Stabat Mater

The Stabat Mater is a 13th-century Christian hymn to the Virgin Mary that portrays her suffering as mother during the crucifixion of her son Jesus Christ.

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.

[8] The first English translation by Edward Caswall is not literal but preserves the trochaic tetrameter rhyme scheme and sense of the original text.

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

Quis non posset contristári Christi Matrem contemplári doléntem cum Fílio?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[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.

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

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.

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