On 22nd June, the Church of England commemorates St Alban,
known as the first martyr of Britain. Alban has a tenuous connection
with us as the Duke of St Albans is one of the Patrons of our group
of parishes, Redbourne being one of the historic seats of the Dukes.
Little is known for sure about Alban, even his date of death has been
variously given as around either 209, 251, or 304 AD. But the story
of his martyrdom varies less, with the fullest account given in
Bede's Ecclesiastical History.
Alban lived in Verulamium, a city in Roman Britain now known as St
Albans, and was not a Christian. He was possibly a Roman soldier and
might have been a leading citizen of the city. At that time the
small but increasing Christian community began to be persecuted by
the Roman authorities and one day a Christian priest, who was fleeing
for his life, came to Alban's house seeking refuge. Over the few
days that the priest was in his house, Alban was impressed by the
priest's faith and devotion and converted to Christianity.
Eventually the authorities came to Alban's house to search for the
priest, Alban put on the priest's clothes and handed himself over to
the soldiers.
Alban
was brought before a judge who threatened him with torture unless he
made sacrifices to the Roman gods. Alban
refused, declaring "I worship and adore the true and living God
who created all things." The judge then ordered that Alban
should be whipped and tortured, but Alban still would not deny his
faith so he was sentenced to be beheaded. Bede records some miracles
that occurred: firstly, that Alban stopped the waters of a river so
that they could cross it, and he further caused a fountain of water
to flow on the summit of the hill on which he was beheaded. Seeing
the first miracle the executioner was converted and then beheaded
too, and the man who replaced him, after striking the fatal blow, was
punished with blindness. St Alban's Cathedral stands on the believed
site of the execution.
Alban's
actions find a very modern echo in the actions
of the French police officer, Arnaud Beltrame, who on 23rd March this
year offered himself in exchange for the hostages in an Islamic
terrorist attack in Trèbes, and died the next day. Beltrame's
heroism was motivated by the Christian faith to which he had been
converted ten years ago. Fr Dominique Arz, national chaplain of the
gendarmerie, said “The fact is that he did not hide his faith, and
that he radiated it, he bore witness to it. We can say that his act
of self-offering is consistent with what he believed. He...bore
witness to his faith to the very end.”
Despite the common accusation that
religion causes more violence in the world, nowhere in the New
Testament are Christians encouraged to kill in order to spread the
faith. In fact the opposite is true. Jesus said ‘Whoever wants to
be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and
follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but
whoever loses their life for me will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25).
John wrote “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid
down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our
brothers and sisters” (1 John 3:16). The Christian faith is
something worth living for and something worth dying for because
death for those who believe in Jesus means resurrection to eternal
life.
[Image from: http://orthochristian.com/104923.html]
[Image from: http://orthochristian.com/104923.html]
