LITANY, a word used by Eusebius and Chrysostom, com monly in the plural, in a general sense, to denote a prayer or prayers of any sort, whether public or private. It is similarly employed in the law of Arcadius (Cod. Theod. xvi. tit. 5, leg. 3o). But some trace of a more technical meaning is found in the epistle (Pp. 63) of Basil to the church of Neocaesarea, in which he argues against those who were objecting to certain innovations, that neither were "litanies" used in the time of Gregory Thauma turgus. The nature of the recently introduced litanies, which must be assumed to have been practised at Neocaesarea in Basil's day, can only be conjectured. It is assumed that they were penitential and intercessory prayers offered by the community while going about in procession, fasting and clothed in sackcloth. In the fol lowing century the manner of making litanies was to some extent regulated for the entire Eastern empire by one of the Novels of Justinian, which forbade their celebration without the presence of the bishops and clergy, and ordered that the crosses which were carried in procession should not be deposited elsewhere than in churches, nor be carried by any but duly appointed persons. The first synod of Orleans (A.D. 511) enjoins for all Gaul that the "litanies" before Ascension (which are said to have been insti tuted by Mamertus, bishop of Vienne, in 477) be celebrated for three days; on these days all menials are to be exempt from work.
A synod of Paris (573) ordered litanies to be held for three days at the beginning of Lent, and the fifth synod of Toledo (636) appointed litanies to be observed throughout the kingdom for three days from December 14. The first mention of the word litany in connection with the Roman Church goes back to the pontificate of Pelagius I. (555-560), but implies it was at that time already old. In 590 Gregory I., moved by the pestilence which had followed an inundation, ordered a "litania septiformis," sometimes called litania major, that is to say, a sevenfold pro cession of clergy, laity, monks, virgins, matrons, widows, poor and children. It must not be confused with the litania septena
used in church on Easter Even. He is said also to have appointed the processions or litanies of April 25 (St. Mark's day), which seem to have come in the place of the ceremonies of the old Robi galia. In 747 the synod of Cloveshoe ordered the litanies or roga tions to be gone about on April 25 "after the manner of the Roman Church," and on the three days before Ascension "after the manner of our ancestors." The latter are still known in the English Church as Rogation Days.
As regards the form of words prescribed for use in these "lit anies" or "supplications," documentary evidence is defective. Sometimes it would appear that the "procession" or "litany" did nothing else but chant Kyrie eleison without variation. The offices of the Roman Catholic Church at present recognize two litanies, the "Litaniae majores" and the "Litaniae breves," which differ from one another chiefly in the fulness of detail in the invocations, deprecations, intercessions and supplications. The litanies, as given in the Breviary, are at present appointed to be recited on bended knee, along with the penitential psalms, in all the six week-days of Lent when ordinary service is held. Without the psalms they are said on the feast of Saint Mark and on the three rogation days. A litany is chanted in procession before mass on Holy Saturday. The "litany" or "general supplication" of the Church of England, which is appointed "to be sung or said after morning prayer upon Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and at other times when it shall be commanded by the ordinary," closely follows the "Litaniae majores" of the Breviary, the invocations of saints being of course omitted. A similar German litany will be found in the works of Luther.