Back to: The Twelve Days of Christmas Carols
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. Legend had it that Saint Bonaventura had penned the words.
So it came as quite a shock when English scholar Maurice Frost discovered seven “O Come, All Ye Faithful” transcripts written by hand and signed by an English Catholic priest named John Francis Wade.
Wade, an Englishman was caught in the war in the 18th century between Catholics and protestants. His life was in the balance and in 1845 at the age of 35 he fled England for France, a center of Catholicism.
He made his way to Douay, France which was a city inundated by English Catholics and those who opposed the British royal family. Wade was given an important job. Since many Catholic Church records were lost during the conflict in England, Wade was to research and identify historical church music, then carefully record and preserve it for future generations.
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 beautifully detailed drawings and manuscripts, the priest reintroduced many forgotten songs to masses across France and beyond. Wade reclaimed old pieces but also was inspired to write new hymns.
Research by Dom John Stéphan, author of The Adeste Fidelis: A Study of Its Origin and Development (1947), has determined that the first and original manuscript was dated in 1743, indicating that Wade composed both the Latin words and the music between 1740 and 1743. Wade 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 Frederick Oakeley translated the original lyrics into English in 1841 and left Wade out of the authorship! With this translation, it became a popular hymn.
In the 1800s, Saint Bonaventura somehow emerged as the original writer of the song. There may be at least some fact to this legend. It is possible that Wade came across the writings of Bonaventura when he was doing his work in France as a cleric, it was only natural that he composes his new works in Latin.