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Saint Alban.
Photo: 27 October 2017.
Source: Evesham All Saints Church.
Author: Jules & Jenny from Lincoln, England.
(Wikimedia Commons)
Text from “The Liturgical Year”.
By: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.
Volume 12.
Time After Pentecost.
Book III.
Let the heavens rejoice; let the Island of Saints exult; and let all the Universe shout with her a song of victory. For now, indeed, has Earth been everywhere em-Purpled with the Blood of Testimony.
Alban, Proto-Martyr of fruitful England, seals today the conquest of the far West. Already, doubtless, even from the earliest days, Albion had yielded abundant flowers beneath the footsteps of the Spouse, whose giant stride had reached even unto her.
Later on, Eleutherius and Lucius had added the fresh charm of other plants to this new garden, wherein, far away from sterile Juda, the Man-God could forget the haughty disdain of the daughter of Sion.
Jesus loves, indeed, flower-beds exhaling the fragrance of confession and of praise; but still flowers of peace may not alone form the diadem of this powerful Son of the God of armies.
The beauty He received from His Mother was enhanced by the Blood shed by Him in the great battle, and to obtain favour in His own eyes, the bride, too, is called upon to mingle her own brilliant Purple with the glistening Whiteness of His lilies.
Glory, then, to our Proto-Martyr ! Glory to him by whom Albion, fully arrayed for the nuptials of The Lamb, advances side by side with the most illustrious Churches, and takes her seat with them at the banquet of the strong !
From the heights of Heaven, the glorious Choir of Apostles and the White-Robed army of Martyrs are thrilling with joy, as in the brightest days of the three hundred years’ struggle, prolonged, perchance, on purpose to give ancient Britain a chance of sharing in their triumph.
Persecution was nearing its close; and even from British soil, the last to be touched by the tidal wave of Martyrs Blood, would deliverance come.
On 22 June 303 A.D., Alban, our new Stephen, died, breathing a Prayer for his murderers, beside the banks of a tributary of The River Thames; on 25 July 306 A.D., Constantine, having just escaped the snares of Galerius, was proclaimed at York, and he started thence to unfurl the Standard of Salvation to the whole World.
Later on, to the victorious combats of The Cross succeeded heresy’s contesting struggle to wrest from God Nations already won to His Christ in Holy Baptism. Whilst The East was going astray in misconceptions of The Incarnate Word, The West was carping at Doctrines concerning Free Will and Grace, a fatal stumbling-block which would be thrown in again at a more distant epoch.
Pelagius, the heretic here in question, was condemned by The Church, and the stone of error hurled against her gave but a passing shock.
The tomb of Alban was the curbing point of Hell’s efforts at that time, and here ended the final troubles caused by the Pelagian attack. Saint Lupus of Troyes and Saint Germanus of Auxerre, sent from the Continent to maintain the cause of Grace, ascribed to our British Martyr the whole honour of their victory, whereby Peace was given to The Western Church.
To show that this second defeat of Hell’s power was indeed the completion of that which a Century previously had ended the era of blood, these two Holy Bishops respectfully opened the glorious tomb, and united to the remains of our noble Alban some Relics of the Apostles and Martyrs, the fruit of whose triumph had just been definitely sealed.
For a thousand years were the depths of the abyss closed; years of power, years of honour for Alban, Venerated alike by each successive Race that lived on our British shore. The Anglo-Saxons outstripped the Britons in the magnificence of the structure they raised on the site of the Church formerly built over the Martyr’s tomb in the first era of his victory.
The Danes even considered his holy body to be their noblest conquest; and under the Normans, the Abbey, Founded by Offa of Mercia, beheld Popes and Kings concert together in raising its prerogatives and glory to the highest pitch.
No Monastic Church on this side of the Channel would compare with Saint Alban’s in its privileges; and just as Alban is counted England’s first Martyr, so was the Abbot of his Monastery held first in dignity among all Abbots of this realm.
For a thousand years, Alban too reigned with Christ. At last, came the epoch when the depths of the abyss were to be let loose for a little time, and Satan, unchained, would once again seduce Nations.
Vanquished formerly by the Saints, power was now given him to make War with them, and to overcome them in his turn. The disciple is not above his Master: Like his Lord, Alban, too, was rejected by his own.
Hated without cause, he beheld the illustrious Monastery destroyed, that had been Albion’s pride in the palmy days of her history; and scarce was even the Venerable Church itself saved, wherein God’s athlete had so long reposed, shedding benefits around far and near.
But, after all, what could he now do, in a profaned Sanctuary, in which strange Rites had banished those of our forefathers, and condemned the Faith for which the Martyrs had bled and died ?
So, Alban was ignominiously expelled, and his ashes scattered to the winds.
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