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Tue, 12/15/2020 - 20:13
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Stories Behind the Best- Loved Songs of Christmas: “O Come, All Ye Faithful”

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“O Come, All Ye Faithful” has been sung in churches of all denominations for almost two hundred years and sung in Catholic masses for much longer. It has been translated into more than 150 languages, used in thousands of cantatas and musical productions, and called by some critics “the greatest carol ever written.” It is amazing, therefore, that the song’s author remained unknown until just after World War II.

For several hundred years it was believed that the person who wrote “O Come, All Ye Faithful” was an unknown cleric from the Middle Ages or even before. It was quite a shock when English scholar Maurice Frost discovered seven transcripts of the song, written by hand and signed by an English Catholic priest named John Francis Wade.

John Wade was a man of God caught in the middle of a Holy War. In 1745, at the age of thirty-five, Wade’s life was on the line. Strife between the Church of England and the Roman Catholic church was at an all-time high. Many practicing Catholics were forced to take their faith underground, and many priests fled Britain to avoid prison or death—including John Wade. Wade made his way to Douay, France, where he was given an important job. Since many Catholic Church records were lost during the conflict in England, Wade was given the task of researching and identifying historical church music, then carefully recording and preserving it for future generations. When I say he was to “record” the music, that’s not how we think of recording music! He took his job very seriously, and as a calligrapher by training, as well as a skilled musician, Wade saved not only historical church songs, he then organized and distributed them to Catholic churches throughout Europe. Through his beautifull detailed drawings and manuscripts, the priest reintroduced many forgotten songs to masses across France and beyond.

Wade’s job description may have been to reclaim old pieces, but he was also inspired to write new hymns. In or around 1750, Wade put the finishing touches on what would become his most famous tune, “Adeste Fideles.” He published it in his own book, Cantus Diversi, the next year. A decade later he completed and put lyrics to his melody. Yet somehow, even though it was published at least two different times with John Wade credited as being the composer, credit for writing “Adeste Fideles” remained a mystery when the original lyrics were translated into English in 1841. Althought there were many legends about the song’s author, none of them named John Wade.

In the 1800s, Saint Bonaventura somehow emerged as the original writer of the song. Bonaventura may actually have been of some inspiration to Wade; that part of the story is unknown. However, in 1860, when the song was performed in the Portuguese Embassy, the organist, Vincent Novello, informed his audience that a man named John Redding had composed the melody, and Redding actually rode along with that story for some time. However, the proof was in the penmanship: Wade’s manuscripts were crafted more than a century before Redding’s birth.

In America, as in most of the world, the song was adopted by many Christian churches before 1900. During the 1905 Christmas season, the greatest American vocal group of the period, the Peerless Quartet, recorded and released the carol. At a time when radio had yet to introduce music to the masses, thousands of copies of this Christmas single were sold. The single even hit number seven on the “National Hit Parade!” But when Bing Crosby cut his “White Christmas” album and included “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” the song gained notoriety as America’s favorite Christmas song.

Wade fully revelled in his role as a servant of his Lord. In every word and verse of “O Come, All Ye Faithful,” the composer’s faith is not just verified, it is magnified. At a time when the church was literally at war, only someone who truly believed in the holiness of Christ could have written a carol that would unite all Christians in the same place each Christmas—bowing before Christ the Lord!

Excerpts from “Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas,” by Ace Collins, 2001