HE FOLLOWING DRAFT COPIES are somewehat “ugly,” and I feel embarrassed releasing them—but they’re all I have access to at the moment. As time goes on, I’d like to make very nice copies, similar to what my colleague, Veronica Brandt, did with the Litany of Saint Joseph. I believe the Latin title (“litaniæ”) is plural, but in English we usually say (singular) “litany.” 1 By the way, polyphonic composers—such as Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina—composed litanies, as I once stole an invertible Kyrie from one! We will use a litany for our Corpus Christi procession this coming Sunday (since the “external solemnity” requires a procession) but I suspect Palestrina’s litanies would have been sung inside an oratory. It was surprisingly difficult to find litanies notated with Gregorian Chant. Several texts are in the Rituale Romanum, and numerous organ accompaniments for the litanies have been uploaded here.
Litanies I Currently Possess:
Perhaps readers can help re-typeset these? The best would be if each invocation could be written out, or at least made more clear:
* PDF Litany • “Litany of the Saints” (1957)
—“Litaniæ Sanctorum”
* PDF Download • “Litany of the Saints” (1928)
—“Litaniæ Sanctorum”
* PDF Download • Litany of Saint Joseph (1949)
—“Litaniæ Sancti Joseph, Sponsi Beatæ Mariæ Virginis”.
* PDF Download • Litany of Saint Joseph (1957)
—“Litaniæ Sancti Joseph, Sponsi Beatæ Mariæ Virginis”.
* PDF Download • Sacré Cœur (1924)
—“Litaniæ Sacratissimi Cordis Jesu”—see note below.
* That file from 1924 actually has two (2) versions of the Litany of the Sacred Heart — click here to have just the first one formatted for easy printing on front/back pages.
* PDF Download • Sacré Cœur (1957)
—“Litaniæ Sacratissimi Cordis Jesu”.
* PDF Download • Sacré Cœur, Version B (1902)
—“Litaniæ Sacratissimi Cordis Jesu”.
* PDF Download • Sacré Cœur, Version C (1902)
—“Litaniæ Sacratissimi Cordis Jesu”.
* PDF Download • MOST HOLY NAME (1928)
—“Litaniæ Sanctissimi Nominis Jesu”.
* PDF Download • Blessed Virgin Mary (1891)
—Six different Gregorian Chant versions of the “Litany of Loreto.”
Someone in a foreign country seems to have composed a Litany of the Most Precious Blood and here is the source of that file.
KEYWORD SEARCHES:
“Litaniae In Expositione”
“Litania Preces Et Orationes”
“Cantu Litaniarum Ad Omnes Sanctos”
“Dicuntur Cum Cantu Litaniae Sanctorum”
“Cum Litaniis Sanctorum”
“In Litaniis Majoribus”
“Litaniæ Sanctissimi Nominis Jesu”
“Litaniæ De Sacro Corde Jesu”
“Litaniæ Lauretanæ B. Mariæ Virg.”
“Litaniæ De S. Joseph”
“Index Litaniarum”
“Litanias Ordinarias”
NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:
1 It’s kind of like the Latin word “vexilla” which in English means “flag” or “standard”—but Father Fortescue translated it plural as “banners” in his translation of the VEXILLA REGIS.
