27 Facts About Saint Alban

Saint Alban is venerated as the first-recorded British Christian martyr, for which reason he is considered to be the British protomartyr.

Saint Alban is traditionally believed to have been beheaded in Verulamium sometime during the 3rd or 4th century, and has been celebrated there since ancient times.

Sparse records testify that Alban was a Roman citizen living in Verulanium around 300 CE.

The earliest reference to Saint Alban's martyrdom is in the Life of Germanus by Constantius of Lyons.

The priest, who later came to be called Amphibalus, meaning "cloak" in Latin, prayed and "kept watch" day and night, and Saint Alban was so impressed with the priest's faith and piety that he found himself emulating him and soon converted to Christianity.

Saint Alban was brought before a judge, who just then happened to be standing at the altar, offering sacrifices to "devils".

The enraged judge ordered Saint Alban to be scourged, thinking that a whipping would shake the constancy of his heart, but Saint Alban bore these torments patiently and joyfully.

Saint Alban was led to execution, and he presently came to a fast-flowing river that could not be crossed.

The astonished executioner cast down his sword and fell at Saint Alban's feet, moved by divine inspiration and praying that he might either suffer with Saint Alban or be executed for him.

When Saint Alban reached the summit of the hill, he began to thirst and prayed God would give him water.

In later legends, Saint Alban's head rolled downhill after his execution, and a well sprang up where it stopped.

The text only very briefly mentions Saint Alban but is an important text concerning his nascent cult.

Bede's account is much more detailed but sets the events during the reign of Septimius Severus and in the town of Verulamium, where a shrine devoted to Saint Alban had been established by at least 429 AD, when Germanus of Auxerre is said to have visited the cult centre during his tour of Britain.

The date of Saint Alban's execution has never been firmly established.

English historian John Morris suggests that Saint Alban's martyrdom took place during the persecutions of Emperor Septimius Severus in 209.

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.

In 2008 the historian Ian Wood proposed that Saint Alban was an 'invention' of Germanus of Auxerre.

The martyr Saint Alban is mentioned, one more time, in the context of Germanus's return journey, by sea:.

Saint Alban therefore argues against the conclusion of Woods and Garcia that the martyr Alban was unknown before being invented by Germanus.

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.

That can be interpreted as suggesting that the cult of Saint Alban did not exist before the arrival of Germanus.

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.

Saint Alban's relics were said to have been brought from Rome by Empress Theophanu 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 connection with Denmark goes back to the Middle Ages where a church dedicated to Saint Alban was built in Odense.

The original church no longer exists, but the Roman Catholic parish church of Odense, St Saint Alban's Church, was consecrated in 1908.

St Saint Alban's went on to found five mission churches in Washington, four of which still maintain active congregations of their own.

In 1972, a chapel named after St Saint Alban was erected and later consecrated in the Sabino Catchment area of Tucson, Arizona.