Saint Alban of Verulam

Alban, still young, went to Rome to perfect himself in the liberal arts. Upon his return to England, he settled in Verulam, where he enjoyed great consideration among the people, no less because of his rank than because of his wealth and the dignities with which he was invested. He did not know Jesus Christ, but his soul, enriched with the most fortunate dispositions, seemed to be waiting only for the moment of grace to open itself to the lights of the faith and to seek nothing more than the treasure of eternal goods. Good towards everyone, charitable towards the indigent, Alban opened his house to all the unfortunate. He received into his home a holy priest named A mphibalus Amphibale Christian priest hidden by Alban who instructed him in the faith. , who was fleeing to escape the inquisitions of the persecutors. He treated him with every sort of regard and even respect. The man of God thus spent some time hidden from the eyes of the executioners. Alban, who observed him, was singularly edified by his conduct; above all, he admired with what fervor he spent the days and part of the nights in prayer. He felt a desire to know a religion that inspired such marvelous piety. One day, he sent away his servants, and remaining alone with his guest, he said to him:

"How is it that you, who are a Christian, have been able to travel through a whole country where your religion is held in horror, and arrive safe and sound in this city?"

Amphibalus replied to him: "My Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, has protected my steps and has kept me constantly from all danger. It is He who, for the salvation of many, has directed me toward this province, so that by announcing to the nations the faith that He Himself preached, I might prepare for Him a chosen people."

— "But," said Alban, "who then is this Son of God? Do you claim to say that God was born? These things seem very new to me, and I hear them spoken of today for the first time. I would be curious to know how you explain all this, you Christians."

Then the blessed Amphibalus, beginning to explain to him the mysteries of the Gospel, spoke in these terms: "Our faith teaches us to recognize God the Father, and God the Son who, for our salvation, deigned to clothe Himself in flesh similar to our own, and to be born miraculously of a Virgin. When the times were fulfilled, an Angel of heaven descended to this Virgin, named Mary, to announce to her the mystery that was to be accomplished in her; and Mary replied: I am the handmaid of the Lord: be it done unto me according to your word. Thus this Virgin deserved to give birth to her God, to her Lord, to Him from whom she herself had received existence. She became a mother without losing her virginity. This is what the Prophets had long ago predicted, to whom God had revealed this mystery in past centuries. If therefore you believe all these things, the promises of salvation made to Christians will also be accomplished in you: when you are a Christian, you will be able, by invoking the name of Christ, to heal the infirm and the sick; no adversity will be able to strike you down; finally, you will end your life by martyrdom, and by a blessed death, you will leave this earth to go and live with Christ. It is to announce all this to you that I have come to this city; the Lord wishes to reward in this way the generous hospitality you have given me."

Alban then said: "If I come to believe in Christ, what honor must I render to Him?"

The priest replied to him: "Believe that the Lord Jesus is one God with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and you will be by that very fact very pleasing in His eyes."

Alban replied: "What are you saying? You speak like a madman, for my mind cannot find meaning in this word, and my reason refuses to admit it. If the inhabitants of this city heard what you have just told me about your Christ, they would not delay in punishing your blasphemous speeches according to the rigor of the laws enacted against your sect. As for me, I am well disposed towards you; but I greatly fear that some misfortune may befall you." He then withdrew, quite moved, without wishing to listen any further to the words of the priest, nor to lend an ear to his teachings.

