Stabat mater dolorósa

As we approach Holy Week, with our Sacred images veiled for Passiontide, Holy Mother Church gives us the beautiful example of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Friday of Passion Week (this coming Friday, March 22) is designated as the Feast of the Seven Dolours of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Traditionally, this Mass included the now-famous sequence, the Stabat Mater. This is a lengthy 20 stanza poem that details the sorrows of the Blessed Virgin as she stands at the foot of Her Son’s Cross, as the first stanza indicates:

Stabat mater dolorósa
juxta Crucem lacrimósa,
dum pendébat Fílius.

The text itself dates to the 13th-century, and has been attributed both to Jacopone da Todi and that great medieval Pope: Innocent III. It was actually suppressed as a sequence by the Council of Trent, but Pope Benedict XIII restored it in 1727 for this very feast, and the Divine Office for that day. It has since become immensely popular, one of the most well-known Latin hymns. It is customarily used along with the Stations of the Cross. I’ve left the entire sequence off to the left (good luck mobile users) for you to read, along with a poetic (though not entirely literal) English translation.

The poetry features a beautiful rhyming scheme: AAB CCB. Thus the first two lines of each stanza rhyme with each other, with the third line rhyming with the third of the next. This creates a I won’t offer too substantive analysis of the text or music, but let them speak for themselves. I would pay particular attention to what words are used repeatidly throughout, as they emphasise both certain aspects of Our Lady’s suffering (Mater, Christi), as well as our entrance into that sorrow (fac, quis). The music is simple enough to invade your brain, and soon you’ll be memorising whole stanzas. It really is a powerful piece, that is intensely personal, and unites us spiritually with the sorrow experienced by the Blessed Mother. It plants us firmly at the foot of the Cross with her. What better way to prepare for Holy Week than mediating on this holy text. Let us turn to our dear Mother, that font of love!

Here is the sequence itself, just the plain chant:

1. Stabat Mater dolorósa
juxta Crucem lacrimósa,
dum pendébat Fílius.

2. Cuius ánimam geméntem,
contristátam et doléntem
pertransívit gládius.

3. O quam tristis et afflícta
fuit illa benedícta,
mater Unigéniti!

4. Quae mœrébat et dolébat,
pia Mater, dum vidébat
nati pœnas ínclyti.

5. Quis est homo qui non fleret,
matrem Christi si vidéret
in tanto supplício?

6. Quis non posset contristári
Christi Matrem contemplári
doléntem cum Fílio?

7. Pro peccátis suæ gentis
vidit Jésum in torméntis,
et flagéllis súbditum.

8. Vidit suum dulcem Natum
moriéndo desolátum,
dum emísit spíritum.

9. Eja, Mater, fons amóris
me sentíre vim dolóris
fac, ut tecum lúgeam.

10. Fac, ut árdeat cor meum
in amándo Christum Deum
ut sibi compláceam.

11. Sancta Mater, istud agas,
crucifíxi fige plagas
cordi meo válide.

12. Tui Nati vulneráti,
tam dignáti pro me pati,
pœnas mecum dívide.

13. Fac me tecum pie flere,
crucifíxo condolére,
donec ego víxero.

14. Juxta Crucem tecum stare,
et me tibi sociáre
in planctu desídero.

15. Virgo vírginum præclára,
mihi iam non sis amára,
fac me tecum plángere.

16. Fac ut portem Christi mortem,
passiónis fac consórtem,
et plagas recólere.

17. Fac me plagis vulnerári,
fac me Cruce inebriári,
et cruóre Fílii.

18. Flammis ne urar succénsus,
per te, Virgo, sim defénsus
in die iudícii.

19. Christe, cum sit hinc exire,
da per Matrem me veníre
ad palmam victóriæ.

20. Quando corpus moriétur,
fac, ut ánimæ donétur
paradísi glória.

Amen

At the Cross her station keeping,
Stood the mournful Mother weeping,
Close to Jesus to the last:

Through her heart, his sorrow sharing,
All his bitter anguish bearing,
now at length the sword has pass'd.

Oh, how sad and sore distress'd
Was that Mother highly blest
Of the sole-begotten One!

Christ above in torment hangs;
She beneath beholds the pangs
Of her dying glorious Son.

Is there one who would not weep,
Whelm'd in miseries so deep,
Christ's dear Mother to behold?

Can the human heart refrain
From partaking in her pain,
In that Mother's pain untold?

Bruis'd, derided, curs'd, defil'd,
She beheld her tender Child
All with bloody scourges rent;

For the sins of his own nation,
Saw Him hang in desolation,
Till His Spirit forth He sent.

O thou Mother! fount of love!
Touch my spirit from above,
Make my heart with thine accord:

Make me feel as thou hast felt;
Make my soul to glow and melt
With the love of Christ my Lord.

Holy Mother! pierce me through;
In my heart each wound renew
Of my Saviour crucified:

Let me share with thee His pain,
Who for all my sins was slain,
Who for me in torments died.

Let me mingle tears with thee,
Mourning Him who mourn'd for me,
All the days that I may live:

By the Cross with thee to stay;
There with thee to weep and pray;
Is all I ask of thee to give.

Virgin of all virgins blest!,
Listen to my fond request:
Let me share thy grief divine;

Let me, to my latest breath,
In my body bear the death
Of that dying Son of thine.

Wounded with his every wound,
Steep my soul till it hath swoon'd,
In His very blood away;

Be to me, O Virgin, nigh,
Lest in flames I burn and die,
In his awful Judgment day.

Christ, when Thou shalt call me hence,
Be Thy Mother my defence,
Be Thy Cross my victory;

While my body here decays,
May my soul thy goodness praise,
Safe in Paradise with Thee.

Here are a couple more settings that I particularly love:

Giovanni Pierluigi de Palestrina:

Giuseppe Tartini:

Sancta Caecilia, ora pro nobis!