Apse Mosaic of Saint Paul's Outside the Walls. Credit: Jacob Stein

Lent 2026: Roman Station Church Itinerary

Roman Station Church Itinerary

Each year, as Lent begins its slow, sober procession toward Jerusalem, Rome begins to walk.

Long before guidebooks and pilgrimage apps, before jubilees and organized tours, the local Church of Rome gathered at appointed thresholds. At dawn, clergy and faithful would assemble in one church (“collect”), then move in procession to another—crossing streets still damp with night air, chanting litanies that braided together the names of martyrs and the mercy of God. These were the stationes: fixed halting places in a spiritual campaign, sanctuaries chosen not at random but with theological precision. To keep the Station Churches of Lent is not to sightsee; it is to enter a choreography of repentance that has been unfolding since at least the fourth century.

The Roman Station Churches form the ancient Lenten itinerary of the Diocese of Rome. Each day from Ash Wednesday to Holy Week—and through the great octave of Easter—the Church assigns a specific basilica or titular church where the Pope (or his delegate) traditionally celebrated the principal Mass. These stations are not interchangeable. They are deliberate; we gather over the tombs of martyrs. On days marked by particular Gospel readings, we stand in spaces whose art and architecture echo the text proclaimed at the altar.

The Spirit of Lent in Rome

Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill opens Lent in austere, early Christian clarity—its fifth-century nave severe and luminous, like the discipline it announces. San Giorgio in Velabro recalls the diaconal heart of the Church’s charity. The Lenten Sundays rise in greater solemnity at the patriarchal basilicas: Saint John Lateran, mother and head of all churches; Saint Peter in the Vatican, resting upon the fisherman’s bones; Saint Paul Outside the Walls, custodian of the Apostle to the Gentiles. Midweek stations lead us into quieter sanctuaries—Santa Maria in Trastevere with her golden mosaics of the Virgin’s queenship; San Clemente layered like Rome herself, descending through centuries toward the memory of martyrdom; Santa Prassede, shimmering with Byzantine light.

To follow the full Lenten itinerary of the Roman Station Churches is to trace a map written in stone and relic. It is to pray with walls that have absorbed fifteen centuries of psalmody. It is to fast where Gregory the Great fasted, to kneel where pilgrims once pressed their foreheads to cold marble over the graves of confessors and virgins.

What follows is the complete Lenten itinerary—from Ash Wednesday through Holy Week—with our video tour for each church. Consider it not merely a schedule, but a path. Rome does not rush through Lent. She moves from threshold to threshold, from martyr to apostle, from desert to tomb—until the Vigil flame rises against the dark and the pilgrimage resolves in light.

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Video of the Day

Lent’s Roman Station Churches

From Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, here is the daily timeline of Rome’s Station Churches

Ash Wednesday

First Week of Lent

Second Week of Lent

Third Week of Lent

Fourth Week of Lent

Fifth Week of Lent: Passion Sunday

Holy Week

Easter Week

  • Easter Sunday: Santa Maria Maggiore
  • Easter Monday: San Pietro in Vaticano
  • Easter Tuesday: San Paolo fuori le mura
  • Easter Wednesday: San Lorenzo fuori le mura
  • Easter Thursday: Santi Apostoli
  • Easter Friday: Santa Maria ad Martyres al Pantheon
  • Easter Saturday: San Giovanni in Laterano
  • Low Sunday: San Pancrazio

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