The fugitive’s convert
by Mike Oettle
THE 19th-century founders of the Anglican Church in South Africa had a great regard for St Alban, the first Christian martyr in Britain, whose saint’s day (in English tradition) falls on 17 June.[1] Pretoria’s Anglican cathedral and diocesan college are named for him, as is the chapel at Draaifontein, west of Port Elizabeth, which gave its name first to a railway halt and then to a prison. The Natal town of Verulam is named for his Roman-British hometown, but that, strangely, has no Anglican church of St Alban.[2]
Unfortunately, like many saints of early times, Alban has had myths and legends weaved about his name until we are not sure what it true and what is fantasy. However, at the core of the legend there is enough hard fact for us to appreciate what the man did and what its value is for us.
His name was Albanus[3] and he was
the son of Roman-British parents who lived in Verulamium, a city (fortified town) on the River Ver in what is now Hertfordshire, during the 3rd century AD. Educated in Rome, Albanus returned to Verulamium, situated on the Roman road now called Watling Street,[4] which joined the capital, Londinium, to Viroconium on the Severn (Wroxeter, in Shropshire).
Christianity had arrived in Britain during the 2nd century AD and the British king or tribal ruler Lucius had been baptised. But in 303 the Emperor Diocletian ordered the confiscation of Christian books, the dismissal of Christians from military and administrative posts, and the imprisonment of clergy. In 304 he ordered all Christians to offer sacrifices to the gods.
Enter a priest. His name is not known, but later writers gave him the name Amphibalus.[5] Fearing for his life, he begged Albanus for shelter. The priest did not stay long, but in that time Albanus was so taken with his manner and his message that he asked for baptism.
Meanwhile the prefect of the city had heard that a priest was in hiding, and ordered Albanus’s house searched. Albanus, learning of the search just in time, sent
the priest away in disguise and presented himself for arrest in the priest’s long coat. “But he was recognised by the judge, who was of course infuriated at the trick which lost him his rightful quarry, and who demanded that Alban should at once offer sacrifice to the gods or pay the utmost penalty due for blasphemy. Alban then declared that he could not obey this command.”[6]
The judge questioned him about his family, but Albanus would only tell him his name and that he was now a Christian. The judge ordered him scourged, and when that brought no change, sentenced him to death. A crowd had gathered to watch him taken from the city, across the Ver and to the top of a nearby hill. Legend has much to say about this walk, including the claim that a spring burst forth from the hilltop when Albanus asked for a drink. It also has it that the executioner refused to kill Albanus because he could not harm such a good man. Another
swordsman was found to chop off both Albanus’s head and the executioner’s – and, it is said, was struck blind.
The martyr was buried on the hilltop, which became a site for pilgrimage and a church was built above it. The pagan Saxons destroyed the church, and in 793 Offa, King of Mercia,[7] rebuilt it and established a monastery which eventually took first place among the Benedictine abbeys of England. Nicholas Breakspear, the only English Pope, was a brother there before going to Rome, where he ruled as Adrian IV from 1154 to 1159.
The abbey church dominated the city to the extent that its older Roman and Saxon names were forgotten. Today it is called simply St Albans. The present church building, one of England’s largest, was begun in 1077 and added to down the centuries, becoming (in 1877) a cathedral.
Since the 15th century the city has been famed for printing. The “Scolemaster Printer” (name unknown) who operated there from 1479 to 1486, produced The Boke of St Albans, the earliest example of colour printing in England.
