (Mark 15:21), suggesting that his sons were known to the early Christian community. Saint Luke alone records the brief encounter with the women of Jerusalem (Luke 23:27-31), to whom Christ addresses the words "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children."

The Catholic tradition of the Stations of the Cross developed across the medieval period as a devotional retracing of this journey. The traditional fourteen stations include events recorded in the Gospels (the meeting with Simon of Cyrene, the meeting with the women of Jerusalem) as well as scenes preserved in older traditions (the meetings with Mary, the falls of Christ, the encounter with Veronica).

Meditation on patience in suffering

The traditional spiritual fruit of the Carrying of the Cross is patience in suffering. The mystery presents Christ as the model of patient endurance under a burden voluntarily accepted. Saint Thomas Aquinas, in the Summa Theologiae (III, q. 46), observes that Christ's carrying of the cross was both penal (the just punishment for the sins he had taken upon himself) and meritorious (the obedient acceptance by which he merited the salvation of humanity). The patience of Christ in this mystery is therefore the form of every Catholic patience under the cross.¹

The words of Christ to the women of Jerusalem also frame the meditation: the proper Catholic response to the Passion is not sentimental sorrow at the spectacle but a transformation of one's own life in the light of the redemption.

Praying the Carrying of the Cross

To pray the fourth Sorrowful Mystery: announce "The fourth Sorrowful Mystery, the Carrying of the Cross," pray an Our Father, ten Hail Marys while meditating on the journey to Calvary, and conclude with a Glory Be and the Fatima Prayer.

For the previous mystery, see the Crowning with Thorns. For the next mystery, see the Crucifixion.

Sources

Footnotes

1. Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Tertia Pars, Question 46, articles 4-12, on the sufferings of Christ. ↩