The Visit to the Seven Churches is a Holy Thursday devotion practiced primarily in Latin America, Italy, Poland, and the Philippines – although it is also practiced in many other places.
The devotion involves a visit to seven local churches after the Lord’s Supper on Holy Thursday evening. These journeys commemorate the last seven places Jesus visited from his arrest on Holy Thursday until his death on Good Friday.
In each church, the pilgrim kneels before the altar of repose, meditates on the appropriate scripture, and offers prayer and worship. In this way, pilgrims seek to spiritually accompany Jesus Christ as he enters into His Passion.
The early Church recalls Jesus moving from the Cenacle, where he celebrated the Last Supper with his disciples, to the Garden of Gethsemane, where he prayed earnestly and shed blood in his agony over what was about to happen (see Luke 22:39-46).
In another church, the pilgrim meditates on Jesus being taken from the Garden of Gethsemane by an armed mob to the house of Annas, father-in-law of the high priest Caiaphas, where he was interrogated and slapped in the face (see John 18:19–22).
In the Third Church, the prayer focuses on Jesus being brought to the house of Caiaphas, where he was beaten, spit on, humiliated, and endured a painful night in captivity (see Matthew 26:63–68).
The focus of reflection for the fourth church is the first time Jesus is brought before Pilate, the Roman governor of the region. There Jesus was accused by the Jewish religious authorities of being a rival king to Caesar (see John 18:35–37).
In the fifth church, the pilgrim follows the Lord as he is led to King Herod, who mocks him with his guards (see Luke 23:8-9; 11).
The Sixth Church recounts that Jesus was taken from Herod and brought before Pilate a second time and then scourged, crowned with thorns, mocked, and sentenced to death (see Matthew 27:22–26).
The last church commemorates Christ carrying the cross on his shoulders from the Praetorium, where Pilate acceded to the crowd’s demand for crucifixion, to Mount Calvary, where he suffered excruciating pain, died, and was laid to rest in a nearby tomb until he was resurrected from the dead on Easter Sunday (see Matthew 27:27–31).
This story was first published April 1, 2021, and has been updated.
