It’s Greek to Me: The Kyrie

It’s Greek to Me

The Kyrie, that is. It’s Greek to me. This ancient prayer is the one part of the Traditional Latin Mass (aside from Amen) that has never been in Latin. It is, in fact, Greek. In English the tripartite prayer goes “Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy.” Even in an otherwise venacular Ordinary Form Mass you will sometimes hear it in it’s original form: Kyrie, eleison, Christe, eleison, Kyrie, eleison.

The Kyrie seems to have been introduced into the Latin Liturgy from the Greek speaking part of the world c. 500 AD. It seems unlikely that it is a remnant of the earliest masses in Rome, which were conducted in Greek for the first couple centuries. There is no record of its liturgical use in the west until the 6th century:

The first evidence of its use in the West is in the third canon of the Second Council of Vaison(Vasio in the province of Arles), in 529. From this canon it appears that the form was recently introduced at Rome and in Italy. . . (Catholic Encyclpedia, “Kyrie Eleison“).

In the Eastern Churches

In the eastern churches Kyrie, eleison was (and is) a common response of the people during litanies. It also has a place in many liturgical celebrations. Only the Roman Church incorporates the phrase Christe, eleison as well. In the Roman tradition, it is often used at the beginning of litanies. We are most familiar with it, of course, as the first prayer in the Ordinary of the Mass.

In the pre-Vatican II liturgy the Kyrie was also a prominent part of the Daily Office.  In the Mass there were (and still are in the TLM) nine invocations instead of just three: Kyrie, eleison three times, followed by Christe, eleison three times, and concluding with another three repetitions of  Kyrie, eleison. The 3 x 3 arrangement is clearly intended to reflect the Trinity. Additionally, “The medieval commentators are fond of connecting the nine-fold invocation with the nine choirs of angels” (Catholic Encyclpedia, “Kyrie, Eleison“).

Biblical Origins, Grammar

There are many variations of the phrase “Lord have mercy” in both the Old and New Testament, especially in the Psalms and in the Gospels.  Many commenters have pointed out that the Biblical expression always has a specific object as in Matthew 15:22: “Lord, have mercy on me” (Ἐλέησόν με Kύριε). We can see the more general “Lord have mercy” without an object as a way of praising God’s mercy as well as asking it for ourselves and others.

Kyrie and Christe (Kύριε, Χριστέ) are the vocative forms of Kύριος, “Lord,” and Χριστός, “Christ, Annointed.” The verb ἐλέησον is an aorist imperative.  The aorist tense indicates an action with a definite beginning and end.

Greek	Transliteration	Translation
Κύριε, ἐλέησον	Kyrie, eleison	Lord, Have mercy
Χριστέ, ἐλέησον	Christe, eleison	Christ, Have mercy
Κύριε, ἐλέησον	Kyrie, eleison	Lord, Have mercy

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