Saint Alban


Saint Alban is venerated as the first-recorded British Christian martyr, for which reason he is considered to be the British protomartyr. Along with fellow Saints Julius and Aaron, Alban is one of three named martyrs recorded at an early date from Roman Britain. He is traditionally believed to have been beheaded in the Roman city of Verulamium sometime during the 3rd or 4th century, and his cult has been celebrated there since ancient times.

Hagiography

Alban lived in Roman Britain, but little is known about his religious affiliations, socioeconomic status, or citizenship. According to the most elaborate version of the tale found in Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, in the 3rd or 4th century, Christians began to suffer "cruel persecution", and Alban was living in Verulamium. However, Gildas says he crossed the Thames before his martyrdom, so some authors place his residence and martyrdom in or near London. Both agree that Alban met a Christian priest fleeing from persecutors and sheltered him in his house for a number of days. The priest, who later came to be called Amphibalus, meaning "cloak" in Latin, prayed and "kept watch" day and night, and Alban was so impressed with the priest's faith and piety that he found himself emulating him and soon converted to Christianity. Eventually, it came to the ears of an unnamed "impious prince" that Alban was sheltering the priest. The prince gave orders for Roman soldiers to make a strict search of Alban's house. As they came to seize the priest, Alban put on the priest's cloak and clothing and presented himself to the soldiers in place of his guest.
Alban was brought before a judge, who just then happened to be standing at the altar, offering sacrifices to "devils". When the judge heard that Alban had offered himself up in place of the priest, he became enraged that Alban would shelter a person who "despised and blasphemed the gods," and, as Alban had given himself up in the Christian's place, Alban was sentenced to endure all the punishments that were to be inflicted upon the priest, unless he would comply with the pagan rites of their religion. Alban refused, and declared, "I worship and adore the true and living God who created all things.". The enraged judge ordered Alban to be scourged, thinking that a whipping would shake the constancy of his heart, but Alban bore these torments patiently and joyfully. When the judge realized that the tortures would not shake his faith, he gave orders for Alban to be beheaded.
in England, showing the death of Saint Alban
Alban was led to execution, and he presently came to a fast-flowing river that could not be crossed. There was a bridge, but a mob of curious townspeople who wished to watch the execution had so clogged the bridge that the execution party could not cross. Filled with an ardent desire to arrive quickly at martyrdom, Alban raised his eyes to heaven, and the river dried up, allowing Alban and his captors to cross over on dry land. The astonished executioner cast down his sword and fell at Alban's feet, moved by divine inspiration and praying that he might either suffer with Alban or be executed for him.
The other executioners hesitated to pick up his sword, and meanwhile, Alban and they went about 500 paces to a gently sloping hill, completely covered with all kinds of wild flowers, and overlooking a beautiful plain.
, now in Trinity College Library, Dublin; note the executioner's eyes falling out of his head
When Alban reached the summit of the hill, he began to thirst and prayed God would give him water. A spring immediately sprang up at his feet. It was there that his head was struck off, as well as the head of the first Roman soldier who was miraculously converted and refused to execute him. However, immediately after delivering the fatal stroke, the eyes of the second executioner popped out of his head and dropped to the ground, along with Alban's head, so that this second executioner could not rejoice over Alban's death.
In later legends, Alban's head rolled downhill after his execution, and a well sprang up where it stopped.
Upon hearing of the miracles, the astonished judge ordered further persecutions to cease, and he began to honour the saint's death.
St Albans Cathedral now stands near the believed site of his execution, and a well is at the bottom of the hill, Holywell Hill.

