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Saint Alban of Britain
Martyr
d. 22 June 304(?)
There were probably Christians in
the British Isles already in the first century. However, Alban is the first recorded
Christian martyr. The traditional date of his death is 304, during the persecution
under the Emperor Diocletian; but many scholars now date it as around 209, during the
persecution under the Emperor Septimius Severus. Alban was a pagan, and a soldier in
the Roman Army. He gave shelter to a Christian priest who was fleeing from arrest,
and in the next few days the two talked at length, and Alban became a Christian. When
officers came in search of the priest, Alban met them, dressed in the priest's cloak,
and they mistook him for the priest and arrested him. He refused to renounce his new
faith, and was beheaded. He thus became the first Christian martyr in Britain. The
second was the executioner who was to kill him, but who heard his testimony and was
so impressed that he became a Christian on the spot, and refused to kill Alban. The
third was the priest, who when he learned that Alban had been arrested in his place,
hurried to the court in the hope of saving Alban by turning himself in. The place of
their deaths is near the site of St. Alban's Cathedral today.
Acknowledgements:
Text adapted from James Kiefer's Christian
Biographies
Image from Saint Alban's Church, Albany, CA
(no longer available)