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for the third partition of Poland, he used his utmost endeavours to have the three States guarantee ^e preservation of the Church oi^eanization and prop- erty — guarantees which were disgracefully violated by Catherine U. On the latter's death litta was sent on an extraordinaiy mission to Moscow for the cor- onation of Paul I, whence he was transferred as am- bassador of Pius VI to St. Petersburg, to settle, ac- cording to Paul's wish, the affairs of the Latin and the Uniat Kuthenian church. He secured the erection, or rather restoration, of six dioceses of the Latin Rite and three of the Ruthenian (Polotsk, Lutsk, and Brest). The restoration of the See of Kiev was prevented by the Holy Synod. Church property was only partly restored, though the Government was obliged to es- tablish suitable allowances for the clergy. Litta also induced the nietropolitans of Gnesen (Posnania), and Lemberg (Galicia) to renounce their jurisdiction over the dioceses of the Latin Rite in Russian territory, these being transferred to the new metropolis of Mo- hileff. Through his efforts also the Basiliaii Order was restored. In April, 1789, he had to leave Russia.

On the death of Pius VI he went to Venice to assist at the conclave. When he returned to Rome he was ffiven an office in the papal treasury which enabled him to eradicate many abuses and introduce a better administration. In 1801 he was created cardinal and was made Prefect of the Congr^ation of the Index and, later, of Studies. In 1809 he was ex- pelled from Rome with Pius VII and sent to Saint- Quentin on the Seine. During this exile he translated ^e Iliad, and wrote a series of letters containing a brilliant refutation of the four GalUcan Articles of 1682, then the subject of much discussion. Some of these letters were addressed to Napoleon himself, and were later published anonymously. Returning to Rome with Pius VII, Litta was made Prefect of Prop- aganda, which, imder his administration, soon re- covered its former status. In 1814 he became subur- bicarian Bishop of Sabina, and in 1818 Cardinal Vicar of Rome. He is buried at Rome in SS. Giovanni e Paolo.

A biooraphy was published by Babuldx (Florence. 1828); see abo Litta, Famiglie celebn italiane,

U. Beniqni.

Little Brothers of Mary« See Mart» LnrLB Brothers of.

Little Office of Our Lady, a liturgical devotion to the Blessed Virgin, in imitation of. and in addition to, the Divine Office. It is first heard of in the middle of the eighth century at Monte Cassino. According to Cardinal Bona, who quotes from a MS. of Peter the Deacon (twelfth century), there was, in addition to the Divine Office, another " which it is customarv to

gerform in honour of the Holy Mother of God, which achary the Pope [d. 752] commanded under strict precept to the Cassinese Monastery." This would seem to indicate that some form of the Office of Our Lady was already extant and, indeed, we hear of an Office in her honour composed by St. Ildephonsus, who lived about the end of the seventh century. The Eastern Church, too, possesses an Office of the B. V. M., attributed to St. John Damascene (c. 730). But though various Offices in honour of Our Lady were in existence earlier, it is probable that the Little Office, as a part of the liturgy, did not come into general use before the tenth century; and it is not unlikely that its diffusion is largely due to the marked devotion to the Blessed Virgin which is characteristic of the Church in England under the guidance of St. Dun- Stan and St. Ethelwold. Certainly, during the tenth century, an Office of the Blessed Virgin is men- tioned at Au^burg, at Verdun, and at Einsiedeln; while already in the following century there were at least two versions of her "Hours" extant in England. In the eleventh century we learn from St. Peter Da-

mian that it waa already commonly recited amongst the secular clergy of Italy and France, and it was through his influence that the practice of reciting it in choir, in addition to the Great Office, was introduced into several Italian monasteries. At Cluny the Office of the B. V. M. was not introduced till the end of the eleventh century, and then only as a devotion for the sick monks. In the twelfth century came the foun- dation of the Orders of Clteaux and Prdmonti^. of which the latter onlv retained the Little Office in aadi- tion to the Divine Office. The Austin Canons also re- tained it, and, perhaps through their influence, in the coiu-se of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, it de- veloped from a private devotion into part of the dailv duty of the secular clergy as well. By the fourteenth century the recital of the Little Office had come to be an almost universal practice and was regarded as obligatory on all the clergy. This obligation re- mained until St. Pius V removed it by the Bull ^ Quod a nobis" of 156S. At the present time, however, it is recited on certain days by several of the older oraers, and it serves, instcaa of the Greater Office, as the liturgical prayer of lay brothers and lay sisters in some of the contemphitive orders, and of the members of most of the congregations of women engaged in active work.

Down to the Reformation it formed a large part of the "Primer or Lay-folk's Prayer-laook", and was customarily recited by the devout laity, by whom the practice was continued for long afterwards among the persecuted Catholics. To-day it is recited daily by Dominican, Carmelite, Augustinian, and by large num- bers of the Franciscan, Tertiaries, as well as by many pious lay-folk who desire to take part in the liturgical prayer of the Church. It is worth noting that the form of the Little Office of Our Lady has varied con- siderably at different periods and in different places. The earlier versions varied very considerably^ chiefly as regards the hymns and antiphons used: m Elng- land m medieval times the main differences seem to have been between the Sarum and York Uses. Since the time of St. Pius V, that most conmionly recited has been the version of the reformed Breviary of Umt pope. In this version, which suffers some- what from the classicism of the sixteenth century, are to be found the seven "Hours", as in the Greater Office. At Matins, after the versicles follow the invitatory "Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum" with the "Venite"; then the hymn "Quern terra, pontus, sidera"; then three groups of psalms, each with their antiphons, of which one group ie said on Sundays. Mondays, and Thursda^rs, the second on Tuesdays and Fridays, the tnird on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Next follow three les- sons with responsories and (except in Lent and Ad- vent) the "Te Deum". At Lauds, there are the eight psalms of the Divine Office for Sunda3rs, sung to five antiphons. Then the Little Chapter, and the hymn " O Gloriosa Virginum". Next a versicle and the canticle "Benedictus" with its antiphon. Lastly, the prayer and commemoration of the saints. In each of the four Little Hours the hymn " Memento rerum conditor" immediately follows the versicles; then three psalms are recited, under one of the antiphons of Lauds; then are said the Little Chap- ter, versicles, and a prayer. At Vespers, after the versicles and five psalms with their antiphons, follow the Little Chapter, the hymn "Ave Maris stella", a short versicle, and the canticle "Magnificat" with its antiphon; then the prayers as at Lauds. Compline begins with special versicles, then follow three psisdms without antiphons, then the hymn " Memento rerum conditor"j a Little Chapter, a versicle, the cantide "Nunc Dunittis", versicles, a prayer, and the Bene- diction. After the hours are recited the "Pater Noster" and the proper antiphon of Our Lady for the season. This last, the antiphons of the psalms and