While we are celebrating the Solemnity of All Saints it is important to appreciate the litany of the Saints. Personally speaking whenever it happens to me to listen to it I really become encouraged and also feel its supportive power.
We can classify the Litany of the Saints as one of the many valid and effective devotions which Mother Church presents to us. What stands special in this litany is the fact that its Gregorian style of chanting reminds us and, in a powerful way, helps us realize and experience the amazing strength of their intercession in front of God’s throne. Today I say that besides that the litany illuminates the sacramental celebration. It vividly brings to my heart and mind the scene the Book of Revelation speaks about in chapter 19 and which today’s liturgy in the first reading beautifully speaks: After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Rev 7: 9-10).
But what is exactly the history of this Litany of the Saints? Before answering this pertinent question it is important to say something about the concept of a litany itself, a series of short invocations or prayers that are followed by responses. There are litanies in Holy Scripture, for instance in Psalm 136. Here we encounter some various 26 petitions which after them come the immediate response: for his mercy endures forever. Related to the litany we find the prayer to the faithful in which we pray during Mass. Following each invocation we would pray: Lord, hear our prayer. Another kind of litany is certainly the Kyrie Eleison wherein the liturgical congregation responds: Lord have mercy and Christ have mercy.
Concerning the Litany of the Saints, Fr John A. Hardon in his Modern Catholic Dictionary comments in the following way about it: Called the Litany of the Saints because it is made up of petitions addressed to various saints of different classes, and to Mary, the Queen of the Saints. In its present form, after invoking 48 individual saints, and 13 groups of saints, the litany begs for deliverance from a dozen evils and makes some 30 intercessions, including ‘that you would deign to humble the enemies of Holy Church’ and ‘grant peace and unity to all Christian people.
The history of the Litany of the Saints can be traced back to the fourth century. What is sure is that by the sixth or early seventh century we find it introduced in various Church processions by Pope St Gregory the Great (590-604). It was used also in the days of prayer and fasting in the Western Church, commonly known as rogation days from the ninth till twentieth century. Then this devotion was removed from the liturgy.
In 2001 the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments published an important document called Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy. In number 235 it speaks about the Litany of the Saints. It says: The Litany of the Saints has been used in the Roman Church since the seventh century. Its liturgical structure is subtle, simple and popular. Through the litany, the Church invokes the Saints on certain great sacramental occasions and on other occasions when her imploration is intensified: at the Easter vigil, before blessing the Baptismal fount; in the celebration of the Sacrament of Baptism; in conferring Sacred Orders of the episcopate, priesthood and diaconate; in the rite for the consecration of virgins and of religious profession; in the rite of dedication of a church and consecration of an altar; at rogation; at the station Masses and penitential processions; when casting out the Devil during the rite of exorcism; and in entrusting the dying to the mercy of God. The Litanies of the Saints contain elements deriving from both the liturgical tradition and from popular piety. They are expressions of the Church’s confidence in the intercession of the Saints and an experience of the communion between the Church of the heavenly Jerusalem and the Church on her earthly pilgrim journey. The names of the Beati that have been inscribed in the calendars of particular Churches or religious institutes may be invoked in the litanies of the Saints. Clearly, the names of those whose cult has not received ecclesial recognition should not be used in the litanies.
The Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy tells us that the Litany of the Saints is solemnly chanted in conferring Sacred Orders of the episcopate, priesthood and diaconate (no. 235). In order to appreciate its power, let us taste the magnificent reflection by the late Pope Benedict XVI when he shared with us the moment when he was ordained both as a priest as well as a bishop, as portrayed in his famous book The Spirit of the Liturgy. He says: I shall never forget lying on the ground at the time of my own priestly and episcopal ordination. When I was ordained bishop, my intense feeling of inadequacy, incapacity, in the face of the greatness of the task was even stronger than at my priestly ordination. The fact that the prayer of the Church really was enveloping and embracing me was a wonderful consolation. In my incapacity, which had to be expressed in the bodily posture of prostration, this prayer, this presence of all the saints, of the living and the dead, was a wonderful strength — it was the only thing that could, as it were, lift me up. Only the presence of the saints with me made possible the path that lay before me.
Do you want to experience this wonderful strength which Pope Benedict XVI experienced in his ordination as a priest and bishop? Let us pray from time to time the wonderful Litany of the Saints so as to experience their heavenly accompaniment. Yes, the Saints are, as Pope Francis taught us during the Angelus of 1 November 2023, our excellent companions on our way to Heavenly Jerusalem.