Saint Alban - Cult of Saint Alban

Cult of Saint Alban

A cult connected with Alban was already in existence in the 6th century, for Bede quotes a line from one of the Carmina; of Venantius Fortunatus, Albanum egregium fæcunda Britannia profert ("Fruitful Britain holy Alban yields").

Bede tells several legends associated with the story of Alban's execution. On his way to the execution, Alban had to cross a river, and finding the bridge full of people, he made the waters part and crossed over on dry land. And the executioner was so impressed with Alban's faith that he also converted to Christianity on the spot, and refused to kill him. Another executioner was quickly found (whose eyes dropped out of his head when he did the deed), and the first was killed after Alban, thereby becoming the second British Christian martyr.

Alban is represented in art as carrying his head between his hands, having been beheaded.

The "Albaninifest", the largest annual festival to be held in a historic town in Switzerland, is named after him. This takes place in Winterthur, where Alban is one of the three city-saints.

Feast day: June 22. (Christians globally celebrate this)

The Fellowship of Saint Alban and Saint Sergius is named in part after Alban.

Besides his abbey, churches in England dedicated to Saint Alban include St Alban, Wood Street in the City of London, one in Westcliff-on-Sea (Essex), another in Withernwick in the East Riding of Yorkshire, and one in Southampton, one in Northampton and another in Macclesfield, Cheshire, Saint Alban's West Leigh near Havant, and the Parish Church of Highgate, Birmingham.

Churches dedicated to Saint Alban outside England include St. Alban's Church in Copenhagen, Denmark, which is the city's only Anglican church. It was built to the design of Sir Arthur Blomfield and consecrated in 1887. The connection with Denmark goes back to the Middle Ages where a church dedicated to Saint Alban was built in Odense. Supposedly, the relics of the saint had been brought here, maybe as early as the ninth century. It was in this church that King Canute IV of Denmark (Saint Canute) was murdered in 1086. The original church no longer exists, but in 1908 the Roman Catholic parish church of Odense, St. Alban's Church, was consecrated.

The Washington National Cathedral, an Episcopal Church in Washington DC, USA, is located on Mount St. Alban. The St. Albans School for Boys, which is affiliated with the Cathedral, is also named for him.

The only English-speaking church in the Tokyo diocese of the Nippon Seikokai (the Anglican Church in Japan) is St. Alban's. It is fully called "St. Alban's-by-St. Andrew's" as it is located on the grounds of the cathedral, St. Andrew's. The congregation began in 1954.

St. Alban's beheading is mentioned in the Enter Shikari song "All Eyes On The Saint", acknowledging their hometown St. Albans.