En, Nocte Venit Media

Here is today's Latin Christmas carol; you can read one carol per day for the month of December, or see the complete collection all at once. Today's selection is the English carol "It Came Upon The Midnight Clear," which was first published in 1849. You can find the English lyrics with MIDI files and sheet music at the Hymns and Carols of Christmas website.

I found online this Latin translation by Robert J. M. Lindsay:

En, nocte venit media
antiquum canticum,
terraeque lyris angeli
civere sonitum:
"Pax orbi et hominibus;
a Deo gratia!"
Audivit summo reverens
silentio terra.

Adhuc nunc alis devolant
per caelum expansis;
adhuc et cantus dispergunt
mortalibus fessis,
et tristes atque desertos
campos pervolitant,
semperque mundi strepitum
canentes superant.

Bellis peccatisque diu
hic mundus laesus est.
Annorum duo milia
iniusta passus est,
nec hoc amoris canticum
bellantes audiunt.
Tumultuosi, silete,
dum angeli canunt!

Nam dies mox approperant
praedicti prophetis,
cum redit aetas aurea
volventibus annis,
cum pax antiquam gloriam
terris obiciet,
et carmen, quod nunc angelis
canunt, orbis reddet.

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Here are the carols I have completed so far:
December 1: Rudolphus
December 2: Angelus ad Virginem
December 3: Aquifolia Ornate
December 4: A Solis Ortus Cardine
December 5: O Viri, Este Hilares
December 6: Conditor Alme Siderum
December 7: Angeli Canunt Praecones
December 8: Regis Olim Urbe David
December 9: Gaudium Mundo
December 10: Resonet in Laudibus
December 11: Adeste Fideles
December 12: Christe, Redemptor Omnium
December 13: Dum Servant Pecus Pastores
December 14: Primum Noel Cecinit Angelus
December 15: In Dulci Iubilo
December 16: Procul in Praesaepi
December 17: Gaudete
December 18: Quem Pastores Laudavere
December 19: Orientis Reges Tres
December 20: Lapsi Caelo Super Gentes
December 21: Silens Nox
December 22: Corde Natus Ex Parentis
December 23: Veni, Veni Emmanuel!

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Bolchazy-Carducci has a Latin Christmas Carol music CD! With 12 songs in Latin, O Abies: O Christmas Tree is available at amazon.com for $17.00

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