Today is the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, a feast known since the 13th century, and made popular by the Cistercians and the Servites (posts regarding the Servites here and here). The sorrowful hymn "Stabat Mater Dolorosa" was written for the feast, and many composers have set the text to music. Here is Pergolesi's version:
The first stanza of the text, in Latin and English:
Stabat mater dolorosa juxta Crucem lacrimosa, dum pendebat Filius. | At the Cross her station keeping, stood the mournful Mother weeping, close to her son to the last. |
Our Lady of Sorrows is the Patroness of Slovenia, and the feast is a public holiday there. Malta, the country with the most holidays in the European Union, also keeps the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows as a public holiday, but the Maltese celebrate it on the Friday before Passion Sunday. In 1969, these two separate feasts of Our Lady of Sorrows, the one celebrated before Holy Week and the other in September, were officially combined.
Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us.
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