January 2026 Reading on St. Augustine
Excuse the exception to this column which ordinarily treats of a passage from St. Augustine, but I thought that I’d share a song in this month’ s issue. The Christmas season continues until the Baptism of the Lord, or, in the old reckoning and at my house, until Candlemass (February 2). During this time I frequently listen to the Kings College Choir Christmas carols from 1978. One of my favorite carols comes from the early fifteenth century and you may well know it.
“Adam Lay Ybounden”
Adam lay ybounden,
Bounden in a bond;
Four thousand winter
Thought he not too long.
And all was for an apple,
An apple that he took,
As clerkes finden written
In their book.
Ne had the apple taken been,
The apple taken been,
Ne had never our Lady
A-been heavené queen.
Blessed be the time
That apple taken was!
Therefore we moun singen
Deo gratias.
ybounden — bound
four thousand winter — the traditional reckoning of years from Adam to Christ
clerkes — scholars, clerks (professional theologians)
ne had... been — had not... been (if the apple had not been taken)
a-been — have been
heavené — heaven’s
moun — may, must
This beautiful poem compresses rich theology into almost a nursery-rhyme. It is a celebration of the felix culpa, “ o happy fault, ” so central to the Catholic tradition. Adam ’ s sin, which bound his offspring to sin and death, paradoxically made possible the Incarnation and the exaltation of Mary to be the Queen of Heaven. The tone is not penitential but joyful: we must give thanks for the apple because without it we wouldn ’t have Mary nor Christ as redeemer.