Amphibalus, left alone, spent the whole night in prayer, while Alban retired to his room to take his rest. But while he slept, he had a vision that God sent to instruct him, and by which he was so touched that he rose at once, came to find his host, and said to him: "If what you preach concerning Christ is true, deign to give me the explanation of a mysterious dream I have just had. I saw a man descend from heaven whom an immense crowd of other men seized to make him suffer torments of every kind. They bound his hands, struck his body with rods, and thus left all his flesh as if in shreds. Then they suspended this torn body upon a cross, after having stripped him of all his garments; they violently stretched his arms upon this cross; they pierced his feet and his hands with nails: they opened his side with a spear thrust, and from this wound I thought I saw blood and water flow. They had insulted him for a long time, saying: Hail, King of the Jews; if you are the Son of God, come down from the cross at this hour, and we will believe in you. But he, without answering them, cried out: My Father, I commend my spirit into your hands. And immediately after, he expired. Then I saw his inanimate body taken down from the cross, from which blood poured through large wounds: they placed him in a stone sepulcher which they sealed and around which they placed guards. But, O miracle! this corpse returns to life; he comes out of the tomb without breaking the sealed doors; I saw with my own eyes how he rose from the dead. Men dressed in garments white as snow descended from heaven: they took this resurrected man with them, and returned to heaven together. An innumerable multitude of men dressed likewise in white robes follows the victor over death, never ceasing to sing his praises and to bless the Father, saying: Blessed be God the Father and his only Son. All are in an unalterable peace to which no happiness could be compared. Such is the vision I had this night: explain it to me, I beseech you, and do not fear to tell me entirely all that these things signify."

At this account, the blessed Amphibalus understood that God had deigned to visit the heart of Alban, and he felt an inexpressible joy. Immediately, drawing the image of the cross of the Lord that he always carried with him: "Behold," he said, "the sign that will make you know what your vision signifies and portends. The man you saw descend from heaven is my Lord Jesus Christ, who did not refuse to undergo the torment of the cross to wash us by his blood from the sin to which the prevarication of Adam, our first father, had rendered us subject. Those who seized him and afflicted him with such cruel torments are the Jews, the chosen people of God, to whom he had promised to send his Son from heaven: yet, when he came, they refused to receive him. After such a long and painful wait, they did not want to recognize the author of their salvation; but they contradicted him without ceasing, returned evil for good, and answered only with hatred the love he had shown them. Finally, filled with envy against him, they dared to seize him, this God-Man whom the Gentiles themselves judged innocent: they seized him, and put him to death on a cross. It is thus that this most merciful Lord redeemed us at the price of his blood, that he conquered death by dying himself, and that, being raised on the cross, he drew all things to himself. He also descended into the dark dungeons of hell: he broke the chains of the just who were captive there; and binding the devil, he cast him into the deepest part of the abyss."

Alban was seized with admiration upon hearing these words, and he cried out: "Yes, the things you have just said concerning Christ are true, and one could not accuse them of falsehood. It is Christ whom I saw this night fighting and defeating the demon. I wish therefore from now on to lend a docile ear to your teachings. Tell me, since your knowledge is so great, what are my duties toward the Father and the Holy Spirit, now that I recognize the Son as my Lord and my master."

The priest, filled with great joy, cried out: "I give thanks to my Lord Jesus Christ that you have learned to invoke these three sacred names of your own accord. Believe then that these three persons you have just named are one and the same God, and generously confess this faith."

— "Yes," replied Alban, "such is my firm belief. There is no other God than my Lord Jesus Christ who, for the salvation of men, deigned to clothe himself in their nature, and suffer the death of the cross: he is one God with the Father and the Holy Spirit, outside of whom there is no other God."

Several times he repeated this profession of faith with fervor; he prostrated himself before the image of the cross of the Savior, and as if he had seen Jesus himself present, he implored with tears the forgiveness of his sins. He kissed the place of the feet and the hands, as if he had truly touched the sacred wounds of Christ, and as if his vision of the previous night had been transformed into a reality. Tears flowed in abundance down his face and bathed the sign of salvation that he held embraced. "I renounce the demon," he said, "I detest all the enemies of Christ; I give myself and I entrust myself to this divine Lord who, on the third day, rose from the dead."

Amphibalus, seeing his good dispositions and judging that he was already a perfect Christian in his heart, baptized him in the name of the most holy Trinity. Then he said to him: "Be without fear: the Lord is with you, and his grace will never fail you. It is from himself that you have learned by revelation the mysteries of our faith, which other men ordinarily receive through the preaching of a man as weak as themselves; that is why I am now tranquil on your account. I am therefore going to resume my journey to go and continue the works of my ministry elsewhere."

— "No," said Alban; "I pray you do not leave me so soon, but spend another week with me, so that you may teach me in detail all that concerns the other dogmas and practices of the Christian cult."

