Pietro Perugino's depiction of Mary at the Cross, 1482. (National Gallery, Washington)

The Stabat Mater is a 13th-century Christian hymn to Mary that portrays her suffering as Jesus Christ's mother during his crucifixion. Its author may be either the Franciscan friar Jacopone da Todi or Pope Innocent III.[1][2][3] The title comes from its first line, "Stabat Mater dolorosa", which means "the sorrowful mother was standing".[4]

The hymn is sung at the liturgy on the memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows. The Stabat Mater has been set to music by many Western composers.

Date

The Stabat Mater has often been ascribed to Jacopone da Todi (ca. 1230–1306), but this has been strongly challenged by the discovery of the earliest notated copy of the Stabat Mater in a 13th-century gradual belonging to the Dominican nuns in Bologna (Museo Civico Medievale MS 518, fo. 200v-04r).[5]

The Stabat Mater was well known by the end of the 14th century and Georgius Stella wrote of its use in 1388, while other historians note its use later in the same century. In Provence, about 1399, it was used during the nine days' processions.[6]

As a liturgical sequence, the Stabat Mater was suppressed, along with hundreds of other sequences, by the Council of Trent, but restored to the missal by Pope Benedict XIII in 1727 for the Feast of the Seven Dolours of the Blessed Virgin Mary.[7]

Text and translation

The Latin text below is from an 1853 Roman Breviary and is one of multiple extant versions of the poem.[8] The first English translation by Edward Caswall is not literal but preserves the trochaic tetrameter rhyme scheme and sense of the original text. The second English version is a more formal equivalence translation.

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.[9]

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.

– Translation by Edward Caswall[10]

The sorrowful mother was standing
beside the Cross weeping,
while the Son was hanging.

Whose moaning soul,
depressed and grieving,
the sword has passed through.

O how sad and stricken
was that blessed [woman],
mother of the Only-begotten [one]!

Who was mourning and suffering,
the pious Mother, while she was watching
the punishments of the glorious son.

Who is the person who would not weep,
if he had seen the mother of Christ
in such great suffering?

Who would not be able to be saddened
to behold the Mother of Christ
grieving with the Son?

For the sins of his people
she saw Jesus in torments,
and subjected to lashes.

She saw her sweet Son
dying forsaken,
while he sent forth [his] spirit.

Come now, O Mother, fountain of love
Make me feel the power of sorrow
that I might mourn with you.

Grant that my heart may burn
in loving Christ the God
that I might please him.

O Holy Mother, may you do that,
fix the wounds of the cross
mightily in my heart.

Of your wounded son,
[who] so deigned to suffer for me,
Share [his] penalties with me.

Make me cry dutifully with you,
to suffer (with him) on the cross,
as long as I shall have lived.

To stand by the Cross with you,
to unite me to you
in weeping [this] I desire.

O noble Virgin of virgins,
Be not bitter with me now,
Make me mourn with you.

Grant that I might bear the death of Christ,
Make [me] kindred in the passion,
and contemplate the wounds.

Make me injured by the wounds,
make me drunken by the Cross,
and by the blood of the Son.

Lest I be consumed burned by flames,
through you, O Virgin, may I be defended
on the day of judgement.

O Christ, when it is time to depart hence,
grant me to come through the Mother,
to the palm of victory.

When the body will decay,
grant that it may be bestowed on [my] soul
the glory of paradise.

Amen.

Indulgence

To the Stabat mater is attributed the indulgence of 100 days each time it is recitated.[11]

Musical settings

Composers who have written settings of the Stabat Mater include:

Most settings are in Latin. Karol Szymanowski's setting is in Polish, although it may also be sung in Latin. George Oldroyd's setting is in Latin with an English translation for Anglican and Episcopalian use.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Sabatier, Paul Life of St. Francis Assisi Charles Scribner Press, NY, 1919, page 286
  2. ↑ The seven great hymns of the Mediaeval Church by Charles Cooper Nott 1868 ASIN: B003KCW2LA page 96
  3. ↑ p. 574, Alighieri, Durling, Martinez (2003) Dante, Robert M., Ronald L. Oxford The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri: Purgatorio Volume 2 of The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri Oxford University Press. "The Stabat Mater by the Franciscan Jacopone da Todi."
  4. ↑ Stabat Mater, Volume 68 by Girolamo Abos, Joseph Vella Bondin 2003 ISBN 0-89579-531-0 page xviii
  5. ↑ Cesarino Ruini, "Un antico versione dello Stabat Mater in un graduale delle Domenicane bolognesi," Deo è lo scrivano ch’el canto à ensegnato: Segni e simboli nella musica al tempo di Iacopone, Atti del Convegno internazionale, Collazzone, 7-8 luglio 2006, ed. Ernesto Sergio Mainoldi and Stefania Vitale, Philomusica On-line, 9, no. 3 (2010).
  6. ↑  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Stabat Mater". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  7. ↑ Heartz, Daniel (1995). Haydn, Mozart and the Viennese School: 1740-1780. W.W. Norton & Co. p. 305. ISBN 0-393-03712-6. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
  8. ↑ "Stabat Mater Dolorosa and Speciosa". The Ultimate Stabat Mater Website. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
  9. ↑ Breviarum Romanum. Mechelen: H. Dessain. 1853. pp. 455–456, 460–461.
  10. ↑ Caswall, Edward (1849). Lyra Catholica. London: James Burns. pp. 138–142.
  11. ↑ Don Giovanni Bosco (1935). Il giovane provveduto per la pratica dei suoi doveri religiosi [The young man provided for the practice of his religious duties] (in Italian). Turin: International Publishing Company, Tipografia S.E.I. (M. E. 9736), c.so Regina Margherita, n. 176. pp. 341–342. new edition, enriched with prayers according to the catechism, Masses and antiphons in Gregorian chant, and authorized by Don Paolo Albera, Rector Major of the Pious Salesian Society
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Dvořák: Stabat Mater. Oratorio for Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra at Supraphon website.
  13. ↑ Entry for Antoni Soler's Stabat Mater at The Ultimate Stabat Mater Site: A Musical Journey Through the Ages. [Accessed 16 December 2020].
  14. ↑ "Kuula - The ultimate Stabat Mater site". The ultimate Stabat Mater site. Retrieved 2018-04-06.
  15. ↑ "James MacMillan - Stabat Mater". Boosey & Hawkes. Retrieved 2017-04-14.
  16. ↑ Stabat Mater for mezzo-soprano and male choir (2017)
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