Stations of the Cross: The Fourth Station, Jesus Meets His Mother

Style of Robinet Testard, Jesus Meets His Mother
From a Book of Hours
French (Angouleme), c. 1500
London, British Library
MS King's 7, fol. 26r

All of the Gospels tell us that there was a devoted group of women who witnessed the death of Jesus, following Him throughout the progress toward Golgotha and watching “from a distance”.1 Only the Gospel of John includes His own mother, the Virgin Mary, among the list of named women.2 But it is surely conceivable that she was there, witnessing what she may have believed was the finale of the drama that had begun for her with the visit of an angel and living out the prediction of old Simeon that “you yourself a sword will pierce” (Luke 2:35).


Tradition suggests that Mary was indeed following Jesus closely from some point in the slow march out of town and this tradition has been envisioned in the Fourth Station of the Cross. One of the great things about Catholicism is its ability to mingle the divine and the human without sacrificing the integrity of either and it does so in this moment, in this image, as well. We see here the suffering Son and the sorrowing mother, two very human beings. Who among us has not had a moment where we and a doomed love one confront each other in the knowledge of what lies ahead for both? But one of these two is also divine and knows the deep purpose toward which His suffering is directed. The emotion is deep, but different for both. And it is also this deep reach into the emotions that is a further strength of the Catholic imagination. In the end, the Stations of the Cross are ultimately a mode of prayer that involves both human reason and human emotion and raises them to the contemplation of divine Love.



Conveying this deep emotion in a visual expression has been the job of the artists who have imagined this scene throughout history.

Jesus Meets His Mother
From a Psalter
French (St. Omer), 13th Century
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Smith-Lesoueef 20, fol. 74r

Jean Le Noir, Jesus Meets His Mother

From the Heures de Jeanne de Navarre

French (Paris), c. 1336-1340

Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France

MS Nouvelle acquisition latine 3145, fol.111r

Ugolino di Nerio, Jesus Meets His Mother
Italian, 1325-1328
London, National Gallery

Jesus Meets His Mother
From Vies de la vierge et du Christ
Italian (Naples), c. 1350
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 9561, fol. 175v

Jean Bondol and others, Jesu Meets His Mother
From the Grande Bible Historiale Complétée by Guiard des Moulins
French (Paris), c. 1371-1372
The Hague, Meermano Museum
MS RMMW 10 B 23, fol. 523r

By the beginning of the fifteenth century what had begun as a kind of symbolic representation of the moment of meeting between mother and Son had begun to change into something more emotional. It begins with a specific turn of the body of Jesus, a spiral that interrupts His forward momentum briefly as He turns back to look at Mary, who follows with gestures of prayerful support.

Jean le Noir, Jesus Meets His Mother
From the Petites heures de Jean de Berry
French (Paris), c. 1375
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 18014, fol. 160r

Atelier of the Master of the Parement de Narbonne, Jesus Meets His Mother
From the Tres belles heures de Notre Dame de Jean de Berry
French (Paris), c.1380
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Nouvelle acquisition latine 3093, fol. 203r

Giovanni di Benedetto et Collaborators, Jesus Meets His Mother
From Franciscan Book of Hours
Italy (Milan), c. 1385-1390
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 757, fol. 76r

Master of the Madonnas of Humility, Jesus Meets His Mother
From a Book of Hours
French (Paris), c. 1400-1425
London, British Library
MS Harley 2952, fol. 24v

Then, as we approach 1500, the drama increases. We are brought closer to the figures of Mary and Jesus, so that the impact of their emotions is more directly felt. Also, Mary begins to act more dramatically.

Attributed to Jean Boudichon Workshop, Jesus Meets His Mother
From a Book of Hours
French (Tours), c.1490-1500
London, British Library
MS Harley 2877, fol. 44v

Benedetto di Silvestro, Jesus Meets His Mother
From a Vita Christi
Italian (Lombardy), 1500-1550
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 508, fol. 30r

Flagellation and Meeting, Scenes from the Passion of Christ
French (Lorraine), 16th Century
New York, Metropolitan Museum, The Cloisters

She kneels, she faints, she throws herself violently toward Jesus. And Jesus is now shown in a more dramatic posture as well. No longer is he usually shown plodding on as before.

Attributed to Cesare da Sesto, Jesus Meets His Mother
Italian , c. 1500
Grenoble, Musée de Grenoble

Boccaccio Boccaccino, Christ Carrying the Cross and the Virgin Mary Swooning
Italian, c.1501
London, National Gallery

Now He often confronts her from a fallen position, so that the swooning mother and the fallen Son remain facing on the same level.

Raphael, Christ Meets His Mother
Italian, s. 1515-1516
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

Durante Alberti, Christ Meets His Mother
Italian, c. 1588
Rome, Church of the Madonna dei Monti

Filippo Luzi, Jesus Meets His Mother
Italian, c. 1680-1700
Rome, Church of the Madonna dei Monti

Juan Rodriguez Juarez, Jesus Meets His Mother
Mexican, c.1700
Castres, Musée Goya

Francois Verdier, Jesus Meets His Mother
French, c. 1704
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts

Giuseppe Bazzani, The Fallen Christ Meets His Swooning Mother
Italian, c.1750
Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland

This emotional stream seems to have reached a crescendo in the late nineteenth century.

James Tissot, Jesus Meets His Mother
French, c. 1888-1894
New York, Brooklyn Museum

With the coming of the twentieth century and the divorce between the visible world and the mental one in art as well as in other areas of life, this trend toward extreme emotion was curtailed and made largely symbolic once again.

Eric Gill, Jesus Meets His Mother
English, c. 1913-1918
London, Westminster Cathedral

© M. Duffy, 2016
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1. 1. Matthew 27:55-56, Mark 15:40-41, Luke 23:27.
2. 2. John 19: 25-27.

Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition© 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.