Amphibalus, seeing that the resolution he had taken to leave this place filled Alban with such great sadness, consented to his request. Every day, therefore, towards evening, the master and the disciple, fleeing the tumult of men, would withdraw to a house apart, and spend the whole night there praising God. They hid themselves in this way so as not to be discovered by the infidels who sought to know the true religion, less to embrace it than to persecute it.

Nevertheless, some time later, an audacious Gentile managed to discover their secret, and made known to the magistrate all that had passed between them. He omitted nothing that was likely to ruin the innocent, by kindling the judge's fury against them. Indeed, the latter was immediately inflamed with anger: he ordered that Alban and the one who had instructed him in the Christian faith be brought to him, in order to force them to offer a sacrifice to the gods of the country. If they would not consent to it, they were to be seized, chained, and slaughtered themselves as a sacrifice on the altar of the gods. These orders, however, could not be given in such a secret manner that they did not reach the knowledge of Alban who, desiring to save the priest who had instructed him from peril, exhorted him to leave the city. To facilitate his escape, he clothed him in his own chlamys which was embroidered with gold. This garment was then that of the leaders of the country, and for that very reason so honored that it commanded respect from all towards whoever was clothed in it. Having therefore judged that Amphibalus would be better protected against insults and violence in this garment, he himself took the cloak of his dear master, knowing well that it was a means of attracting the fury of the barbarians. Then Amphibalus, yielding to Alban's prayers, left before dawn and headed towards the north, led for some time by his generous disciple. Finally, they said goodbye and parted. Who could remain insensitive to the memory of all the tears they shed in this cruel separation? The priest went to Wales to continue his apostolic labors: Alban, clothed in his master's robe, returned alone to his dwelling, waiting peacefully for the execution of the orders that had been given against him.

When the day had come, a large troop of furious soldiers suddenly rushed upon Alban's house: they penetrated everywhere, visited every room with care, searched even into the most obscure corners, and filled everything with disorder and tumult. Finally, they arrived at that solitary place where Alban was accustomed to come to pray with Amphibalus: they entered; they saw him clothed in a foreign garment, prostrate before the cross of the Savior, and giving himself to prayer. Then they rushed in a crowd, and asked him with loud cries to deliver to them the priest he had received into his home.

Alban, for his only answer, said to them: "Why do you seek him? He is under the protection of God; and now, with this almighty help, he does not fear your threats."

The satellites, irritated to see this prey escape them, felt their fury redouble; and turning all their resentment against Alban himself, they immediately laid hands on him. He was torn away, dragged, loaded with heavy chains, pulled by his clothes and hair; he was finally led, after a thousand insults, after a thousand inhumane treatments, to the temple of the idols, where the judge was with the people of the city who had rushed from all sides to this place. Alban, wishing to show everyone that he was a disciple and servant of the cross, constantly carried the sign of salvation in his hands. When the Gentiles saw this sacred sign which had been unknown to them until then, they were astonished and troubled; the judge, however, looked with an irritated face at the man of God and the cross he held in his hands. Alban, far from being frightened by his anger, despised him so much that he did not deign to answer him regarding his rank and family; but to the interrogation that was made to him on this subject, he only answered by making his name known and by declaring in a loud voice that he was a Christian.

The judge said to him: "Alban, let me know where this priest is, sent from I know not where to cause trouble in this city, who entered it secretly, and whom you have received into your house. If his conscience were not agitated by remorse, if he did not himself doubt the goodness of his cause, he would have presented himself before us to account for his doctrine, instead of leaving this care to his disciple. But, on the contrary, he has shown by his example how vain and deceptive his teachings are, since instead of defending the one he has won over with his fine words, he abandons him cowardly as soon as he sees the peril. I think this will suffice to show you that you have placed too much trust in a man infatuated with chimeras, who has pushed you to this excess of madness to count as nothing all the goods of this world and to openly despise our great gods. Now, we cannot leave unpunished the insult done to them: the contemner of the gods must be punished by death. But as there is no one who cannot fall into error, it is also always possible to emerge from it. You can therefore still reconcile yourself with the gods you have offended; you will return to their good graces by separating yourself from the perfidious sect into which you have let yourself be drawn. Listen to the advice I give you in your own interest: make great sacrifices to the gods: then, not only will they forgive you your crimes and your offenses, but they will also increase your fortune and your honors, and fulfill all your desires, just as they are accustomed to do for their faithful servants."

