Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Stabat Mater \Sta"bat Ma"ter\ [L., the mother was standing.]
   A celebrated Latin hymn, beginning with these words,
   commemorating the sorrows of the mother of our Lord at the
   foot of the cross. It is read in the Mass of the Sorrows of
   the Virgin Mary, and is sung by Catholics when making ``the
   way of the cross'' (Via Crucis). See {Station}, 7
   (c) .