Stabat Mater is the title of a thirteenth-century Latin hymn and it means "the Mother was standing." In Latin, the hymn consists of twenty couplets which describe the Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin at the Cross. There are more than sixty English translations that have been made of the Stabat Mater. To listen to the music of the Stabat Mater, click here. This requires a Real Media Player which may be downloaded free from realaudio.com.
Text: At the cross her station keeping, While she waited in her anguish, With what pain and desolation, Ever-patient in her yearning Who, that sorrow contemplating, Christ she saw, for our salvation, Christ she saw with life-blood failing, Mary, fount of love's devotion, Virgin, ever interceding, Mother, may this prayer be granted: At the cross, your sorrow sharing, Fairest maid of all creation, Virgin, in your love befriend me, Savior, when my life shall leave me, Virgin of all virgins blest! Let me, to my latest breath, Wounded with His every wound, Be to me, O Virgin, nigh, Savior, when my life shall leave me, While my body here decays The Collegeville Hymnal
Stabat Mater dolorósa Cujus ánimam geméntem, O quam tristis et afflicta Quae maerébat, et dolébat, Quis est homo, qui non fleret, Quis non posset contristári, Pro peccátis suae gentis Vidit suum dulcem natum Eja mater, fons amóris, Fac, ut árdeat cor meum Sancta Mater, istud agas Tui nati vulneráti, Fac me tecum pie flere, Juxta Crucem tecum stare, Virgo vírginum praeclára, Fac, ut portem Christi mortem, Fac me plagis vulnerári, Flammis ne urar succénsus, Christe, cum sit hinc exíre Quando corpus moriétur, Missale Romanum
Spiritual Meaning There is a mother-son bond that unites Mary with Christ Jesus during his experience of suffering and death. This empathetic bond indicates that Our Lady shared in her Son's suffering. Mary is Our Lady of Sorrows precisely because her Son Christ Jesus bore the sins of the world during his passion and death. As the faithful disciple, Our Blessed Mother invites us to unite our personal suffering with her own. We can share in Jesus' burden on the Cross, just as Mary did at Calvary. As Our Lady of Sorrows, Mary also reminds us that Christians are called to expiate for his or her own sins and the sins of their neighbors, and the sins of the world. We can share in the bond between the Blessed Mother and Our Lord through fasting, prayer, and contrition for sin. Our Lady of Sorrows teaches us that the Crown of eternal life in Heaven can be reached when we each choose to share with Our Lord in His suffering and death on the Cross at Calvary. The compassion of Mary is part of the mystery of the Church community's sharing in, and offering, the Sacrifice of Jesus for the salvation of the world. Each member of the Church has a role to play in redeeming the world. Our Lady of Sorrows is a guide who inspires and teaches us how to be compassionate. Historical Aspects 
Mary stood in sorrow weeping
When her Son was crucified.
Seeing Christ in torment languish,
Bitter sorrow pierced her heart.
With what noble resignation,
Mary watched her dying Son.
Though her tear-filled eyes were burning,
Mary gazed upon her Son.
On that passion meditating,
Would not share the Virgin's grief?
Scourged with cruel acclamation,
Bruised and beaten by the rod.
All her anguish unavailing,
Saw him breathe his very last.
Let me share with true emotion
All the sorrow you endured.
Hear me in my fervent pleading:
Fire me with your love of Christ.
That Christ's love may be implanted
In the depths of my poor soul.
All your grief and torment bearing,
Let me stand and mourn with you.
Queen of hope and consolation,
Let me feel your grief sublime.
At the Judgment Day defend me.
Help me by your constant prayer.
Through your mother's prayers
receive me
With the fruits of victory.
Listen to my fond request:
Let me share your grief divine
In my body bear the death
Of your dying Son divine.
Steep my soul till it has swooned
In His very Blood away.
Lest in flames I burn and die,
In His awe-full judgment day.
Through your mother's prayers
receive me
With the fruits of victory.
May my soul your goodness praise,
Safe in heaven eternally. Amen Alleluia.
Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 1990.
Juxta Crucem lacrimósa,
Dum pendébat Filius.
Contristátam et doléntem,
Pertransivit gladius.
Fuit illa benedicta
Mater Unigéniti!
Pia Mater, dum vidébat
Nati poenas inclyti.