Alban, without being frightened by these threats, nor seduced by this feigned gentleness, replied: "You have spoken at length, O judge; but the length of your speeches cannot prevent me from perceiving their falsehood. The priest of whom you speak would certainly have come to your audience, if it had seemed good to both of us. But, for my part, I could not consent to his accompanying me here, because I know this wicked people too well, who are quick to do evil; as for him, although he does not fear true justice, he cannot suffer judges who do not know how to discern the true from the false in their judgments. I admit that I have embraced his doctrine, but I could not repent of it; the sequel will show you that I did not believe on the word of an ignorant man or an impostor. The sick and the infirm, recovering their former health, will bear witness to the truth of our faith. This faith is dearer to me than all the riches of which you speak to me, more precious than all the honors by the sight of which you wish to tempt me. For let us suppose a man filled with honors and riches according to his desires, would he not finally have to die? Will all his gold be able to pull him from the sepulcher and bring him back among the living? But what is the use of prolonging this discourse? I do not sacrifice to your false gods; for all my ancestors served them without receiving any other reward than their eternal damnation. Aided by the help of my God, I do not fear the torments with which you threaten me."

When he had spoken thus, a dull murmur arose among the crowd: some were moved; others shouted insults; but the blessed Alban appeared insensitive to the threats of the judge and the clamors of the irritated people.

He was again ordered to sacrifice to the gods: a furious troop of Gentiles rushed toward him to force him to do so; but his firmness remained unshakable, and nothing could lead him to commit such a crime. Then, on the judge's order, he was stretched out to be beaten with rods. But while they were striking him harshly, he turned toward the Lord and said with a serene face: "Lord Jesus Christ, deign to guard my soul so that it may not be shaken, and that it may not fall from the high rank where your goodness has placed it. It is to you, Lord, that I offer the sacrifice of my life; and I desire to shed my blood for your love."

These words could not be stifled by the dreadful noise of the whip lashes. The arms of the executioners grew tired without the constancy of the Martyr being shaken. The judge then, knowing that courage sometimes yields more easily to the duration of torments than to their violence, had him taken to a narrow and hideous prison, where he kept him for nearly six whole months.

But heaven did not delay in avenging the injury done to the servant of God. From the day he was arrested until the day he consumed his glorious sacrifice by his death, rain and dew no longer came to refresh the earth: the winds held back their beneficial breath: every day the heat of the sun dried up the countryside more and more, and even during the nights the heat was excessive; the furrows and the trees refused to give the laborers the fruit of their labors; in a word, all of nature fought against the wicked to avenge the oppressed just man. The inhabitants of Verulam were soon reduced to extremity by this plague; but this punishment, as harsh as it was, could not bring them back to better sentiments. They gathered together, therefore, and said: "It is by a magical art that our land is thus desolate: everything has perished in our fields; it is Christ, the God of Alban, who has burned our harvests and ruined the hopes of our crops." They therefore had Alban brought to them, who appeared before them barefoot, his face emaciated, and his whole body covered with the dust of the dungeon. When they saw him thus unrecognizable because of the rigors they had made him suffer, they were touched with compassion, and, after having discussed among themselves for a long time, they resolved to treat him more humanely. His relatives, for their part, argued in his favor his rank and birth, adding that, since he could not be convicted of having incited any tumult or sedition, it was unworthy to see a noble and illustrious man loaded with irons as if he had been a thief. The people listened to them willingly; great cries arose to demand his deliverance; and immediately, by the judgment of the multitude, he was freed from his chains and proclaimed free.

