The Stations of the Cross are a devotional  spiritual exercise with roots far back into the era of the Crusades.  The Stations depict the traditional account of Jesus Christ’s journey from the place of his trial to the place of his burial and combine scriptural and traditional elements.  The Stations of the Cross as an official devotional practice was popularized by the Franciscan order.  By the 18th Century, the practice of including a set of stations in every Catholic Church had become standard.  Over the centuries, artists have used every kind of medium and style in creating Stations which by their imagery unite the Passion and Death of Jesus to the sufferings of his people.

The Zbigniew Stations are a modern depiction of the final hours of Jesus which are merged with stark images from our own century.  In mostly black and white with flashes of color, they portray the evils of the 20th Century and our own complicity in them.

About the artists:

Zbigniew Fitz was born in Poland during World War II.  He is the son of a Catholic mother and a Jewish father who spent three months of the war hiding out in a well each day.  Emilia Fitz was born of Jewish parents in Russa at the same time.  When the German army swept into Russia, Emilia’s parents were rounded up with the other Jews in their community and shot.  Emilia, only a baby, was saved when her mother handed her over to a stranger to protect her from the Nazis.  This woman, a Christian, kept Emilia and eventually adopted her.  As Emilia grew up, she was drawn to Catholic churches as quiet reflective places.

Zbigniew and Emilia met in Poland and married there in 1964.  They moved to Paris in 1967, and eventually emigrated to the United States where they currently reside in Arizona.