Station days

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Station days. Certain days on which the pope formerly celebrated mass in the ‘stational’ churches (Lat., statio, ‘assembly’) in Rome. They became a part of Lent devotion, with processions headed by a relic of the True Cross. Today, a list of stational churches is published at the beginning of Lent, with the day of observance. Outside Lent, important ‘stations’ are St John Lateran for Easter, and St Mary Major for the Christmas midnight mass.

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