Debate about the authorship of this carol continues even today but the name most frequently attached to it is that of John Francis Wade, an Englishman at the Catholic college at Douai. Written as “Adeste Fideles” about 1742, the carol was brought back to England by returning Catholics and was often sung at the Portuguese embassy in London — thus it came to be known for a time as “The Portuguese Hymn”. It was translated in 1841 by a Church of England clergyman Frederick Oakeley (1802-80) as “Ye Faithful, Approach Ye”. After his conversion to Catholicism he made another translation in 1852, the now familiar “O Come All Ye Faithful”. Additional verses have been added by W.T. Brooke (1848-1917) but these are seldom sung.
O come, all ye faithful,
Joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem.
Come and behold Him,
Born the King of Angels!
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.
God of God,
Light of Light,
Lo! He abhors not the Virgin’s womb;
Very God,
Begotten, not created.
O come, let us adore Him, etc.
Sing choirs of angels;
Sing in exultation
Sing, all ye citizens of heaven above:
Glory to God –
In the highest.
O come, let us adore Him, etc.
Yea, Lord, we greet Thee,
Born this happy morning;
Jesus, to Thee be the glory giv’n;
Word of the Father,
Now in the flesh appearing.
Recently it has been suggested (without much proof) that the carol was really a coded Jacobite song of praise for the claim of the deposed Stuart dynasty to the throne of England. Oakley was a supporter of Bonnie Prince Charlie and had fled England when the uprising of 1745 was crushed.