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Adeste Fideles

Representative Text

1 Adeste, fideles,
laeti, triumphantes,
venite, venite in Bethlehem;
natum videte
regem angelorum:
[Refrain:]
venite, adoremus,
venite, adoremus,
venite, adoremus Dominum.

2 Deum de Deo,
Lumen de Lumine,
gestant puellae viscera,
Deum verum,
genitum, non factum: [Refrain]

3. Cantet nunc hymnos
chorus angelorum;
cantet nunc aula caelestium:
Gloria
in excelsis Deo! [Refrain]

4 Ergo qui natus
die hodierna,
Jesu, tibi sit gloria:
Patris aeterni
verbum caro factum: [Refrain]

Source: Hymns of Glory, Songs of Praise #307

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Author: John Francis Wade

John Francis Wade (b. England, c. 1711; d. Douay, France, 1786) is now generally recognized as both author and composer of the hymn "Adeste fideles," originally written in Latin in four stanzas. The earliest manuscript signed by Wade is dated about 1743. By the early nineteenth century, however, four additional stanzas had been added by other writers. A Roman Catholic, Wade apparently moved to France because of discrimination against Roman Catholics in eighteenth-century England—especially so after the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745. He taught music at an English college in Douay and hand copied and sold chant music for use in the chapels of wealthy families. Wade's copied manuscripts were published as Cantus Diversi pro Dominicis et Festis p… Go to person page >

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Text Information

First Line: Adeste fideles laeti, triumphantes
Title: Adeste Fideles
Author: John Francis Wade
Meter: Irregular with refrain
Language: Latin
Refrain First Line: Venite, adoremus
Notes: English translation: See: "O Come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant" by Frederick Oakeley; French translation: "O peuble fidéle" from D'après "Louange et Prière"; German translation: See "Herbei, o ihr Gläub'gen" by Friedrich Heinrich Ranke; Polish translation: See "Pośpieszcie, o wierni" by Paweł Sikora; Spanish translation: "Venid, fieles todos,a Belén vayamos" by Juan Bautista Cabrera Ivars; Swahili translation: See "Umati wa Yesu, njooni kwa furaha"
Copyright: Public Domain
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Adeste fideles. In the Evening Office of the Church in Latin and English, London 1760, this hymn consists of stanzas i., ii., vii., viii. of the text. Concerning the translation it must be noted:—
1. That to Canon Oakeley's translation as in the Altar Hymnal, 1884, No. 7, Mr. W. T. Brooke added a translation of stanzas iii.— vi., thus producing a translation of the full text.
2. The translation No. 7, "Come hither, ye faithful," is attributed, in the Pennsylvania Lutheran Church Book, 1868, to "C. P. Krauth."
3. "Come, all ye faithful," in the Roman Catholic Hymns for the year, 1867, is a slightly altered form of Neale's translation (No. 9), which dates 1854.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)

Notes

Adeste fideles. In the Evening Office of the Church in Latin and English, London 1760, this hymn consists of stanzas i., ii., vii., viii. of the text. Concerning the translation it must be noted:—
1. That to Canon Oakeley's translation as in the Altar Hymnal, 1884, No. 7, Mr. W. T. Brooke added a translation of stanzas iii.— vi., thus producing a translation of the full text.
2. The translation No. 7, "Come hither, ye faithful," is attributed, in the Pennsylvania Lutheran Church Book, 1868, to "C. P. Krauth."
3. "Come, all ye faithful," in the Roman Catholic Hymns for the year, 1867, is a slightly altered form of Neale's translation (No. 9), which dates 1854.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, Appendix, Part II (1907)

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Instances

Instances (1 - 10 of 10)

A New Hymnal for Colleges and Schools #225

A New Hymnal for Colleges and Schools #225
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Catholic Book of Worship III #329B

Catholic Book of Worship III #329B
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Church Hymnary (4th ed.) #307

Church Hymnary (4th ed.) #307
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Flor Y Canto (2nd ed.) #317

Flor Y Canto (2nd ed.) #317
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Hymns for a Pilgrim People #101

Hymns for a Pilgrim People #101
TextPage Scan

Hymns of Glory, Songs of Praise #307

Hymns of Glory, Songs of Praise #307
TextPage Scan

Singing the Living Tradition #253

Singing the Living Tradition #253
Text

Śpiewnik Ewangelicki #72

Śpiewnik Ewangelicki #72
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The Cyber Hymnal #14234

The Cyber Hymnal #14234
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TTT-Himnaro Cigneta #593

TTT-Himnaro Cigneta #593
Include 73 pre-1979 instances
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