La Scala Sancta

From The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by J-J Tissot (1897)

The flight of steps to which the name of La Scala Santa or the Holy Stair has been given is still had to be seen at Rome, to which city it was removed by Saint Helena.  It is of white marble veined with grey, and it led up to the Roman Praetorium, so that nothing which has been preserved to us connected with the Passion of Our Lord is more worthy of the veneration of the pilgrim than are the steps, which were actually trodden by His sacred feet.  Even the Via Dolorosa is less exactly what it was at the time when Christ passed along it and His blood stained the ground; for, of course, the level of the soil has been raised and modified, whereas in the sanctuaries enshrining the more enduring relics, marble facings keep worshippers to some extent at a distance.  Pilgrims to the Scala Santa touch the very steps down which, according to tradition, Jesus, Whose feet slipped at the top, rolled all bruised and bleeding.  For this reason the Holy Stair  is always climbed on the knees.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam