KYRIE ELEISON. - "Lord, have mercy!" is a Greek invocation in language and origin, in sacred and profane use already in the ancient East, among Greeks and Romans. It is read often (not in a compound sense) in the Bible (especially in Psalms 6:3; 30:10; 40:5, 11; 55:2; 85:3; 118:29; 122:3; Isa. 33:2; Bar. 3:2; Matt. 15:22; 17:15; 20:30-31). It occurs in the liturgy no earlier than the end of the 4th century in Antioch (St. John Chrysostom, in Mt. hom., 71, 4; PG 58, 666; hom. 6, 1 in I Tim.; PG 62, 530; Constit. Apost., VIII, 6, 4.9 and c. 35, ed. Funk, I, 478.480.544) and in Jerusalem (Etheria c. 24: CSEL, 39, 72). In Rome it was introduced toward the end of the 5th century, and in the time of St. Gregory I (d. 604), perhaps already by St. Benedict (d. 547), it was recited alternately with "Christe eleison". From Rome it spread into Gaul (Council of Vaison of 529) etc.; in Milan already earlier, under Greek influence.
In the Eastern liturgy, the K. e. is used as the people's response to the deacon's invitation in the litanies of intercession (ecteniae); it is said without addition, separate from the other invocation, but often repeated also on other occasions.
In the Roman Mass it was recited in the form of the "Deprecatio Gelasii", similar to the Greek ectenia, perhaps introduced into the "Missa catechumenorum" by Gelasius I (492-96) in place of the "Oratio fidelium" (omitted, because the prayers of intercession had entered the Canon), which is still used in the Ambrosian liturgy. Following the example of the Roman liturgy, St. Benedict ordered the "litaniae" for Lauds and Vespers; for the Little Hours, instead, an abbreviated form, the "supplicatio litaniae, id est K. e.", perhaps already alternated with "Christe eleison". St. Gregory I also distinguishes two forms of it: the greater in the solemn Mass, the lesser in daily Masses, alternated with "Christe eleison" (Ep., 9, 2, ad Ioann. ep. Syrac.). The greater one was omitted; already in the Roman Orders it is no longer found. The number of 9 (documented in the Ordo of John the Archcantor, ed. Silva-Tarouca, p. 196) sometimes increased and ended at the pontiff's signal. Then the sacred number of 9 (three times three) became fixed, interpreted by Amalarius as done in honor of the Most Holy Trinity, but in reality all the cries go to Christ. The shorter form occurs, outside the Mass, in the Preces of the Office, and, placed at the beginning and end of the litanies, is repeated in processions. Outside liturgical use, especially in the Middle Ages in France and Germany (Lais, Leisen), it was added to religious songs. It was recited or sung formerly, by the Greeks and Romans, between the deacon and the people; the celebrant did not recite it, but already from John the Archcantor (Silva-Tarouca, p. 205), it is known that the priest recited it in private Masses ("... singulus... sacerdos... novem tantum vicibus"), in sung or solemn Masses from the 13th century (Ordo Rom., XIV, n. 61. 68. 71).
In the 9th century the so-called tropes began to be inserted, a custom that lasted until the reform of Pius V (1570).
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