O Come, All Ye Faithful

(Adeste Fideles)

English words by Frederick Oakeley,

Latin words attributed to John Francis Wade, music by John Reading

John Francis Wade was an 18th-century British exile who moved to a Roman Catholic community in France, where he eked out an income by copying and selling music and by giving music lessons to children. Perhaps he himself wrote the Latin stanzas, beginning “Adeste fideles,” which have made his name known; perhaps they were a text he was called upon to translate. In any case, he combined the text with a bit of music, probably by another Englishman, John Reading, and published the resulting hymn around 1751. More than a century later, the English version, “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” was turned out by Frederick Oakeley, a British clergyman who felt that if congregations had good literary texts to sing, they would sing well. This hymn proved his point.

Click here to listen to O Come, All Ye Faithful

O come, all ye faithful,

Joyful and triumphant,

O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem

Come and behold Him, born the King of Angels.

CHORUS

O come, let us adore Him,

O come, let us adore Him,

O come, let us adore Him,

Christ, the Lord.

Sing, choirs of angels,

Sing in exultation;

Sing all ye citizens of heav’n above:

Glory to God in the Highest.

CHORUS

Yea, Lord, we greet Thee.

Born this happy morning;

Jesus, to Thee be glory giv’n Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing.

CHORUS

Adeste fideles,

Laeti trimphantes,

Venite, venite in Bethlehem.

Natum videte, Regem angelorum.

Venite adoremus;

Venite adoremus;

Venite adoremus, Dominum.