Stabat Mater Dolorosa. Opening words (‘The sorrowful Mother was standing…’) of a Latin hymn describing the sorrows of the Virgin Mary at the cross of Jesus. Its author and date are unknown, though it is sometimes attributed to Jacapone da Todi (d. 1306). Its beauty and popularity are reflected in the many English translations (e.g. ‘At the Cross her station keeping’) and musical settings, some of which are performed at concerts rather than in liturgy (e.g. Rossini, Liszt, Dvořák, Verdi).

Stabat Mater Dolorosa (Lat.). ‘A grief-stricken mother was standing’. Devotional poem about Virgin Mary's vigil by Christ's Cross, used as sequence in RC liturgy since 1727 to plainchant melody. Text once attrib. Jacopo de Benedetti, Among the many comp. settings are those by Palestrina, Pergolesi, Haydn, Rossini, Verdi, Dvořák, Stanford, Szymanowski, Berkeley, Howells, and others.