During the season of Lent, the Stations of the Cross remain one of the most beloved devotions among the faithful. The fourteen stations trace the final moments of Christ’s life—from His condemnation by Pontius Pilate to His burial—inviting Christians to meditate on His suffering and prepare their hearts for Holy Week.

This year, in St. Peter’s Basilica, that meditation is accompanied by a new artistic interpretation of the Via Crucis, created by German artist Manuel Andreas Dürr, whose work seeks to illuminate the mystery of suffering and redemption.

Reflecting on his approach, Dürr explains that the project is rooted in faith and trust. “It’s more of a hunch or a trust that God might redeem even the worst of suffering. I think that shines through to these images, or certainly through these Stations of the Cross, and I hope to convey a little bit of that.”

From Unexpected Call to Vatican Commission

The journey began in December 2023, when a friend encouraged Dürr to apply for an international Vatican competition to paint the Stations of the Cross. At first, the idea seemed unlikely.

Even after advancing to the second round—where he was asked to submit a painting of the Crucifixion—he did not expect to be chosen. The moment of confirmation came unexpectedly.

“It was quite a shock to receive a phone call when we were just in Venice with the family,” he recalls. “So, everything came together in a beautiful moment. And then this great joy turned into some sort of terror when I realized I actually had to paint now 14 paintings that should go in this beautiful building and into the heart of the Church, which then became very frightening, very fast.”

Over the next eight months, Dürr worked meticulously in his studio. Each canvas, measuring 1.30 by 1.30 meters, required careful planning—sketching faces, refining compositions, and gradually bringing to life the figures of the Passion: Pontius Pilate, Simon of Cyrene, Veronica, the Good Thief, the weeping women, Roman soldiers, and above all, Jesus and His Mother.

Yet portraying Christ himself proved especially challenging. “Jesus is someone who millions of people, billions of people have a relationship with and have an idea of already,” Dürr explains. “And so, it’s quite a challenge, of course, to get near a way of representing him. But then I also realized quite fast that these are not paintings that should stand alone. They have their place in the Basilica.”

Painting Suffering and Redemption

Once completed, the works had to dry for several weeks before being transported to Rome and installed in St. Peter’s Basilica, where they will remain on display until Easter.

For the artist, some scenes were particularly moving to paint. Among them, the Pietà—the moment when Mary holds the lifeless body of her Son.

“One was the pieta, of course, Christ being laid into his mother’s lap,” Dürr says. “And me, myself being a father, of course, it’s very difficult to paint a parent with a dead child without it being quite emotional. To really dive into it is really difficult. […] It really was very moving to think that that this essentially very horrible image of a parent holding their dead child, that could be in the center of a Christian story of redemption.”

This tension between suffering and hope lies at the heart of the Via Crucis. As Dürr reflects, “The Pietà, it puts a suffering, a grieving mother and her dead son in the center of Christian iconography, or the cross being meant as an instrument of terror, it puts it in the center and turns that into a symbol of hope.”

Encountering God in the Face of Christ

Another moment that deeply struck the artist is the sixth station: Veronica wiping the face of Jesus. In this scene, the mystery of God becoming visible in human form takes center stage.

“I think this is one of the most fascinating things as well, because it goes to the central mystery of how a God could become human and how a God would leave an imprint on a piece of cloth,” Dürr explains. “For me this was a beautiful meditation on what it would mean to find God in all of reality through things, to see something more through something.”

In his depiction, Christ looks directly at the viewer—but only through the veil. This subtle choice reflects both presence and hiddenness.

“I wanted Christ to look at us directly. But it is a quite veiled Christ,” he says. “Even the resurrected Christ might not always appear to us in a very clear way. And in that sense, I think it’s appropriate also that God remains hidden to a certain degree at least. So, we may encounter him, but it’s also something that we’re still waiting for.”

An Invitation to Enter the Mystery

Out of more than 1,000 artists from 80 countries, Dürr’s work was selected by a commission of art historians, liturgists, and Vatican representatives—an honor he still finds difficult to fully grasp.

Now displayed in the heart of the Basilica, the paintings are not meant simply to be admired, but to serve as a path into prayer.

“I would hope that encountering these figures in these stations might help people to bring their own stories into the central narrative of the passion,” Dürr says. “And I hope that these paintings might work as entryways, so to speak, into this central mystery.”

As the faithful walk the Stations of the Cross this Lent, these images offer a renewed invitation: to contemplate suffering, to recognize redemption, and to encounter the mystery at the very center of the Christian faith.

Adapted by Jacob Stein. Produced by Alexey Gotovskiy; Camera by Alberto Basile.