Station days were days of fasting in the early Christian Church.[1] The practice of keeping stations died out during the Avignon papacy, but it has been revived in the twentieth century by popes Leo XIII and John XXIII.[2]
Pope Gregory the Great designated certain churches in Rome as stationes and recommended that on the more solemn festivals they should be made stations (stationes fieri) until the Hour of Sext, and at these same churches on the appointed days (statis dicbus) the faithful should assist at the Daily Office. The stations have long since been abandoned and have left their trace only in the Missal.
Today they are days associated with processions to particular churches in which the faithful may gain certain indulgences.
The current station churches of Rome are:[3]