Firstpublished: Description: Originally conceived for the Stations of the Cross in the roman Colosseum, where a harmonium might be carried in procession, this work was composed much later in multiple versions: organ (with or without voices), piano solo, and piano 4-hands.
External websites:
Free choir training aids for this work are available at Choralia.
1. Vexilla Regis prodeunt:
Fulget Crucis mysterium,
Qua vita mortem pertulit,
Et morte vitam protulit.
3. Impleti sunt quae concinit
David fideli carmine,
Dicendo nationibus:
Regnavit a ligno Deus.
Amen.
6. O crux ave, spes unica,
hoc passionis tempore (vel mundi salus et gloria)
Piis adauge gratiam,
Reisque dele crimina.
Amen.
===I. Jesus wird zum Tode verdammt.===
Innocens ego sum a sanguine justis hujus.
===II. Jesus trägt sein Kreuz.===
Ave, ave crux.
===III. Jesus fällt zum ersten Mal.===
Jesus cadit.
Stabat Mater dolorosa
juxta crucem lacrymosa,
dum pendebat filius.
===IV. Jesus begegnet seiner heiligen Mutter.===
===V. Simon von Kyrene hilft Jesus das Kreuz tragen.===
===VI. Sancta Veronica.=== O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden,
Voll Schmerz und voller Hohn,
O Haupt, zum Spott gebunden
Mit einer Dornenkron’,
O Haupt, sonst schön gezieret
Mit höchster Ehr’ und Zier,
Jetzt aber höchst schimpfieret;
Gegrüßet sei’st du mir!
===VII. Jesus fällt zum zweiten Mal.===
===VIII. Die Frauen von Jerusalem.===
Nolite flere super me, sed super vos ipsas flete et super filios vestros.
===IX. Jesus fällt zum dritten Mal.===
===X. Jesus wird entkleidet.===
===XI. Jesus wird ans Kreuz geschlagen.===
Crucifige!
===XII. Jesus stirbt am Kreuze.===
Eli, Eli, lamma Sabacthani
In manus tuas commendo spiritum meum.
Consummatum est.
O Traurigkeit, o Herzeleid,
Ist das nicht zu beklagen?
Gott des Vaters einigs Kind
wird ins Grab getragen.
===XIII. Jesus wird vom Kreuz genommen.===
===XIV. Jesus wird ins Grab gelegt.===
Ave crux, spes unica,
mundi salus et gloria
Auge piis justitiam
Reisque dona veniam!
Amen. Ave crux.
English translation
The royal banners forward go;
The cross shines forth in mystic glow
Where He in flesh, our flesh who made,
our sentence bore, our ransom paid;
Fulfilled is all that David told
In true prophetic song of old;
Amidst the nations, God, saith he,
Hath reigned and triumphed from the tree.
O Cross, our one reliance, hail!
[During this Passiontide (or Salvation and Glory of the world,)]
Give new virtue to the saint
And pardon to the penitent.
Amen. Translation by John Mason Neale - his unaltered 6th verse (1851) appears at the end of the work
First station: Jesus is condemned to death
"I am innocent of this just man's blood."
Second station: Jesus bears his cross
Hail, hail Cross.
Third station: Jesus falls the first time
Jesus has fallen!
At the Cross, her station keeping
Stood the mournful mother weeping,
Where He hung, the dying Lord. Translation by Edward Caswall
Fourth station: Jesus greets his holy mother
Fifth station: Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the cross
Sixth station: Saint Veronica
O sacred Head, now wounded,
with grief and shame weighed down,
Now scornfully surrounded
with thorns, Thine only crown;
O sacred Head, what glory,
what bliss till now was Thine!
Yet, though despised and gory, I joy to call Thee mine.
Seventh station: Jesus falls the second time
Eighth station: The women of Jerusalem
"Weep not for me, but for yourselves and your children"
Ninth station: Jesus falls the third time
Tenth station: Jesus is stripped
Eleventh station: Jesus is nailed to the cross
"Crucify him!"
Twelfth station: Jesus dies on the cross
"Into thy hands I commend my spirit"
"It is achieved"
O darkest woe! Ye tears, forth flow!
Has earth so sad a wonder?
God the Father's only Son
Now lies buried yonder. Translation by Catherine Winkworth
Thirteenth station: Jesus is taken down from the cross
Fourteenth station: Jesus is entombed
O Cross, our one reliance, hail!
So may thy power with us avail
To give new virtue to the saint
And pardon to the penitent.
Amen. Translation by John Mason Neale, 1851
Latin and 
German text
English translation