Patrick Comerford
There are less than two weeks left in Advent this year and today is the Third Sunday of Advent (Advent III, 14 December 2025) or Gaudete Sunday.
At noon each day this Advent, I am offering one image as part of my ‘Advent Calendar’ for 2025, and one Advent or Christmas carol, hymn or song.
My image for my Advent Calendar today is a collage of wreaths on front doors along Wolverton Road in Stony Stratford and on ‘Gaudete Sunday’ for an Avent carol I have chosen Gaudete! gaudete! Christus est natus, which reached No 14 in the British charts with Steeleye Span in the early 1970s.
This song, which was popular in the early 1970s, and I first heard it around the same time as I was introduced to English folk rock while I was in the Midlands and writing for the Lichfield Mercury. On Gaudete Sunday, I think the story of the song is worth telling once again.
The notes on the album sleeve say:
Mist takes the morning path to wreath the willows -
Rejoice, rejoice -
small birds sing as the early rising monk takes to his sandals -
Christ is born of the Virgin Mary –
cloistered, the Benedictine dawn threads timelessly the needle’s eye –
rejoice.
Steeleye Span was formed in 1969, and they often performed as the opening act for Jethro Tull. A year after recording Below the Salt, it came as a surprise to many when they had a Christmas hit single with Gaudete, when it made No 14 in the charts in 1973.
This a capella motet, sung entirely in Latin, is neither representative of Steeleye Span’s repertoire nor of the album. Yet this was their first big breakthrough and it brought them onto Top of the Pops for the first time.
It is one of only three top 50 hits to be sung in Latin. The others are two recordings of Pie Jesu from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Requiem by Sarah Brightman and Paul Miles-Kingston in 1986, and by the then 12-year-old Charlotte Church in 1998.
Gaudete may have been composed in the 16th century, but may date from the late mediaeval period. The song was published in Piae Cantiones, a collection of Finnish and Swedish sacred songs in 1582.
The Latin text is a typical mediaeval song of praise, following the standard pattern of the time – a uniform series of four-line stanzas, each preceded by a two-line refrain (in the early English carol this was known as the burden).
The reference in verse 3, which puzzled many fans at the time, is to the east gate of the city in Ezekiel’s vision (Ezekiel 44: 2). The gate is a traditional symbol of the Virgin Mary.
Since the mid-1970s, Steeleye Span often include Gaudete as a concert encore, and it was published in 1992 in the New Oxford Book of Carols.
The original is here: Gaudete by Steeleye Span.
A more recent recording is available here from the ‘World Tour’ 35th Anniversary DVD.
There are other arrangements by Michel McGlynn, recorded by Anuna, and an arrangement by Bob Chilcott which is part of the Advent and Christmas repertoire of the choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.
Let us rejoice in good memories, let us rejoice that Christmas is coming, and in the midst of the present gloom let us rejoice that the coming of Christ holds out the promise of hope, the promise of his Kingdom, the promise that even in darkness the light of Christ shines on us all.
Gaudete, gaudete! Christus est natus
Ex Maria virginae, gaudete!
Tempus adest gratiæ
Hoc quod optabamus,
Carmina lætiticiæ
Devote reddamus.
Gaudete, gaudete! Christus est natus
Ex Maria virginae, gaudete!
Deus homo factus est
Natura mirante,
Mundus renovatus est
A Christo regnante.
Gaudete, gaudete! Christus est natus
Ex Maria virginae, gaudete!
Ezechielis porta
Clausa pertransitur,
Unde Lux est orta
Salus invenitur.
Gaudete, gaudete! Christus est natus
Ex Maria virginae, gaudete!
Ergo nostra contio
Psallat jam in lustro;
Benedicat Domino:
Salus Regi nostro.
Gaudete, gaudete! Christus est natus
Ex Maria virginae, gaudete.
Rejoice, rejoice! Christ is born
of the Virgin Mary, rejoice!
The time of grace has come
that we have desired;
let us devoutly return
joyful verses.
Rejoice, rejoice! Christ is born
of the Virgin Mary, rejoice!
God has become man,
and nature marvels;
the world has been renewed
by Christ who is King.
Rejoice, rejoice! Christ is born
of the Virgin Mary, rejoice!
The closed gate of Ezekiel
has been passed through;
whence the light is born,
salvation is found.
Rejoice, rejoice! Christ is born
of the Virgin Mary, rejoice!
Therefore let our gathering
now sing in brightness,
let it give praise to the Lord:
Greetings to our King.
Rejoice, rejoice! Christ is born
of the Virgin Mary, rejoice!
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