Letania more solito dicantur. A contribution to the study of the Marian devotion among medieval Dominicans

Abstract

The main object of the study is to present the origins of the prayer commonly known as Dominican litany (Litaniae Ordinis Praedicatorum quae dicuntur in omnibus tribulationibus) and its place in the piety of medieval Dominicans. The exact time of the creation of the litany is not known. The first mention of the litany appears in connection with an extremely dangerous incident for the Order, which took place in the 1250s. On 21 November 1254 pope Innocent IV issued a bull Etsi Animarum which considerably limited the privileges of Mendicant orders concerning, inter alia, preaching, confession and alms. The legend associated with the litany has it that the brothers began to recite it passionately. As a consequence pope Innocent IV died. Regardless of whether the litany worked a miracle here or not, the fact is that the General Chapter of Paris, ordered the entire Order to say the litany. The original text of the Litany to the Blessed Virgin remains unknown. The search for the oldest surviving version of the whole prayer leads to a hand-written message, coming only from the year 1500.