A favor of this kind could not be agreeable to Alban: he had prepared himself for martyrdom, and he feared to see his triumph deferred once again. He therefore rose in the midst of the crowd, and showing everyone the cross of the Lord, he prostrated himself before it, and made this prayer: "Lord Jesus, do not allow the malice of the devil to profit from the concord of all this people to snatch my crown from me. Deign to repress his audacity and render all his perfidious ruses useless." Then, turning toward the crowd, he said: "Who can lead you to change your sentiments in this way? If you are undecided, consult the laws of your city: they will indicate to you what you have to do. Why do you delay? Do you not know that I am the irreconcilable enemy of your gods? Indeed, how can you believe those worthy of adoration who, far from having anything divine, are the work of the hands of men? You are witnesses yourselves that they can see nothing, hear nothing; is there anyone among you who has ever wished to be like the gods to whom he pays his homage? How then to qualify these beings that you adore, being forced however to admit that they are of a condition inferior to your own? O deplorable madness! to ask for life from those who have never had it; to offer prayers to gods who cannot hear; to ask for help from gods who could not make the slightest movement to save themselves! Woe to the idols, and woe to anyone who is foolish enough to pay them homage!"

The Gentiles, hearing these firm and courageous words, saw clearly that the prison had not changed Alban's disposition, and that there was no hope that any other attempt of the same kind could shake him. The sentiments of justice and commiseration that had animated them earlier disappeared in the face of their blind zeal for false gods, and, after deliberating together, they pronounced the death penalty against him. They chose for the execution a place called Holmhurst, situated Holmhurst Hill chosen as the site of Alban's execution. at some distance from the city; but they were some time before agreeing on the type of punishment they should inflict upon him. Some said: "He is a disciple of the cross: he must be crucified." Others wanted him to be buried alive, because that was the ordinary punishment for those who blasphemed against the gods; others finally proposed to put out his eyes and send him in that state in search of his fugitive master. But the judge and the greater part of the people decided that his head should be cut off. Alban, loaded a second time with his chains, thus left the tribunal to be led to his execution; and the people, leaving the judge far behind, rushed in a crowd onto the road that led to the place of execution. Everyone strove to get ahead of the others to better enjoy this bloody spectacle; and as the Martyr walked in their midst, they loaded him with insults, saying: "Get out, enemy of the gods, from this city defiled by your presence: go receive the punishment for your impiety; you are going to be treated as you deserve, and your crimes are going to be punished." In the midst of these insults, the holy Martyr remained in peace and kept silent, placing his trust in God.

A great multitude had flocked from all sides so that the road, although wide and spacious, was crowded by the pressing waves of people; furthermore, that day the heat was so intense that the earth seemed burning under the feet of the crowd. However, they kept moving forward; finally, they arrived at the edge of a very rapid river, which became a very embarrassing obstacle for the progress of the people. Many stood stopped on the bank; for the bridge was too narrow for it to be possible for everyone to pass over it. Then some, unable to bear this delay, threw themselves into the water to swim, despite the depth and rapidity of the current, and thus reached the opposite bank. Others wanted to do the same; but, carried away by the waters, they were submerged and perished miserably. The sight of this accident threw the people into great confusion, and cries of pain were heard on all sides. Alban was also touched by this spectacle: he wept for the loss of these unfortunates, and, kneeling down, he raised his eyes toward heaven and his soul toward Christ, saying: "Lord Jesus, from whose side I have seen blood and water flow, cause the waves to lower and separate, so that all this people may come without danger to the place where they will be witnesses of my martyrdom." Admirable thing! Scarcely had Alban knelt down when the bed of the river, drying up immediately, left a free passage for the impatient crowd. But the miracles of the holy Martyr do not end there: those whom the waters had carried away and submerged are, by a new effect of Alban's prayer, found safe and sound, as if they had experienced no accident.

