THE BEAUTIFUL Basque carol “Gabriel’s Message” is based on a hymn first sung some 900 years ago:

The medieval Basque hymn ‘Gabriel’s Message’ tells the story of the Annunciation in the context of Christmas. The worship of heaven and earth conjoin as the chorus repeats the connection between the Blessed Virgin Mary’s unique status as the Mother of God and the desire to honour and praise both her and God.

The Trinitarian presence of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit is implied beneath the radiant surface of the hymn, in the core of the Annunciation and the impulse to worship. Time—both Chronos and Kairos—weave into playful conjoining throughout the hymn, which tells the story of the Annunciation in a linear way while promising the generations to come and looking to the forerunners of Christ’s arrival, particularly Isaiah. The hymn pierces the darkness with Gabriel’s flaming eyes and snowdrift wings, offering the Feast of the Annunciation as a Christmas promise, redolent with Advent imagery.

The carol is based on a c. 13th-century Latin hymn, Angelus ad Virginem, which probably has a Franciscan origin. Its popularity meant it travelled throughout Europe, and was known in Britain soon after it was written. Indeed, it’s quoted in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, as part of the Miller’s Tale when he mentions Nicholas the scholar singing it … More

Like many Christmas carols, this has gone through many transformations, has been rediscovered and cherished by different epochs, surviving through the change and upheaval of history.

“Gabriel’s Message” will never grow old. It will never become obsolete, however much it is changed, and that’s because the sublimity it expresses is eternal.

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