Dating controversy

The date of Alban's execution has never been firmly established. Original sources and modern historians indicate a range of dates between 209 and 313.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle lists the year 283, but Bede places it in 305, "when the cruel Emperors first published their edicts against the Christians." In other words, it was sometime after the publication of the edicts by Eastern Roman Emperor Diocletian in 303 and before the proclamation of toleration in the Edict of Milan by co-ruling Roman Emperors Constantine I and Licinius, in 313. Bede was probably following Gildas.
English historian John Morris suggests that Alban's martyrdom took place during the persecutions of Emperor Septimius Severus in 209. Morris bases his claims on the Turin version of the Passio Albani, unknown to Bede, which states, "Alban received a fugitive cleric and put on his garment and his cloak that he was wearing and delivered himself up to be killed instead of the priest… and was delivered immediately to the evil Caesar Severus." According to Morris St Gildas knew the source but mistranslated the name "Severus" as an adjective, wrongly identifying the emperor as Diocletian. Bede accepted the identification as fact and dates St Alban's martyrdom to this later period. As Morris points out, Diocletian reigned only in the East and would not have been involved in British affairs in 304; Emperor Severus, however, was in Britain from 208 to 211. Morris thus dates Alban's death to 209. However, the mention of Severus in the Turin version has been shown to be an interpolation into an original text, which mentioned only a iudex or 'judge'. Subsequent scholars have argued that such a single, localised British martyrdom in 209 would have been unusual, and they have suggested the period of 251–259 are more likely.

Location controversy

While it is certain that the cult devoted to Saint Alban was established in Verulamium, and his martyrdom was also alleged to have taken place there, the sources are unclear about where he was actually executed. Neither Victricius's De Laude Sanctorum nor the Passio Albani mentions where he was martyred other than that it was in Britain. In the Vita Germani, Germanus visits Alban's tomb and touches droplets of his blood still on the ground, but the text does not name the location of the tomb. It is not until Gildas that Alban was connected with Verulamium.

Disputed historicity

Little is known about the real Alban, as there are no contemporaneous accounts of his martyrdom and the major sources on his life were written hundreds of years after his death, containing wondrous embellishments, which may or may not refer to real events.
Saint Alban was long regarded as a genuine martyr saint, the protomartyr of Britain, and for much of the 20th century controversy centred on the date of his martyrdom. More recently, however, some researchers have taken a more sceptical view about his historicity. In the view of Robin Lane Fox, not only is St Alban's date disputable but so is his very existence. In an article published in 2000 Philip Thornhill argued that the cult of St Alban was one of many early Christian cults derived from pagan traditions, in this case 're-invented' to serve a contemporary political purpose. Thornhill proposed that Albans was in some sense a personification of Albion and that his cult was used by Verulamium in its efforts to unify and establish its dominance over the old Roman province of Britannia. He identified the name Elafius, a British official in the Life of Saint Germanus, as a 'mis-hearing' of Albios or Albius as another name for Albanus, in a corrupt oral version of the story of Germanus's visit to Britain. He suggested that the cult of the traditionally 'pre-Patrican' Saint Ailbe of Emly in Munster was the immediate origin of the cult of Alban/Albios and that later persons in hagiographical legends were much devolved and mutated derivatives of a fragmented cult of Alban/Albios.
This theory received little support or even notice, but in 2008 the historian Ian Wood proposed that he was an 'invention' of Saint Germanus of Auxerre. Germanus visited Britain in 429, as is known from the nearly-contemporary mention by Prosper of Aquitaine. His chronicle, in the entry for the year 429, states:
Meanwhile, it was recorded in the Vita Germani, written probably sometime between 450 and 485 by Constantius of Lyons, that he, together with his fellow bishop Lupus, having stamped out the heresy of Pelagianism in Britain, visited the tomb of Saint Alban:
The martyr Alban is also mentioned, one more time, in the context of Germanus's return journey, by sea:
window at Church of the Good Shepherd
The Vita Germani was long regarded as the earliest source for the martyr Alban, but recent research by Richard Sharpe has suggested the earliest version of the Passio Albani may be even earlier. Wood's argument was based partly on the idea that the name Albanus is suggestive of Albion as the oldest name for Britain, but for him, the name Alban suggested simply 'the man from Albion' rather than an actual 'personification' of the island and its people. It is, in any case, a part of what suggested to Wood that "it is Germanus who gives Alban a name". That, in turn, encouraged him in his conclusion:
"The story of the saint's martyrdom seems to have been revealed to, or invented by, Germanus in the context of his anti-Pelagian mission" and in a later article "Alban may, therefore, have been 'discovered' by the bishop of Auxerre".
The argument has been accepted by, for instance, Michael Garcia but disputed by, for instance, Professor Nick Higham, who, in an article written in 2014 noted that since Germanus brought relics of continental saints with him, which, so the Passio relates, he deposits in the tomb of Saint Alban while removing some bloodstained earth to take back to Gaul, he must have known from the start that he would make a visit to the cult-centre of Saint Alban, as part of his campaign against the Pelagian heresy. On this basis he states: "This would make good sense in terms of his mission, claiming Britain's most famous cult for Catholicism". He therefore argues against the conclusion of Woods and Garcia that the martyr Alban was unknown before being invented by Germanus.
Key to the argument is a passage in the T version of the Passio that Sharpe has convincingly argued represents an 'interpolation' to the more original E text. All extant versions of the Passio mention Germanus's visit to the tomb of Saint Alban. The E version, followed essentially by the T version, states :
but interpolated at this point in only the T version is
after which the T version essentially follows the E version again:
It is possible to deduce from the interpolated passage that the name of the martyr was unknown before being revealed to Germanus, either in a vision he had of the martyr during his sea journey or in the dream he had in the basilica. It is also possible to deduce that it was simply the acta, or 'story of the martyrdom', of an already well known figure that was revealed to Germanus. The acta were then written down in tituli : that is possibly engraved in the walls of a church with illustrations. This might have been either in a church in Auxerre as argued by Sharpe and Wood, or in Britain. If the latter is the case, by being on public display, they might have served to give a definitive version of the saint's martyrdom, which could not be contradicted or reinterpreted In any case, it has been argued by Sharpe and Wood that these acta written down in tituli were actually the original, very simple and short, first version of the Passio Albani that has come down in the 'E' and later versions That is very possible but, of course, quite unprovable, but it seems clear that the Passio originates with the circle of Germanus at Auxerre. As time went on, more and more details and wondrous events were added to the account its most detailed version in the 8th century, in Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People.
The location of the tomb of Saint Alban that Germanus visited is most often thought to have been Verulamium, now St Albans. That is on the basis of what is in fact the earliest mention of the martyr Alban in an indigenous British source, in the De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae probably written in the second quarter of the fifth century, by the British author Gildas. As part of his brief historical account he describes the persecution of Christians in Britain,which he identifies as part of the persecution of Diocletian, adding at the end of a passage about "their graves and the places where they suffered":
"I refer to Saint Alban of Verulam, Aaron and Iulius, citizens of Caerleon and others of both sexes, who in different places, displayed the highest spirit in the battle-line of Christ".
The Verulamium location is supported by the fact that the topography of the Passio can be broadly, if not quite exactly, matched to that of Verulamium, and Bede describes an important cult of Saint Alban there, by the early eighth century at least. Some doubt, however, is encouraged by the fact that in his account of Albans's martyrdom Gildas describes the martyr as crossing the Thames to his place of execution, which some have taken as an indication that the actual martyrdom was located in Londinium.

