[173] Wellington-crescent.
[174] Albion-place.
~June 17.~
_Sts. Nicandeo_ and _Marcian_, about A. D. 303. _St. Botulph_, Abbot,
A. D. 655. _St. Avitus_, or _Avy_, A. D. 530. _St. Molingus_, or
_Dairchilla_, Bp. A. D. 697. _St. Prior_, Hermit, 4th Cent.
_St. Alban._
This saint, the proto-martyr of Britain, is in the church of England
calendar and almanacs on this day, but he stands in the Romish
calendar, on the 22d of the month.
St. Alban was born at Verulam, in Hertfordshire, in the third century,
and went to Rome, where he served seven years as a soldier under
Dioclesian. He afterwards returned to England, became a Christian, and
suffered martyrdom in 303, during the dreadful persecution raised by
Dioclesian. Several miracles are said by Bede to have been wrought at
his martyrdom.[175]
The fame of Alban, recorded as it was by Bede, made a deep impression on
the minds of the superstitious. “The Ecclesiastical History” of that
author, was published in 731; and in the year 795, Offa, king of the
Mercians, built a monastery to the honour of Alban, on the place where
he had suffered, then called by the Anglo-Saxons, Holmhurst, but since,
in honour of the martyr, named St. Alban’s. The town built near the
abbey still retains the latter appellation; and the abbey-church is even
yet in existence, having, at the suppression of the monasteries by Henry
the Eighth, been purchased by a rich clothier of the name of Stump, for
400_l._, and converted by him into a parochial church, for the use of
the inhabitants. In the year 1257, some workmen repairing this ancient
church, found the remains of some sheets of lead, containing relics,
with a thick plate of lead over them, upon which was cut the following
inscription:--
“In hoc Mausoleo inventum est
Venerabile corpus SANCTI ALBANI, _Proto_
_Martyris Anglorum_.”[176]
* * * * *