Ora Pro Nobis Robert Tear 1979

words by A. Horspool; music by M. Piccolomini.

According to Patrick Pontet, the composer's great-grandson, he was born in Dublin on 18 June 1833 and died in London on 10 March 1902).

Professor Scott comments that this song highlights the vulnerability of children who have no stable home. It may be noticed that the “worshippers” in this song restrict their action to making the sign of the cross as they pass by the orphan, nobody offers her food or shelter.

Under the pseudonym Piccolomini, Ponte helped to establish the ballad of Roman Catholic character in the drawing rooms of the 1880s, and “Ora Pro Nobis” (Pray for Us) takes it refrain from the Latin prayer Ave Maria. Although his music had been published previously under the name Henry Pontet, the composer took the pen name "Marie Piccolomini" shortly after settling in London in 1877 to pursue his songwriting career. 'Ora Pro Nobis', the words of the title, which form the refrain, are part of a uniquely Catholic prayer, the Ave Maria. The combination of dramatic gran scena treatment and lyrical effusiveness had also featured in some of his earlier ballads, but the touching tale of an orphan girl who dies at her mother's graveside contrived to make this one irresistible

Out of the dark and dreary street,
Out of the cold and driving sleet
Into the church the folk had gone,
Leaving the orphan child alone.
Tatter'd and so forlorn was she,
They crossed themselves, as they pass'd, to see
So frail a child in that grievous plight
On such a relentless and stormy night!
"Ora pro nobis."

Banned by hoot of churlish owl
Into the lone churchyard she stole;
Over the grave where her mother lay,
Clasping her hands she knelt to pray:
"Mother! if thou in heav'n canst hear
Thine orphan breathing her mournful pray'r,
Oh, take thy child to thyself again!"
The worshippers answer'd in sweet refrain:
"Ora pro nobis!"

Into the cold and driving sleet,
Into the dark and dreary street
Out of the church the people came,
Starting, a-ghast! as the sombre flame
Fell on the frail and slender form
Which knelt, unmoved by the moaning storm;
For, while the prayed, the angels had come
And taken the soul of the orphan home.
"Ora pro nobis!"