Patrick Comerford
We are one-third of the way through Advent this year and yesterday was the Second Sunday of Advent (Advent II, 7 December 2025). At noon each day in Advent this year, I am offering one image as part of my ‘Advent Calendar’ for 2025, and one Advent or Christmas carol, hymn or song.
Today, the Calendar of the Church of England marks the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (8 December), and so my choice of an Advent hymn or carol today is ‘Gabriel’s Message’, also known as ‘The Angel Gabriel from Heaven came’.
This lilting carol takes inspiration from the Magnificat in Luke 1: 26-38, where the Angel Gabriel appears to the Virgin Mary, telling her she will conceive and have a son named Jesus.
The hymn was translated or written by the Revd Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924), a priest, poet and hymn writer who is best-known for ‘Onward, Christian Soldiers’ and ‘Now the Day is Over’. He translated the carols ‘Gabriel’s Message’ and ‘Sing Lullaby’ from Basque carols.
‘Gabriel's Message’ quotes the account of the Annunciation and the Virgin Mary’s Magnificat (Luke 1: 46-55) with the opening lines:
The angel Gabriel from heaven came,
his wings as drifted snow, his eyes as flame:
‘From God, all hail,’ the angel said to Mary,
‘most highly favoured lady!’
Gloria!
The Basque folk carol, in turn, is based on Angelus ad virginem a 13th or 14th century Latin carol. It was collected by the French composer Charles Bordes (1863-1909) and published in Paris 1897. It was then paraphrased in English and published in 1922 by Sabine Baring-Gould, who had spent a winter as a boy in the Basque country.
The tune ‘Gabriel’s Message’ is commonly performed in an arrangement by Edgar Pettman published in 1922. With their youthful sense of humour, this carol has been known irreverantly as to generations of choirboys as ‘most highly flavoured gravy’. But its use of the lilting phrase ‘Most highly favoured lady’ made it the favourite carol of Richard Harries when he was Bishop of Oxford.
Notable modern interpretations include a track on Sting’s single ‘Russians’ (1985) and on his album If on a Winter's Night … (2009). His interpretation of this carol is also part of the album A Very Special Christmas (1987).
Other recordings have been made by Charlotte Church on the album Dream a Dream (2000), Aled Jones on The Christmas Album(2004) and Moya Brennan of Clannad on her album An Irish Christmas (2005).
The angel Gabriel from heaven came,
his wings as drifted snow, his eyes as flame:
‘From God, all hail,’ the angel said to Mary,
‘most highly favoured lady!’
Gloria!
‘Fear not, for you shall bear a holy child,
by him shall we to God be reconciled;
his name shall be Emmanuel, the long-foretold:
most highly favoured lady!’
Gloria!
Then gentle Mary humbly bowed her head:
‘To me be as it pleases God,’ she said,
‘My soul shall praise and magnify his holy name.’
Most highly favoured lady!
Gloria!
‘And so,’ she said, ‘how happy I shall be!
All generations will remember me;
for God has kept his promises to Israel.’
Most highly favoured lady! Gloria!
Of her, Emmanuel – the Christ – was born
in Bethlehem, upon that Christmas morn.
And Christian folk throughout the world will ever say,
‘Most highly favoured lady!’
Gloria!
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