Matrem Christi si vidéret
In tanto supplicio?
Christi Matrem contemplári
Doléntem cum Filio?
Vidit Jesum in torméntis,
Et flagéllis súbditum.
Moriéndo desolátum,
Dum emisit spíritum.
Me sentíre vim dolóris
Fac, ut tecum lúgeam.
In amándo Christum Deum,
Ut sibi compláceam.
Crucifixi fige plagas
Cordi meo válide.
Tam dignáti pro me pati,
Poenas mecum dívide.
Crucifixo condolére,
Donec ego víxero.
Et me tibi sociáre
In planctu desídero.
Mihi jam non sis amára:
Fac me tecum plángere.
Passiónis fac consórtem,
Et plagas recólere.
Fac me Cruce inebriári,
Et cruó re Fílii.
Per te, Virgo, sim defénsus
In die judícii.
Da per Matrem me veníre
Ad palmam victóriae.
Fac, ut ánimae donétur
Paradísi glória. Amen. Allelúja.
Cincinnati: Benziger Brothers, 1956.
Christians of the twentieth century can truly identify with Our Lady's experience of Sorrow. The message of the Stabat Mater focuses on the spiritual and emotional bond which unites Mary and all Christians to the death of her Son on the Cross. From this bond, each Christian can recognize the incredible compassion and holiness in Mary's character. The Blessed Mother demonstrated her maternal compassion to all generations of Christians by her presence and participation with her Son Jesus in the Sacrifice of the Cross.
Now that we have explored some of the contemporary meaning of the Stabat Mater, let us summarize the hymn's important history. Tradition has identified the hymn with St. Bonaventure, Jacopone da Todi, and Pope Innocent II. A notable number of scholars point to da Todi as author, since two fourteenth-century codices and the 1495 edition of the sequence attribute the hymn's authorship to him. While it cannot be denied that the composition's general tone and sensitivity parallel that of da Todi's poems, strictly stylistic comparisons yield uncertain and even disputable results. Recent scholars like L. Russo and M. Cassella are not impressed by the arguments in favor of Jacopone's authorship. The Stabat Mater has two qualities that most scholars date from the twelfth century: an intricate rhyme scheme and a regular meter (usually trochaic).
Liturgical Importance
The Stabat Mater was introduced into the Liturgy gradually until 1727 when it was prescribed as a Sequence for Mass of the Seven Sorrows of Mary on September 15 and on Friday before Holy Week, as well as their corresponding offices. The Stabat Mater has been retained as an optional Sequence for September 15 in the reformed Roman Missal and as the hymn for the Office of Readings, Morning Prayer, and Evening Prayer in the new Liturgy of Hours. The Stabat Mater's popularity is reflected by its use in the popular devotion of the Stations of the Cross.
Its Place in Music
During the sixteenth century, the sequence motet was a favorite form among important musical composers. The Stabat Mater was frequently given elaborate polyphonic settings. A model of such settings is Palestrina's famous Stabat Mater which employs two choruses and combines several couplets to suggest larger musical units within the total composition. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Stabat Mater inspired large works for chorus and orchestra. The hymn's text was divided into a number of autonomous and differentiated movements. Compositions of this type were those of Seffani, Scarlatti, Pergolesi, Boccherini, and Haydn. During the nineteenth century, the popularity of the Stabat Mater's text is evident by its place in the work of Verdi, Rossini, Schubert, and Dvorak.
at the foot of the Cross clutching at
betwixt my fingers
as the sword pierces next
soul, my very being there
washes me
in the blood of the
Lamb, again, as at His birth
their catcalls taunting Him to
His striped God-forsaken Body. I
sink to my knees, praying
my prayer to doubt
my doubt that true to His Word
three days hence; and my wounds
To be published in a forthcoming manuscript.
This summary was compiled from the following sources:
Cuyler, L. E. "Stabat Mater." New Catholic Encyclopedia. Volume 13. Pages 625-626.
Washington D.C.: Catholic University Press, 1967.
Dictionary of Mary. New York: Catholic Book Publishing Company, 1985.
Missale Romanum. Cincinnati: Benziger Brothers, 1920.
McKenna, Edward J. The Collegeville Hymnal. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1990.
O'Carroll, Michael. Theotokos: A Theological Encyclopedia of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Collegeville: Michael Glazier, 1980.