EYRIE
716
EYRIE
Vatican "Gradual"). The new Vatican edition also
provides a series of other chants, including eleven
Kyries, ad libitum. The Kyrie Eleison (as all the
Ordinary and proper of the choir) may also be sung to
figured music that does not offend against the rules of
Pius X's " Motu proprio " on church music (22 Nov.,
1903). Meanwhile the celebrant, having incensed the
altar and reatl the Introit at the Epistle side, says the
Kyrie there with joined hands alternately with the
deacon, sub-deacon, and surrounding servers. At low
Mass the celebrant after the Introit comes to the middle
of the altar and there says the Kyrie alternately with
the server ("Ritus celebr." in the Missal, iv,_ 2, 7).
The Kyrie is said in this way at every Mass with the
exception of Holy Saturday and also of the Mass on
Whitsun Eve at "which the prophecies and htany are
chanted. On these occasions the cantors finish the
litany by singing the nine invocations of the KjT-ie.
After the prayers at the foot of the altar the celebrant
goes up, incenses the altar, ami then at once intones the
Gloria. But he should saj' the KjTie in a low voice
himself first. Besides in the Mass, the KjTie occurs
repeatedly in other offices of the Roman Rite, always in
the form Kyrie Eleison, Christe Eleison, Kyrie Eleison
(each invocation once only). It begins the preces
feriales at Lauds, Teroe, Sext, None, Vespers ;_ it be-
gins the preces at Prime and Comphne. It is sung
after the Besponsorium at funerals, said at marriages
and on many other occasions for blessings and conse-
crations. In these cases it generally precedes the
Pater Noster. It also begins and ends the Litany of
the Saints. As an imitation of this, it is always placed
at the beginning of the various other private litanies
which are imitations of the official one.
In other Rites. — In the first place, the invocation Christe Eleison is purely Roman. With one excep- tion, ob\'iously a Roman interpolation in the Mozara- bic Rite, it does not occur in any other use. Local medieval uses had it, of course; but they are only shght local modifications of the Roman Rite, not really different rites at all. In the GalUcan Mass, as de- scribed by Germanus of Paris, three boys sing Kyrie Eleison three times after the Trisagion which follows the Antiphon at the entrance, then follows the Bene- dictus. These chants represent the beginning of the Mass (Duchesne, "Origines du Culte", pp. 182, 1S3). After the Gospel and Homily comes a htany sung by the deacon like the Syrian and Byzantine synaptai. The people answer in Latin: Precamur te Domine, miserere; but at the end come three Kyrie Eleisons.
The Milanese rite shows its GaUican origin by its use
of the Kyrie. Here, too, the form is always Kyrie
Eleison three times (never Christe Elrisnn). It occurs
after the Gloria, which has replaced the older Trisa-
gion, after the Gospel, where the (iailican litany was,
and after the Post-commmiion, always said by the cele-
brant alone. It also occurs throughout the Milanese
offices, more or less as at Rome, but always in the
form of Kyrie Eleison three times. The Mozarabic
Liturgy does not know the form at all, except in one
isolated case. In the Mass for the Dead, after the
singing of the chant called Sacrificium. (corresponding
to the Roman Offertory) the celebrant says KjTie
Eleison, and the choir answers Christe Eleison, Kyrie
Eleison ("MLssale mixtum "' in P. L.,LXXXV, 1014,
1018, 1021, 1024, etc. — the various Masses for the
Dead). This is obviously a Roman interpolation.
All the Eastern rites use the form Kyrie Eleison constantly. It is the usual answer of the people or choir to each clause of the various htanies sung by the deacon throughout the service (varied, however, by Trapdaxov Kipie and one or two other similar ejacula- tions) . It also occurs many other times, for instance in the Antiochene Rite it is sung twelve times, at Alexan- dria tliree times just before the Communion. In the Byzantine Rite it comes over and over again, nearly always in a triple form, among the Troparia and other prayers said by various people tliroughout the Office as well as in the Liturgy. A conspicuous place in this rite is at the dismissal (Brightman, 397). In general it may be said to occur most frequently in the Syrian- Byzantine family of Liturgies. In the Sjrriac litur- gies it is said in Greek, spelled in Syriac letters Kurillison, so also in the Coptic liturgies (in Greek letters of com'se — nearly all the Coptic alphabet is Greek); in the Abyssinian Rite it is spelled out: Kir- alayeson. The Nestorians translate it into Syriac and the Armenians into Armenian. All the versions of the Byzantine Rite used by the various Orthodox and Uniate Churches (Old Slavonic, Arabic, Rumanian, etc.) also translate KiJpie iXiriaov.
Duchesne, Origines du culte chretien (2nd ed., Paris, 1S9S), 156-58, 1S2-S4; GtHH, Das heilige Messopfer (Freiburg, 1897), 357-61- Probst, Liturgie der drei ersten cfiristlichen Jahrhun- derte (Tubingen 1870), 96, 262, 370; Bishop. Kyrie eleison in The Downside Review (1899), 294-303, (1909), 44 sqq.; Bon.\, Rerum lilurgiarum libri duo (Cologne, 1674), II, 4; Benedict XIV. De SS. Sacrificio Misses, II (ed. Schneider, Mainz, 1879, 96-98), 4; Durandus, Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, IV, xii; DE Hebdt, Sacras Lilurgia, I (Louvain, 1894), 286, 431.
Adrian Fortescue.
