John of Reading

John of Reading wrote O Come O Ye Faithful which most of us remember as Adeste Fideles, which is how it was originally rendered way back in the 14th Century.  I don’t really know the Latin words outside of the first stanza, I am not Catholic, but I do remember hearing it as a child probably from Bing Crosby on television as well as the local RC Church, actually a basilica, Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

Brooklyn when I was growing up was called the “city of Churches” because of the large amount of churches that filled Fourth Avenue.  There was at least a church on every corner of every other block,and since every block has two corners that often meant four churches sat opposite each other.

Where I grew up in Sunset Park, Brooklyn there was Emmanuel Lutheran, down the street,  on 54th and 4th Avenue.  Across  from that was the Pentecostal Church and across from that, on the other side of Emmanuel was a very small Anglican church.  I think  the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help is that is left based on searching.  I guess next time I go down there, I should look there are none listed on the search engines.

Here’s the Latin version of O Come O Ye Faithful that you can sing along with Andrea Bocelli

Adeste fideles læti triumphantes,
Venite, venite in Bethlehem.
Natum videte
Regem angelorum:
Venite adoremus (ter)
Dominum.

Deum de Deo, lumen de lumine
Gestant puellæ viscera.
Deum verum, genitum non factum.
Venite adoremus (ter)
Dominum.

Cantet nunc ‘Io’, chorus angelorum;
Cantet nunc aula cælestium,
Gloria! Soli Deo Gloria!
Venite adoremus (ter)
Dominum.

Ergo qui natus die hodierna.
Jesu, tibi sit gloria,
Patris aeterni Verbum caro factum.
Venite adoremus (ter)
Dominum.

There are additional Latin verses in various sources. For example:

En grege relicto, humiles ad cunas,
Vocati pastores adproperant:
Et nos ovanti gradu festinemus,
Venite adoremus (ter)
Dominum.

Æterni parentis
Splendorem æternum
Velatum sub carne videbimus
Deum infantem
Pannis involutum
Venite adoremus (ter)
Dominum.

Other versions:

Cantet nunc hymnos
Chorus angelorum
Cantet nunc aula cælestium,
Gloria
In excelsis Deo!
Venite adoremus (ter)
Dominum.