AT. ALBAN THE PROTOMARTYR (JUNE 22ND)

By Bp. Joseph Boyd (Ancient Church of the West)

Today is the Feast of St. Alban the Protomartyr of England, a wonder-working and mystical witness to the power of Christ to transform lives, cause us to grow in faith, and love others as we love ourselves. 

Voluntarily taking the place of an old, despised Celtic pastor, who was captured during the reign of Diocletian, the handsome, educated, brave young Roman, Albanus, was beheaded for his faith, sometime around 209AD, and was the first martyr for Christ in Britain. 

His executioner refused to complete the evil emperor's commands, and was executed with him together. Upon giving up the ghost, a spring of living water was said to have sprung up where he was beheaded, and many were healed by the holy waters. 

Later, many pilgrims were cured of diseases by visiting his grave and praying that God would hear the prayers of St. Alban for them. 

These stories remind us of biblical tales, where God used the bones of the prophets to continue to declare His love to the world (2 Kings 13:21). 

St. Alban's Church was built on top of this spring, his bones were interred there, and it was a major place of pilgrimage and devotion. It was a major center of English Christianity up until 1539, when St. Alban's tomb was burnt down during Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries, the holy spring was filled up, and the church was torn down by Thomas Cromwell. 

Only in the last 100 years has St. Alban's Church been restored to its former glory, and pilgrims can go there and remember the story of St. Alban, drink from the spring, and recount how God has been glorified in the Church that St. Alban and his martyrdom helped to establish. 

May Christ hear St. Alban's prayers for us in heaven before His Throne!

(Photos from Wikipedia, Eric Staples and Duncan Richards)