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| Alban is the earliest Christian in Britain who is known by name
and, according to tradition, the first British martyr. He was a
soldier in the Roman army stationed at Verulamium, a city about
twenty miles northeast of London, now called St. Albans. He gave
shelter to a Christian priest who was fleeing from persecution,
and was converted by him. When officers came to Alban's |
 "In honor of St. Alban" |
| house, he dressed
himself in the garments of the priest and gave himself up. Alban
was tortured and martyred in place of the priest, on the hilltop
where the
Cathedral and Abbey Church of St. Alban now stands. The
traditional date of his martyrdom is 303 or 304, but recent
studies suggest that the year was actually 209, during the
persecution under the Emperor Septimius Severus. |
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 Alban standing before the magistrate |
The site of Alban's martyrdom soon became a shrine. King Offa of
Mercia established a monastery there about the year 793, and in
the high Middle Ages St. Albans ranked as the premier abbey in
England. The great Norman abbey church, begun in 1077, now serves
as the cathedral of the diocese of St. Albans, established in
1877. It is the second longest church in England (Winchester
Cathedral is the longest, by six feet), and it is built on higher
ground than any other English cathedral. In a chapel east of the
choir and high Altar, there are remains of the fourteenth century
marble shrine of St. Alban. |
The Venerable Bede (AD 673-735) gives this account of Alban's trial
in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People:
When Alban was brought in, the judge happened to be standing before an
altar, offering sacrifice to devils . . . "What is your family and
race?" demanded the judge. "How does my family concern you?" replied
Alban; "If you wish to know the truth about my religion, know that I am
a Christian and am ready to do a Christian's duty." "I demand to know
your name," insisted the judge. "Tell me at once." "My parents named me
Alban," he answered, "and I worship and adore the living and true God,
who created all things." Alban's feast day is observed on June 22.
-Adapted from Lesser Feasts and Fasts 1997
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Collect for St. Alban's Day
Almighty God, by whose grace and power your holy martyr Alban
triumphed over suffering and was faithful even to death: Grant us,
who now remember him in thanksgiving, to be so faithful in our
witness to you in this world, that we may receive with him the
crown of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. |
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