The Stabat Mater Dolorosa

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The hymn was used extensively in the Church liturgy by the end of the fourteenth century.  Georgius Stella, Chancellor of Genoa (d. 1420), in his "Annales Genuenses", speaks of its by group known as the Flagellants in 1388.  In 1399 record of its use has been found in Provence, France.  Its companion poem, the Stabat Mater Speciosa, has never become a part of Church liturgy.  Authorship of that text has never been successfully determined but arrived at about the same time. 

Many scholars attribute the Dolorosa text to the 12th  century poet Jacopone da Todi, although some dispute exists over that ascription.  The text was found in European (but not English) Missals of the fifteenth century.  In 1717, the Roman Catholic Church introduced the text into the Roman Breviary and Missal at the Feast of the Seven Sorrows, part of the then Good Friday celebration.

Crucifixon by Isadora Del Rosa

Contemporary Mexican Artist

 Along with Todi, the poem has also been ascribed to St. Gregory the Great (d. 604), St. Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153), Pope Innocent III (d 1216), St. Bonaventure (d. 1274), Pope John XXII (d. 1334), Pope Gregory XI (d. 1378).  Of these ascriptions, scholars believe that the only probable ones  are Todi and Innocent III.  St. Thomas Aquinas bolsters Todi’s cause by citing a fourteenth-century manuscript containing poems by Todi with an ascription to him of the Stabat Mater Dolorosa.

Both Protestants and Catholics share a deep admiration for The Stabat’s pathos, vivid of description, devotional depth all structured in an easy rhythmic flow with exquisite double rhyming and finished stanza form.  Catholic scholar, Dr. Philip Schaff (in "Literature and Poetry) says:  "The secret of the power of the 'Mater Dolorosa' lies in the intensity of feeling with which the poet identifies himself with his theme, and in the soft, plaintive melody of its Latin rhythm and rhyme, which cannot be transferred to any other language”  Despite Dr. Schaff’s belief, there are over sixty translations into English

Because of its vividly epic and lyric character, the hymn has received more than 400 musical settings ranging from plainsong to contemporary. Click on (Musical Settings)  for Havender Veldon’s website which gives you the most complete website about music written to the text of the Stabat Mater.  The earliest setting came in 1490 by an English composer by the name of John Browne to a 2001 setting by the American contemporary composer William Cooper.  The most famous early plainsong setting is by the French composer Josquin des Prés in 1500.  The three most famous romantic Stabat Maters are by Verdi, Dvorak and Rossini.  Below is a very brief list of the who’s who in classical music that have set the Stabat Mater Dolorosa:

 

Composers

Composers

1590 - Giovanni Palestrina(Italy)

1710 - Alessandro Scarlatti (Italy)

1715 - Domenico Scarlatti (Italy)

1715 - Antonio Vivaldi (Italy)

1736 - Giovanni Batista Pergolesi (Italy)

1748 - Johann Sebastian Bach (Germany)

1767 - Joseph Haydn (Austria)

1800 - Luigi Boccherini (Italy)

1815 - Franz Schubert (Austria)

1816 - Franz Schubert (Austria)

1837 - Gioacchino Rossini (Italy

1866 - Franz Liszt (Germany)

1877 - Antonin Dvorak (Czech)

1898 - Giuseppe Verdi (Italy)

 

1898 - Zoltán Kodály (Hungary)

1906 - Charles Villiers Stanford (Ireland)

1926 - Karol Szymanowski (Poland)

1931 - Virgil Thomson (USA)

1950 - Francis Poulenc (France)

1962 - Krzysztof Penderecki (Poland)

1965 - Herbert Howells (England)

1967 - Frank Martin (Switzerland)

1985 - Arvo Pärt (Estonia)

 

Following are the English and Original Latin Text 20 Stanza poem

ENGLISH (Rhyming Text by Beatric E. Bulman )

LATIN

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, Lo! the piercing sword had passed.

 

 

Oh how sad and sore distressed was that mother highly blessed, of the sole-begotten One!

 

 

Mournful, with heart's prostration, Mother meek, the bitter Passion, saw she of Her glorious Son.

