Christmas Carols and Their Stories
Puzzle 17 · Carols of the Nativity Story · Page 33 in print
O Come All Ye Faithful
John Francis Wade, who copied out Adeste Fideles, was a Jacobite, eager to restore the Catholic Stuarts to the English throne, and Jacobite symbols appear in some of his manuscripts.
Jump to a word
The words
Adeste Fideles
The Latin hymn from which O Come All Ye Faithful was translated.
Benediction
The Catholic service at which the 1760 book appointed the hymn to be sung.
Douay
The French Catholic town where Wade is thought to have worked for a time.
Duke of Leeds
The patron who heard the hymn at the Portuguese chapel and had it arranged for concert.
Evening Office
The Evening Office of the Church (1760), the first book to print the hymn.
Francis Wade
John Francis Wade, the copyist in whose manuscripts the hymn first survives.
Greatorex
Thomas Greatorex, who arranged the hymn for a London concert in 1797.
Jacobite
A supporter of the exiled Stuart kings; Jacobite symbols appear in Wade’s manuscripts.
Murray's Hymnal
The 1852 hymn book where the familiar English form first appeared.
Nicene Creed
The creed whose wording the hymn’s second verse borrows.
Oakeley
Frederick Oakeley, who made the English version about 1841.
Hymnology Archive (opens a new tab) · Hymnary.org: O Come, All Ye Faithful (opens a new tab)
Plain Chant
An Essay on the Church Plain Chant (1782), the first printing of the tune.
Portuguese
The embassy chapel in London that gave the tune its name, the Portuguese Hymn.
Samuel Webbe
The embassy-chapel organist who first printed the tune, in 1782.
Stonyhurst
The Lancashire college that keeps Wade’s 1751 manuscript of the hymn.
Sources
- Hymnology Archive (Chris Fenner, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary), article ‘Adeste fideles’Hymnology Archive
- O Come, All Ye FaithfulHymnary.org text record (quoting the Psalter Hymnal Handbook and Julian’s Dictionary of Hymnology)