Alban

(second/third century)

   Saint and Martyr.

   According to Bede, Alban was a pagan living in the Romano-British city of Verulamium. He was converted to the Christian faith by a priest whom he was sheltering. When his house was searched, Alban disguised himself in the priest’s cloak and was arrested and executed in his place. Alban is remembered as the first British martyr, though there is scholarly disagreement as to whether his martyrdom belongs to the early thirdcentury Severan persecutions or to those of Diocletian in the fourth century. Verulamium is now called St Albans in the saint’s honour. The cult of St Alban dates to 429 and St Albans Cathedral is built over his shrine.

   Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica [many editions];

   W. Levison, ‘St Alban and St Albans’, Antiquity, xv (1941).