UTAHT
287
UTANT
znaii Missal has retained the prayers for all classes of
people in the Mass of the Presanctified on Good Fri-
day, a full litanv on Hol^ Saturday, and the triple
repetition of "Kyrie Eleison", "Christe Eleison",
"Kyrie Eleison", in every Mass. The frequent repe-
tition of the "Kyrie" was probably the onginal form
of the Litany, and was in use in Asia and in Kome at a
veiy early date. The Council of Vaison in 529 passed
the decree : " Let that beautiful custom of all the prov-
inces of the East and of Italy be kept up, viz., that of
BJnyng with great effect and compunction the ' Kyrie
Eleison' at Mass, Matins, and Vespers, because so
sweet and pleasing a chant, even though continued day
and night without interruption, could never produce
disgust or weariness ". The number of repetitions de^
pended upon the celebrant. This litany is prescribed
m the Roman Breviary at the "Preces Fenales*' and
in the Monastic Breviary for every "Hora" (Rule of
St. Benedict, ix, 17). The continuous repetition of the
" Kyrie " is used to-day at the consecration of a church,
while the relics to be placed in the altar are carried in
procession around the church. Because the ** Kyrie "
and other petitions were said once or of tcner, litanies
were called plancej temcBj quince y sepienop.
When peace was granted to the (Jhurch after three
. centuries of bloody persecution, public devotions l^e-
came common and processions were frequently held,
with preference for aays which the heathens had held
sacred. These processions were called litanies, and in
them pictures and other religious emblems were car-
ried, in Rome, pope and people would go in proces-
sion each day, especially in Lent, to a different church,
to celebrate the Sacred Mysteries. Thus originated
the Roman " Stations '\ and what was called the
"Litania Major", or "Romana**. It was held on 25
April, on which day the heathens had celebrated the
festival of RobigaliOf the principal feature of which
was a procession. The Christian litany wh ich replaced
it set out from the church of S. Ix)fenzo in Lucina,
held a station at S. Valentino Outside the Walls, and
then at the Milvian Bridge. From thence, instead of
proceeding on the Claudian Wav, as the heathens had
aone, it turned to the left towards the Vatican, stopped
at a cross, of which the site is not given, and again in
the paradise or atrium of St. Peter^, and fuially in the
basilica itself, where the station was held (Duchesne,
288). In 590, when a pestilence caused by an over-
flow of the Tiber was ravaging Rome, Gregory the
Great commanded a litany which is called "Septi-
formis'*; on the preceding day he exhorted the people
to fervent prayer, and arranged the order to lie ob-
served in the procession, viz. that the clergy from S.
Giovanni Battista, the men from S. Marcello, the
monks from 8S. Giovanni e Paolo, the unmarried
women from SS. Cosma e Damiano, the married
women from San Stefano, the widows from S. Vitale,
the poor and the children from S. CoK^ilia, were all to
meet at S. Maria Maggiore. The "Litonia Minor '\
or "Gallicana", on theRogation Days before Ascen-
sion, was introduced (477) by St. Mamertua, Bishop of
Vienne, on account of the earthquakes and other car
lamities then prevalent. It was prescribed for the
whole of Franldsh Gaul, in 511, by the Council of Or-
leans (can. xxvii). For Rome it was ordered by Leo
III, in 799. In the Ambrosian Rite this Htany was
celebrated on Monday, Tuesdav, and Wednesday after
Ascension. In Spain we find a similar litany from
Thursday to Saturday after Whitsuntide, another
from the first to third of November, ordered by the
Coimcil of Gerunda in 517, and still another for De-
cember, commanded by the synod of Toledo in 638.
In England the Litany of Rogation Days (Gang-
Days) was known in the earliest periods. In Germany
it was ordered by a Synod of Mainz in 813. Owing to
the fact that the Mass Litany became popular through
its use in processions, numberless varieties were soon
made, espedally in the Middle Ages. Litanies ap-
peared in honour of God the Father, of God the Son, of
God the Holy Ghost, of the Precious Blood, of the
Blessed Virgin, of the Immaculate Conception, of each
of the saints honoured in different countries, for the
souls in Purgatory, etc. In 1 60 1 Baronius wrote tha4.
about eighty forms were in circulation. To prevent
abuse, Pope Clement VIII, by decree of the Inquisi-
tion of 6 Sept., 1601, forbade the publication of any
litany, except that of the saints as found in the litur-
gical books and that of Loreto. To-day the litanies
approved for pul>lic recitation are: of All Saints, of
Loreto, of the Holy Name, of the Sacred Heart, and
of St. Joseph.
Bishop in Journal of Theological Studies (1906), 133; Rih mische Quartabiehrift (1904), 13; Punkes in Kirchenlex., 8. v, Litanei; Thill in I*astor Bonus (1891), 217 sqq.: Kellner, Hcortologie (Freiburg, 1906), 143 aqq.; Krieo in jKraus, Real' Encyk., 8. v. Litanex; Binterim, Denkwardigkeiten, IV, I, 572 sqq.; Revue B/nedidine. Ill, \\\\ V, 152; Serarius, Liton«u- tid Mu de iilaniis libeUi duo (Cologne, 1609).
Francis Mehshman.
Litany of Loreto. — Despite the fact that, from the seventeenth century onwards, the Litany of Lo- reto has been the subject of endless panegyrics and ascetical writings, there is a ^reat lack of documentarv evidence concerning its origm, the growth and devel- opment of the litany into the forms imder which we know it, and as it was for the first time definitely ap- proved by the Church in the year 1587. Some writers declare that they know nothing of its origin and his- tory; others, on the contrary, trace it back to the translation of the Holy House (1294); others, to Pope Sergius I (687); others, again, to St. Gregory the Great or to the fifth centur>'; while others go as far back as the earliest ages of the Church, and even Apostohc times. Historical criticism, however, proves it to be of more recent origin, and show3 that it was composed during the early years of the sixteenth cen- tury or the closmg years of the fifteenth. The most ancient printed copy hitherto discovered is that of Dillingen in Germany, dating from 1558; it is fairly certain that this is a copy of an earlier Italian one. but so far, in spite of much careful research, the oldest Italian copy that the writer has been able to discover dates from 1576.
In form, the Litany of Loreto is composed on a fixed plan common to several Marian litanies already in ex- istence during the second half of the fifteenth century, which in turn are connected with a notable series of Marian litanies that began to appear in the twelfth century and became numerous in the thirteenth and fourteenth. The Loreto text had, however, the good fortune to be adopted in the famous shrine, and in this way to become known, more than any other, to the many pilgrims who flocked there during the sixteenth centur^'. The text was brought home to the various countnes of Christendom, and finally it received for all time the supreme ecclesiastical sanction.
Appendea is a brief r<5sum^ of the work published by the present WTiter on this subject, the references being to the revised and enlarged French edition of 19(X), supplemented by any new matter brought to light since that time.
Sauren claims that the first and oldest Marian litany is a pious laus to the Virgin in the " Leabhar Breac *' a fourteenth-cent urv' MS., now in the library of the Roval Irish Academy, and written "in the purest style of Gaedhlic", according to 0'Curr>', who ex- plained its various parts. This laus of fiftv-nine eulogies on the Virgin occurs on fol. 121, and O Curry calls it a lHanin, attributing it at the latest to about the middle of the eighth century. But it has not at all the fo.rm of a litany, being rather a sequence of fer- vent praises, like so many that occur in the writings of the Fathers, especially after the fourth century. As a matter of fact, Dr. Sicking has shown that the en- tire laus of the '* Leabhar Breac" is copied alxnj:^^