Then one of the soldiers who were leading Alban to his execution obtained, through the merits of the servant of God, the grace of arriving himself at salvation. For, seeing the wonders that had just taken place at his prayer, he felt touched by repentance, threw his sword far away, and prostrated himself at the feet of the Saint, confessing his error and asking for pardon with tears. "O Alban," he said to him, "your God is the true God, and there is no other than him. This river whose course stopped at your prayer clearly shows that no other divinity could perform such a prodigy." This conversion only increased the fury of the other satellites, even though it seemed previously to have already reached its peak. They seized their companion whom grace had touched, and they said to him: "It is not the prayers of Alban that suddenly opened a passage for us, but it is the god Sun whom we adore who deigned to dry up with his beneficial heat the bed of the river, so that safe and sound we could assist with joy at the death of his enemy. As for you, who strive to obscure with false interpretations the knowledge we have of the benefits of the gods, you are going to undergo the punishment that your blasphemies deserve." They then seized him, struck with violence that mouth which had just borne witness to the truth, until they had broken his teeth. Then they tore the other limbs of this new athlete with equal fury, and leaving him for dead on the sand of the bank, they hastened to continue their journey in order to satiate their insatiable cruelty on the person of Alban himself.

Who could recount without emotion the sufferings that the blessed Martyr then had to endure, when, dragged with violence in the midst of rocks and brambles, his torn body left bloody traces on all sides? Finally, they reached the summit of the mountain, where the sacrifice of the generous servant of Christ was to be consumed. The crowd was innumerable, and the heat of the sun made them endure the torment of an ardent thirst, so that, overwhelmed by the weight of this burning temperature, many seemed near to perishing. They trembled with rage against Alban, and said: "Behold, this magician has reduced us, by his sorceries, to the last agonies: he strikes us down by the power of his spells: let us therefore get rid of him, and we will find again the rest that his malice has made us lose." The charitable Alban was moved at once by their ills and by the blindness of their spirit, and he made this prayer for his impious persecutors: "Lord God Almighty, who created man from the slime of the earth, do not permit anyone to suffer on my account. May a pleasant coolness replace this excessive heat, and may, by your mercy, a favorable wind temper the ardor of the sun's rays." Scarcely had he finished his prayer when it was immediately answered; what is more, an abundant fountain gushed forth immediately at his feet. Admirable power of Christ! The earth, burned on all sides, offered only the sad aspect of desolation; and yet, at the voice of the Martyr, a spring of living water gushed from the midst of the dust and flowed on all sides in abundant streams. The people thus saw themselves miraculously delivered from the torment of thirst. But this signal benefit did not prevent them from still being thirsty for the blood of their benefactor.

Then they seize Alban and tie him by his hair to a post to behead him. An executioner, chosen from the crowd to carry out the execrable crime in the name of all, raises the murderous sword high and severs the Martyr's head with a single blow (303). The body falls lifeless, while the head, held by the knots of the hair, remains suspended from the post where it had been tied: as for the cross that the Saint was always accustomed to carry in his hands, it fell onto the grass, reddened with his precious blood; and a Christian, whom the pagans did not know as such, was able to take it secretly and carry it away. The executioner who had just committed the crime was still in the same place when, immediately, by a just effect of divine vengeance, his eyes came out of their sockets and fell to the ground near the Martyr's body. At the sight of this terrible punishment, many could not help but recognize its justice. But suddenly, the soldier who had been left for dead in the middle of the road appeared. Furthermore, the judge arrived, who had initially remained in the city, but who, hearing of the miracles that had accompanied the execution, wanted to see for himself what was happening. They presented to him the soldier, whom his previous wounds had completely disfigured. The judge said to him in derision: "You seem sick to me: you must go and implore the help of Alban so that he may deign to heal your broken limbs. Run, hurry, go take his head, bring it close to the trunk; give him burial, render him the honors customary in your sect; and you will see that this will serve as a remedy for the blows you have received." The soldier, filled with the zeal that a living faith gives, replied: "I firmly believe that the blessed Alban can, by his merits, obtain for me a complete healing, and above all obtain for me the much more precious favor of finding grace before the divine Majesty. Everything you say in derision may, by the power of God and the intercession of Alban, be accomplished in me." Then, approaching the post with respect, he untied the knots of the hair, and, taking the head of the holy Martyr, he placed it beside the trunk. Immediately he felt healed: and, by a miracle visible to the eyes of all, he instantly recovered perfect health. Then, filled with new strength, he rendered the final duties to the holy Martyr, dug a pit, placed the body in it, and covered it with earth. Then, he began to preach with courage before all the people the power of Christ and the merits of Alban.