Cult

The hilltop located outside Verulamium eventually became the centre of the cult devoted to Alban. It has been claimed that a memoria over the execution point and holding the remains of St Alban may have existed at the site from c. 300, possibly earlier. There was certainly a cult centre of St Alban at Verulamium by the time of Bede c. 731, and the mention in Gildas strongly suggests that it was already in existence by the early sixth century. However, when and how the cult of Saint Alban originated is the subject of some debate: there is little textual or archaeological evidence that a cult of Saint Alban existed before Germanus of Auxerre visited the site in 429. In fact, one version of the Passio Albani says that Germanus did not know the name or story of Saint Alban before visiting the site, and Alban appeared to him in a dream to reveal his identity and martyrdom story. That can be interpreted as suggesting that the cult of Saint Alban did not exist before the arrival of Germanus. Germanus is said to have taken away dust from the site, which was still marked with Alban's blood. The cult and veneration of saints was still in its infancy at this time, and it has been suggested that Germanus had a hand in creating and promoting the cult of Saint Alban.
Gildas writing probably in the second quarter of the fifth century calls Saint Alban Verolamiensis, 'of Verulamium' in a passage that refers to the "graves and places where they suffered" of the early British martyrs. This suggests there was at least a shrine but quite possibly a church to him at Verulamium by then. Certainly, Bede mentions a church there, dedicated to him. Offa of Mercia established a Benedictine Abbey and monastery at the site c. 793, but the abbey was probably sacked and destroyed by the Danes c. 890. It was rebuilt by the Normans, with construction beginning in 1077. By the High Middle Ages, St Albans ranked as the premier abbey in England. The abbey church now serves as the cathedral of the Diocese of St Albans, established in 1877.
In a chapel east of the crossing and high altar are remains of the 14th-century marble shrine of St Alban. In June 2002 a scapula, believed to be a relic of St Alban, was presented to St Albans Cathedral and placed inside the saint's restored 13th-century shrine. The bone was given by the Church of St Pantaleon in Cologne, Germany . St Pantaleon's, like St Albans Cathedral a former Benedictine abbey church that had a shrine dedicated to St Alban, has possessed remains believed to be those of St Alban since the 10th century. It is entirely possible that further relics were acquired by the church in the 16th century at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries in England, when many such relics were smuggled abroad to prevent their destruction. St Albans Abbey was dissolved in 1539.
The largest relic of St Alban in England is the thigh of the protomartyr preserved at St Michael's Benedictine Abbey, Farnborough, Hampshire, which was removed from the St Pantaleon's reliquary in the 1950s.

