The words of “Angels We Have Heard on High” were inspired by a traditional French carol which translated means“ the angels in our countryside”. James Chadwick wrote the English version of the words in 1862. The song’s most memorable partis the chorus, “Gloria in excelsis Deo”, which is Latin for “Glory to God in the Highest”. According to Luke 2 in the New Testament, these are words that the angels sang the night Jesus was born.
