As it is approaching Christmas we are now looking at the top ten Christmas Carols. At number 8 is O Come, O Come Emanuael, this was selected twice during lockdown for the St Fillan’s online Songs of Praise.
This is a medieval Latin hymn dating from the 800s. It was one of a series of antiphons that were sung every December, and it isn’t hard to imagine the mystic beauty of this hymn echoing off the walls of remote monasteries during the Middle Ages. This particular antiphon was discovered by an English minister and musician named John Mason Neale, who translated it into English and published it in 1851.
The words:
O come, O come, Immanuel,
and ransom captive Israel
are appropriate as Israel and the surrounding lands are locked in fighting and need freeing from their “captivity”.