On the Continent

There has also been an extensive cult of Saint Alban on the Continent from an early date such as in Mainz, Cologne and Basel on the Rhine as well as a number of other localities in Switzerland and Italy and a notable concentration in the French Alpine regions and the Rhone Valley. Sometimes, the 'Saint Alban' concerned is regarded as a separate figure, other times, he is alternatively called Albinus, and at other times he is identified with the British martyr. Philip Thornhill noted a correlation of Alban dedications with place names in Alb-.
designed by Carl Almquist
Saint Pantaleon's Church, Cologne holds relics said to be those of the British martyr Alban. In fact, although identified with the British martyr, he was locally known as Albinus. His relics were said to have been brought from Rome by Empress Theophano and placed in St Pantaleon's church in about 984: the relics were miraculously saved from destruction in an accident on the way at a place that a later version of 1502, was identified as Silenen, Switzerland. The original record was in a 12th-century manuscript that alleged that the relics were actually those of the British martyr, having been delivered to Ravenna by Germanus himself and taken from there to Rome. Another church at Cologne is known to have been dedicated to the British Alban from the 12th century.
The Saint Alban of Basel is recorded in the Berne rescension of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum of circa 800: "Basilea civitate sancti Albani martyris", where he would appear to be an independent local figure, being celebrated on 24 August but later identified with the Saint Alban of Mainz.
St Alban of Mainz is recorded from 756. He was regarded as a separate figure in sources from Raban Maur's early 9th century martyrology, including a 10th-century Life by Gozwin of 1060–2 However, Hippolyte Delehaye suggested that he very probably represents, in origin, a localised version of the British martyr since his feast date was recorded as June 21 in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum.
The story in Raban Maur associates Alban of Mainz with a martyred bishop, Aureus of Mainz and two other martyrs, Ursus and Theonestus the latter of whom is said to have originated on the Greek island of Naxos, together with Alban. Thornhill elaborates a theory that suggests that Theonestus represents "some kind of distorted mirror image of the name, 'Dionysus'", as appropriate to the leading ancient cult-figure associated with Naxos. A Saint Alban of Burano, meanwhile was associated with one Domenicus in a legendary tale reminiscent of one told about Dionysus.

Veneration

Alban is listed in the Church of England calendar for 22 June and he continues to be venerated in the Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox Communions. The Fellowship of Saint Alban and Saint Sergius is also named in part after Alban.
Every year, during the weekend closest to his feast day, St Albans Cathedral hosts the "Alban Pilgrimage", with huge puppets re-enacting the events of Alban's martyrdom around the city of St Albans.
Besides his abbey, churches in England dedicated to Saint Alban include the former St Alban, Wood Street in the City of London, St Alban's Church at Holborn in central London, ones in the London suburbs of Teddington, Croydon and Ilford, one in Westcliff-on-Sea in Essex, others in Hull and Withernwick in the East Riding of Yorkshire, one in Swaythling, Southampton, one in Northampton, one in a Norwich suburb, one in Bristol, one in Tattenhall, Cheshire and another in Macclesfield, Cheshire. There is also St Alban's, West Leigh near Havant in Hampshire, and the St Alban the Martyr Parish Church of Highgate, Birmingham. and St Alban the Martyr Church, Oxford. Finally, a church is dedicated to Saint Alban at Earsdon Village, Northumberland, which is the nearest one to Bede's Holy Island. There is also a St Albans parish and church in Splott, Cardiff.
St Alban is the Patron Saint of the Liberal Catholic Church worldwide.

