Seven footfalls

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Memorial stone in Cologne-Urbach

The walk to the seven footfalls is one of the oldest forms of the Way of the Cross .

From Jerusalem pilgrims in the late Middle Ages to the Rhineland taught, he represented a Bittgang through the village streets or the hall, where seven corridor crosses , chapels or Heiligenhäuschen was thought praying in Jerusalem, called prostrations, one each station of the Passion of Christ. In some places, wayside shrines specially donated for the walk, depicting scenes of the Passion, have been preserved.

The petition got its name from the custom of kneeling down at the stations of the cross. The seven stations were also associated with the seven main churches of the city of Rome, in which the station services are celebrated during Holy Week , from which the term “Roman journey”, which is common in some places, is derived.

The path covered naturally varied from village to village. On the way, the painful rosary and in front of each station an Lord's Prayer were prayed, in particular the prayer in memory of the five wounds of Christ before crosses .

The walk to the seven footfalls was especially widespread as a dying custom: Usually seven virgins from the neighborhood prayed this way before a funeral for the salvation of the deceased who had been laid out in the house of death. After the petition there was coffee and cake in the mourning house for the prayers. Another variation on the custom is to pray the seven footfalls while someone was dying. This should make death easier for the sick.

Especially on the Fridays of Lent the seven footfalls were walked. For a number of years the custom has been revived in some parishes.

One of the few Stations of the Cross in its original condition, like the "Seven Footfalls", is in the village of Altenrüthen and dates from the 17th century. A “Fußfall” memorial with more detailed explanations is located in Hochkirchen , a way of the cross of the seven footfalls from the 1930s in Voßwinkel . Seven painted footfalls in the Church of St. Clemens in Wipperfürth- Wipperfeld also date from the 17th century . In Altendorf and Ersdorf near Bonn, seven wayside shrines from the 18th century have been preserved, but they are no longer in their original condition. In Stommeln (Rhein-Erft district) there is a street called “To the footfalls”; the name refers to similar stations in and around Stommeln.

In Kuchenheim near Euskirchen, Conrad-Peter Joist created the Seven Footfalls in June 2010 under the theme “Hands speak of the Way of the Cross of Jesus Christ” as bronze reliefs for the niches in the churchyard wall at St.Nikolaus.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. Kurt Müller-Veltin: Middle Rhine stone crosses made of basalt lava. Neuss 1980, p. 127.
  2. Ulrich Grun: Way of the Cross on the Altenrüthener Friedhof . In: District of Soest (ed.): Calendar of the district of Soest . 1990, ZDB -ID 619151-4 , p. 32 .
  3. ^ Rudolf Hembach: Parish Church of St. Clemens, Wipperfeld. Catholic parish Wipperfürth (Ed.), 1989, p. 13
  4. Heimatfreunde Roisdorf
  5. Pastoral care area Euskirchen-Erftmuehlenbach ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / gemeinden.erzbistum-koeln.de