St Alban
| Saint Alban | |
|---|---|
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Saint Alban
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| Martyr | |
| Born | unknown Verulamium |
| Died | disputed: 22 June 209, c.251 or 304 Holywell Hill (formerly Holmhurst Hill), St Albans |
| Venerated in |
Roman Catholic Church Anglican Communion Eastern Orthodox Church |
| Major shrine | Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban |
| Feast | 22 June |
| Attributes | Soldier with a very large cross and a sword; decapitated, with his head in a holly bush and the eyes of his executioner dropping out |
| Patronage | converts, refugees, torture victims |
Saint Alban (/ˈɔːlbən, ˈæl-/; Latin: Albanus) is venerated as the first recorded British Christian martyr, and is considered to be the British protomartyr. Along with his fellow saints Julius, and Aaron, Alban is one of three named martyrs recorded at an early date from Roman Britain ("Amphibalus" was the name given much later to the priest said to have been protected by St. Alban). He is traditionally believed to have been beheaded in the Roman city of Verulamium (modern St Albans) sometime during the 3rd or 4th century, and his cult has been celebrated there since ancient times.
Little can actually be known about the real St Alban (estimated to have died c. 209 – 305 A.D. depending on interpretations), as there are no contemporaneous accounts of his martyrdom. The major sources on his life were written hundreds of years after his death, and many of the later texts contain traditional additions and wondrous embellishments that may or may not have occurred. In the view of Robin Lane Fox, "the date and historicity of the first British 'martyr', St Alban, are highly disputable".
Saint Alban was long regarded as a genuine martyr saint, the 'Proto-martyr' of Britain. For much of the 20th century controversy centred around the date of his martyrdom (see further 'Dating Controversy', below). More recently some researchers have taken a more skeptical view about the historicity of Saint Alban. In an article published in 2000 Philip Thornhill put forward the case that the cult of the martyr Alban was one of many early Christian cults with its ultimate roots in pagan traditions, although in this case 're-invented' to serve a contemporary political purpose. The theory proposed that Saint Alban was in some sense a personification of Albion (the oldest recorded name for Britain) and his cult was used by Verulamium (the modern St Albans) in its efforts to unify, and establish its dominance over, the old Roman province of Britannia. The name Elafius, mentioned as that of a British official in the Life of Saint Germanus (see below) was identified 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) and the cult of the traditionally 'pre-Patrican' Saint Ailbe of Emly in Munster, in Ireland was identified as representing, in origin, the cult of Alban/Albios. Assorted later figures, of mainly hagiographical legend (i.e. the legends about supposed saints), were identified as, at least in part, much devolved and mutated derivatives of a 'fragmented' cult of Alban/Albios.
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Wikipedia