Outside Britain

Churches, festivals, and places dedicated to Saint Alban outside Britain include the following:
, Denmark

Australia

Places
Alberta
British Columbia
Manitoba
New Brunswick
Newfoundland
Nova Scotia
Ontario
Prince Edward Island
Saskatchewan
Quebec
Places
in Copenhagen, Denmark, which is the city's only Anglican church. It was built to the design of Sir Arthur Blomfield and consecrated in 1887. The connection with Denmark goes back to the Middle Ages where a church dedicated to Saint Alban was built in Odense. Supposedly, the relics of the saint had been brought here, maybe as early as the ninth century. It was in that church that King Canute IV of Denmark was murdered in 1086. The original church no longer exists, but the Roman Catholic parish church of Odense, St Alban's Church, was consecrated in 1908.

France

Places
Places
with sacral predecessors dating back to 1083

United States

St. Albans is the name of a community in the borough of Queens in New York City. In 1899, a year after Queens became part of New York City, the new post office for the 600 residents
was named St. Albans, after St Albans in Hertfordshire, England, which itself was named after Saint Alban. The name had been in use for the area since at least 1894 for the name of the school district,
and the LIRR station was named St. Albans when it opened in 1898. A 1909 map also shows a St Albans Avenue and a St Albans Place in the area.
The parish church of St Alban's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., was erected on Mount Saint Alban in 1854 using a bequest from a young woman, Phoebe Nourse, who earned the money sewing. St Alban's went on to found five mission churches in Washington, four of which still maintain active congregations of their own. Washington National Cathedral, a cathedral of the Episcopal Church in Washington D.C., is located next to the parish church, which preceded the laying of the Cathedral's cornerstone by 53 years. The St Albans School for Boys, which is affiliated with and was established in 1909 soon after the construction of the Cathedral began, is also named for the saint.
In 1972, a chapel named after St. Alban was erected and later consecrated in the Sabino Catchment area of Tucson, Arizona. The chapel and the congregation later became St. Alban's Church and Parish. It was in this church that the second Anglican female priest, and first female priest in Arizona, was ordained.
In 1928, St. Alban's Chapel, an Episcopalian church, was established on the campus of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
After undergoing several name changes, St. Albans is the name of a community West of Charleston, West Virginia, the capital of the state.
Incomplete List...
– Hoover, Alabama
– Stuttgart, Arkansas
– Catalina Foothills, Arizona
– Wickenburg, Arizona
– Tucson, Arizona
– Yucaipa, California
– Los Angeles, California
– El Cajon, California
– Arcata, California
– Albany, California
– Windsor, Colorado
– Hartford, Connecticut
– Wilmington, Delaware
– St. Pete Beach, Florida
– Auburndale, Florida
– Andrews, Florida
– Augusta, Georgia
– Monroe, Georgia
– Chicago, Illinois
– Indianapolis, Indiana
– Fort Wayne, Indiana
– Spirit Lake, Iowa
– Davenport, Iowa
– Monroe, Louisiana
– Glen Burnie, Maryland
– Salisbury, Maryland
– Edina, Minnesota
– Minneapolis, Minnesota
– Manistique, Michigan
– Warren County, Mississippi
– Cape Elizabeth, Maine
– New Brunswick, New Jersey
– Oakland, New Jersey
– McCook, Nebraska
– Syracuse, New York
– Staten Island, New York
– Brooklyn, New York
– Littleton, North Carolina
– Hickory, North Carolina
– Davidson, North Carolina
– Albany, Oregon
– Deschutes County, Oregon
– Tillamook, Oregon
– Newtown Square, Pennsylvania
– Whitfield, Pennsylvania
– Middle Valley, Tennessee
– El Paso, Texas
– Austin, Texas
– Arlington, Texas
– Hubbard, Texas
– Houston, Texas
– Waco, Texas
– Travis County, Texas
– Annandale, Virginia
– two in Washington, D.C.
– Edmonds, Washington
– Washakie County, Wyoming
– Superior, Wisconsin
– Sussex, Wisconsin
– Spooner, Wisconsin
– Maricopa County, Arizona
– Peoria, Arizona
– Los Banos, California
– Harford County, Maryland
– Arlington, Texas
– Tacoma, Washington
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