One year on from its Holy Week release, The Stations of the Cross: Pray with us has now surpassed 1 million views on YouTube and is available in twelve international languages.
Created in collaboration between Wintershall Theatre Company and Christian.Art, the film presents the Passion of Christ as a sequence of tableaux vivants — living paintings designed as a contemplative prayer resource.
The tradition of tableaux vivants, or “living pictures,” dates back to the Middle Ages and gained popularity in the 18th and 19th centuries as a theatrical artform. In these staged scenes, actors would pose silently and motionlessly to recreate famous artworks or dramatic moments, often with elaborate costumes, lighting, and minimal movement. The tableau vivant artform has found new life in video, where the boundary between stillness and motion can be artfully explored, inviting the viewer to contemplation and often emotive experience.
Fr Patrick van der Vorst, founder of Christian.Art, said:
“The vision was to create a film that people could pray with in their preparation for Easter — a powerful way to slow down the pivotal moments of Christ’s journey to Calvary.”
Reflecting on its reach, he added:
“To see the film now help people around the world in their prayer is extraordinary. Art is one of the great tools of evangelisation.”