 

 

 

Who on Christ's dear Mother gazing, in Her trouble so amazing, Born of woman, would not weep?

 

Who on Christ's dear Mother thinking, Such a cup of sorrow drinking, Would not share Her sorrow deep?

 

 

For His people's sins rejected, Saw her Jesus unprotected, Saw with thorns, with scourges rent

 

 

Saw Her Son from judgement taken, Her Beloved in death forsaken, Till His Spirit forth he sent.

 

 

Fount of love and holy sorrow, Mother, may my spirit borrow, Somewhat of Your woe profound.

 

 

 

Unto Christ with pure emotion, Raise my contrite heart's devotion, To read love in every wound.

 

 

 

 

Those Five Wounds on Jesus smitten, Mother! in my heart be written, Deep as in your own they be.

 

 

 

You, Your Savior's Cross did bare, You, Your Son's rebuke did share, Let me share them both with thee

 

 

In the Passion of my Maker, Be my sinful soul partaker, Weep 'till death and weep with You

 

 

Mine with you be that sad station, There to watch the great salvation, Wrought upon the atoning Tree.

 

 

 

Virgin, you of virgin fairest, May the bitter woe Thou bearest, Make on me impression deep.

 

 

 

Thus Christ's dying may I carry, With him in His Passion tarry, And His Wounds in memory keep.

 

 

May His Wound both wound and heal me, He enkindle, cleanse, strengthen me, By His Cross my hope and stay

 

 

May He, when the mountains quiver, from that flame which burns forever, shield me on the Judgement Day.

 

 

 

Jesus, may your Cross defend me, And your Mother's prayer befriend me; Let me die in Your embrace

 

 

When to dust my dust returns, Grant a soul, that to You yearns, In Your paradise a place. Amen.

 

Stabat Mater dolorosa

Juxta crucem lacrimosa

Dum pendebat Filius

 

Cuius animam gementem

Contristatem et dolentem

Pertransivit gladius

 

 O quam tristis et afflicta

Fuit illa benedicta

Mater unigeniti!

 

 Quae moerebat et dolebat,

Pia Mater, dum videbat

Nati poenas incliti

 

 Quis est homo qui non fleret,

Matrem Christi si videret

In tanto supplicio?

 

 Quis non posset contristari,

Christi Matrem contemplari

Dolentem cum Filio?

 

Pro peccatis suae gentis

Vidit Iesum in tormentis,

Et flagellis subditum.

 

Vidit suum dulcem natum

Moriendo desolatum

Dum emisit spiritum

 

 Eia Mater, fons amoris

Me sentire vim doloris

Fac, ut tecum lugeam

 

 Fac, ut ardeat cor meum  (Ut cor nostrum exardescat)

In amando Christum Deum  (Et in Christo requiescat)

Ut sibi complaceam  (Ut ei placeamus)

 

 Sancta Mater, istud agas,

Crucifixi fige plagas

Cordi meo valide.

 

 Tui nati vulnerati,

Tam dignati pro me pati,

Poenas mecum divide.

 

Fac me tecum, pie, flere,

Crucifixo condolere,

Donec ego vixero.

  

Juxta crucem tecum stare,  (In me sistat dolor tui)

Et me tibi sociare  (Crucifixo fac me frui)

In planctu desidero  (Dum sim in exilio)

 

 Virgo virginum praeclara,

Mihi iam non sis amara

Fac me tecum plangere

 

 

Fac, ut portem Christi mortem

Passionis fac consortem,

Et plagas recolere.

 

 

Ac me plagis vulnerari,  (Spinis, clavis vulnerari)

Fac me cruce inebriari,  (Cruce, lancea beari)

Et cruore Filii

  

Flammis ne urrar succensus  (Virgo dulcis, virgo pia)

Per Te, Virgo, sim defensus  (Virgo clemens, o Maria)

In die judicii  (Audi preces servuli)

 

 Christe, cum sit hinc exire,

Da per Matrem me venire

Ad palmam victoriae

 

 

Quando corpus morietur,

Fac, ut animae donetur

Paradisi gloria. Amen