John Francis Wade

John Francis Wade was an English hymnist who is usually credited with writing and composing the hymn "Adeste Fideles". The authorship is disputed, with 13th-century cardinal St. Bonaventure and King John IV of Portugal being proposed as alternative composers, although the earliest known manuscripts of the hymn discovered from 1946 all bear Wade's signature. Others argue for John Reading or anonymous Cistercian monks.