At this sight, the pagans, seized with a new fury, said to one another: "What shall we do? Will it then be impossible to kill this man? We had already overwhelmed him with blows; and now we see no trace of a wound on him. What shall we do now?" One of them then said: "This man is a magician: the only way we have to kill him is to cut his limbs into pieces; otherwise his spells will blunt the edge of the sword, and it will be impossible to put him to death." This barbaric advice was followed; the generous soldier of Christ suffered this cruel torture with constancy, and, persevering until his last breath in the holy faith, he merited to share with Alban the honor of the crown.

The following night, Our Lord Jesus Christ made known the glory of his servant through evident signs. In the midst of the darkness, an immense luminous cross appeared over Alban's tomb: it rose from the earth to the sky, and one could see angels descending and ascending incessantly, and singing hymns and canticles of praise throughout the night. Some pagans, having seen this miracle, called others to enjoy the same spectacle; and thus this prodigy prepared the way for a great number of conversions among the infidels of this country.

The feast of Saint Alban is celebrated on June 22, the day of his martyrdom. He is depicted sometimes causing a fountain to spring forth while praying to Jesus Christ to show the holiness of his cause; at other times carrying his head in his hands, to mark the manner of his martyrdom. CULT AND RELICS. Under the reign of Constantine the Great, a magnificent church was built at the place where Saint Alban had suffered martyrdom and where his tomb was located. The miracles that soon occurred in this church through the intercession of the Saint spread his reputation for holiness so far that, when Saint Lupus and Saint Germanus went to Great Britain to extirpate the Pelagian heresy, the great bishop of Auxerre collected particles of earth soaked in the blood of the first Martyr of that country and brought them religiously to France. The Saxons having des troy Offa King of the East Angles who abdicated in favor of Edmund. ed the church of Saint Alban, Offa, King of the Mercians, had another built, with a monastery in the name of the Saint, in the year of Our Lord 793, and the thirty-third of his reign. He gave this monastery considerable revenues, and the example of the tax called Peter's Pence, to which he had subjected all the families of his kingdom. The Popes granted this monastery the greatest privileges. It was destroyed under Henry VIII; but the inhabitants of the town gave a sum of money to have the church returned to them, which still exists today and is a parish church. A portion of Saint Alban's relics was saved and is kept preciously by the English in Valladolid; there is also a small portion in Saint-Omer. The diocese of Troyes possesses several bones of this Saint. These precious relics, long venerated in the Abbey of Neuvy-la-Reposte, were transferred to the Benedictine convent of Villeneuve-la- Grande. The Bénédictins Monastic order to which the Abbey of the Oratory belonged. y re mained there until t Villeneuve-la-Grande Location where the relics of Alban were kept in France after Neuvy-la-Reposte. he suppression of religious communities. On May 8, 1791, they were solemnly transported to the parish church of Villeneuve, where they were found intact at the time of the reopening of the churches. This respect for holy things was the result of the energetic attitude of the local inhabitants, who, strongly attached to their reliquaries, would never have allowed the revolutionaries to carry out their sacrilegious designs. The authenticity of these relics was publicly recognized by Mgr de Boulogne on September 11, 1819. The cabinet containing the relics of Saint Alban, restored and embellished, belongs today to the cathedral and contains the heads of Saint Bernard and Saint Malachy. England, for several centuries, honored Saint Alban as one of its principal patrons, and it obtained signal graces from heaven through his intercession. It was by invoking him that Saint Germanus helped the English win, without the shedding of Christian blood, a complete victory over enemies as dangerous to souls as to bodies. Nothing more is seen of his shrine, which Offa, his son Egfrid, and several kings had decorated with magnificence; but the place where his ashes are enclosed has been covered with a marble stone. On the wall opposite, some verses have been engraved, the meaning of which is that the shrine of the Saint was formerly in this place. We have used, to reconstruct this Life, the Acts of the Martyrs, by the Reverend Benedictine Fathers of the Congregation of France; the Lives of the Saints of the diocese of Troyes, by Abbé Deler; Godescard, and Notre-Dame provided by Abbé Caillat.