Prayer · Christian practice
Kyrie Eleison
Lord, have mercy
Κύριε, ἐλέησον
Kyrie, eleison
The two-word Greek petition meaning “Lord, have mercy”. It is retained in Greek in the Roman rite and also used in Eastern Christian worship. Other liturgical traditions translate it into their own languages.
Source: Greek liturgical petition; retained untranslated in the Roman Mass
The count shown here is Japa's suggestion, not a rule of the tradition. Follow the form and number you were taught.
Not counted on beads
How many times
Japa suggests 40 times a day. Follow the number you were taught.
Japa counts this one without a mala: a plain daily number rather than a ring of beads, with the words kept in view while you say them. Counting is unlimited and free.
Open this practice in JapaOpens a preview of this practice, with an option to add it in Japa 1.6 or later. If you install the app, return here and open the link again.
What the words say
Kyrie is the vocative of kyrios, lord. Eleison is an imperative: have mercy. Eleos, the noun behind it, is closer to compassion or pity than to the legal sense mercy has picked up in English — the Kyrie asks to be treated with tenderness, not merely let off.
Where it comes from
The petition is pre-Christian in Greek usage and appears in Christian liturgy by the fourth century, in the litanies of the East. Rome took it in and kept the Greek; the Council of Vaison in 529 records it as already customary there.
How it is practised
Sung in litanies, where the number of repetitions varies widely by rite — three, twelve, forty and a hundred all occur in different Eastern usages. The forty offered here is one common form and not a universal rule.
References
- Council of Vaison (529), canon 3
- Byzantine litany usage
Keep it, and count it every day.
Japa keeps this text beside a large, calm counter on iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, with a haptic for every bead and an optional bell at the end of each round. Counting is unlimited and free.
Get Japa on the App Store