Oh come all ye faithful history
Oh come all ye faithful history
The history of a Christmas classic, ‘O Come, All Ye Faithful’...
What are the lyrics to ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’, and who composed the Christmas carol?
3 December , | Updated: 3 December ,
O Come, All Ye Faithful – Winchester College Chapel
It’s the guaranteed barnstormer with which all Christmas carol services should end – but what are the lyrics to ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’, and who composed the hymn?
‘O Come All Ye Faithful’ is the carol to end all Christmas concerts.
Its rousing melody – attributed to a number of composers over the years, including Handel and Gluck – is generally credited to John Francis Wade.
Printed in , the text was originally written in Latin as ‘Adeste Fideles’, a title you’ll still sometimes see printed on Christmas albums.
But the English translation, written by the English Catholic priest Frederick Oakeley in , is the most commonly used version.
Today, you might recognise it as the penultimate hymn sung at the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols by the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge (the final is usua