"Stabat Mater speciosa" ("The beautiful mother stood" [1] [2]) is a Catholic hymn to Mary about the Nativity of Jesus.
It first appeared in a 1495 edition of the Italian poems of Jacopone da Todi, along with " Stabat Mater dolorosa", but "Stabat Mater speciosa" was almost forgotten until it was re-transcribed in 1852 in the Poètes Franciscains en Italie au Treizième siècle in Paris. [1] It has since been viewed as one of the tenderest Marian hymns and one of the seven greatest Latin hymns. [3] [4] It has become part of standard oratorios (e.g. Franz Liszt's Christus [5]), and has given rise to various Christmas carols[ citation needed].