LITANY (Lat. Titania, from Gk. 2.traveia, lit aneia, entreaty, from Xtraiveiv, litaincin, to en treat, from aireeeat,litesthai, to pray, from ?.tr, /ite, prayer). In general. a solemn act of suppli cation addressed to God with the object of avert ing His anger, and especially on occasions of pub lic calamity. Through•all the varieties of form which litanies have assumed, one characteristic has always been maintained—viz. that the prayer alternates between the priest or other minister, who announces the object of each petition, and the congregation, who reply in a common suppli catory form, the most usual of which was the well-known "Kyrie eleison!" (Lord have mercy! ). In one procession which Mabillon describes, this prayer, alternating with "Christe eleison," was repeated 300 times; and in the capitularies of Charlemagne it is ordered that the 'Kyrie eleison' shall be sung by the men, the women answering "Christe eleison." From the fourth century down ward, the use of litanies was general. The Antiphonary of Saint Gregory contains several. In the Roman Catholic Church three litanies are especially in use—the "Litany of the Saints" (which is the most ancient), the "Litany of the Name of Jesus," and the "Litany of Loreto." Of these, the first alone has a place in the public service books of the Church, on the rogation days, in the ordination service, the service for the consecration of churches, the consecration of cemeteries, and many other offices. Although called litany of the saints, the opening and closing petitions, and indeed the greater part of the litany, consist of prayers addressed directly to God; and the prayers to the saints are not for their help, but for their intercession on behalf of the worshipers. The Litany of Jesus consists of
a number of addresses to Him under His various relations to men, in connection with the several details of His passion, and of adjurations of Him through the memory of what Ile has done and suffered for the salvation of mankind. The date of this form of prayer is uncertain, but it is re ferred, with much probability, to the time of Saint Bernardino of Siena, in the fifteenth cen tury. The Litany of Loreto, so called because it has for ages been solemnly sung every Satur day in the chapel of the lloly House at Loreto, resembles both the above-named litanies in its opening addresses to the Holy Trinity, and in its closing petitions to the "Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world ;" hut the main body of the petitions are addressed to the Virgin Mary under various titles, some taken from the Scriptures, some from the language of the Fathers, some from the mystic writers of the inedia-val Church. The litany in the prayer-book of the English Church, although it partakes of ancient forms, contains no invocation of the Virgin or the saints. It is divided into four parts—invoca tions, deprecations, intercessions, and supplica tions—in which are preserved the old form of alternate prayer and response.