The First Friday in March. Feast of the Mysteries of the Way of the Cross.

In its literal meaning, the Way of the Cross is the path that our blessed Saviour followed from Pilate’s Pretorium up to Calvary. It is made up of fourteen stations, each corresponding to one of the places where our blessed Lord was compelled to stop. After the Ascension, tradition tells us that the Blessed Virgin and the Apostles liked to visit those places at which our Lord had stopped. Following their example, the faithful in Palestine, and later those from more distant lands, came to visit these places consecrated by the blood of Christ. The Popes enriched these holy pilgrimages with precious indulgences.
When the Holy Land fell once more into the hands of the Saracens after the crusades, and it became more difficult to visit it, the faithful wished to make up for this by building images of the way of sorrows in their own lands. These figures of Christ’s path to Calvary were given the name of Stations of the Cross. The Friars Minor, who were the appointed guardians of the Holy Land, spread this devotion in the West. The privilege of setting up Stations of the Cross has at all times been reserved them. St. Leonard of Port Maurice was the most fervent propagator of this devotion, to which the Popes attached a great number of indulgences. The same spiritual privileges were later given to crucifixes, blessed to this end by the Franciscans. Pius X granted this office of the Way of the Cross to the Seraphic Order. – (from) The Franciscan Supplement.