The sevenfold-fivefold-threefold litany of the saints in the Leofric Missal and beyond

Abstract

The brief litany of saints in the Leofric Missal is the oldest complete extant specimen of the sevenfold-fivefold-threefold prayer used for baptism on Holy Saturday. This continental innovation became widespread in Anglo-Saxon England, and was used in Ireland into the twelfth century. The petitions of this special form, probably from an English source, appear in the brief litany of the Corpus Irish Missal, alongside invocations either standardized by the scribe or adapted from a continental source. Through the evolution of the sevenfold-fivefold-threefold litany over time and across cultures, we see concrete evidence of the patterns of cultural transmission that shaped early medieval Europe.