From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   The Spirit Within   
      
   "Brothers and sisters, we are part of one Body, and we have one Head,   
   in heaven. Our two physical eyes do not see one another, but they know   
   each other in virtue of the love that knits them together. Together   
   they meet in and are directed to one object. Their aim is one; their   
   places are diverse.   
   If then all who with you love God have one aim with you, it is of no   
   significance that in the Body you are separated in place. You have the   
   eyesight of your heart fixed alike on the light of truth."   
   --St. Augustine--Sermon on 1 John 6, 10   
      
   Prayer: I ask you, my God, to reveal me to myself.   
   --St. Augustine--Confessions 10, 1   
      
      
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   June 22nd - Alban, First Martyr of Britain   
   3rd or 4th century.   
      
   There were probably already Christians in the British Isles in the   
   first century. In fact, by the end of the second century a great many   
   of the inhabitants of southern England were Christians. However, Alban   
   is the first recorded Christian martyr of the island. The traditional   
   date of his death is 304, during the persecution under the Emperor   
   Diocletian; but many scholars now date it as early as 209, during the   
   persecution under the Emperor Septimus Severus. This date was derived   
   from a study of the Turin manuscript of a "Passio Albani."   
      
   The first known reference to him, outside the Turin manuscript, is in   
   the 5th century life of Saint Germanus of Auxerre. Gildas, writing   
   c.540, gives the core of the tradition. Saint Bede gives an amplified   
   account, which includes a lively description of the beheading and more   
   details of signs from heaven.   
      
   Alban was a pagan, a Roman soldier, who, during the persecution of   
   Diocletian, took pity on a fleeing Christian priest and sheltered him   
   in his own home. When he saw that the priest spent day and night in   
   prayer, he was moved by the grace of God. They spent several days   
   talking together and Alban was so impressed by the priest's sanctity   
   and devotion that he became a Christian and wanted to imitate the   
   piety and faith of his guest. Encouraged and instructed by the priest,   
   Alban renounced his idol worship and embraced Christ with his whole   
   heart.   
      
   He was a leading citizen in the old Roman city of Verulamium   
   (Verulam), Hertfordshire, England, now called Saint Albans. The town   
   was originally a collection of huts of wattle and daub that stretched   
   along Watling Street, and later destroyed by the army of Boadicea, the   
   warrior queen.   
      
   The history continues that the Roman governor of the city, hearing a   
   rumour that a priest was hiding in the house of Alban, sent a search   
   party of soldiers to find him. Seeing them approach, Alban took the   
   priest's cloak and put it over his own head and shoulders, and helped   
   him to escape. Thus disguised, Alban opened the door to the soldiers   
   and was arrested in mistake for the priest. He was bound in fetters   
   and brought before the governor, who was attending a sacrifice to the   
   pagan gods. When the cloak was removed and his true identity was   
   discovered, the governor was furious. He then declared himself to be a   
   Christian, whereupon the governor angrily ordered him to be taken   
   before the altar. He was threatened with all the tortures that had   
   been prepared for the priest if he did not recant.   
      
   Alban faced his anger calmly and, ignoring his threats, declared that   
   he could not sacrifice to the gods. Upon Alban's refusal to deny his   
   faith, the governor enquired of what family and race he was. "How can   
   it concern you to know of what stock I am?" answered Alban. "If you   
   want to know my religion, I will tell you--I am a Christian, and am   
   bound by Christian obligations." When asked his name, he replied: "I   
   am called Alban by my parents, and I worship and adore the true and   
   living God, who created all things." He was then commanded to   
   sacrifice to the Roman gods, but he refused and was cruelly scourged.   
   Alban bore the punishment with resignation, even joy. When it was seen   
   that he could not be prevailed upon to retract, he was sentenced to   
   decapitation.   
      
   On the way to his execution on Holmhurst Hill, the crowds that   
   gathered to honour his heroism were so great that his passage was   
   delayed because they could not reach the bridge over the river. Alban,   
   who seemed to fear that any delay might deprive him of the martyr's   
   crown, decided to cross at another point, and going down to the   
   water's edge he prayed to God and stepped into the river which he then   
   forded without difficulty. Both Gildas and Bede have accepted the   
   tradition that this was a miracle and that the waters dried up   
   completely in answer to the saint's prayer.   
      
   They add that a 1000 other people crossed over with him, while the   
   waters piled up on either side, and that this miracle converted the   
   appointed executioner. Still accompanied by a huge throng of people,   
   Alban climbed the hill to the place of execution. But, on his arrival   
   there, the executioner threw down his sword and refused to perform his   
   office. He said that if he were not allowed to take Alban's place then   
   he would share his martyrdom. Confessing himself to be a Christian,   
   the soldier was replaced by another. Then he took his stand beside   
   Alban, and they faced death together. Alban was beheaded first, then   
   the soldier, Saint Heraclius, was baptized in his own blood to share   
   the glory of martyrdom. The third martyr was the priest, who when he   
   learned that Alban had been arrested in his place, hurried to the   
   court in the hope of saving Alban by turning himself in.   
      
   According to Bede, the governor was so impressed by the miracles that   
   followed Alban's martyrdom that he immediately ended the persecutions,   
   and Bede states that these miracles were still occurring in his   
   lifetime at the intercession of England's protomartyr.   
      
   On the hill where these martyrdoms took place a church was later   
   erected, and, 400 years later, Offa, the king of Mercia, founded on   
   the same site the Benedictine Abbey of Saint Albans. According to   
   Constantius of Lyons, Saint Germanus of Auxerre, at the end of a   
   mission to England to combat the Pelagian heresy, chose the Church of   
   Saint Alban as the place in which to thank God for the success of his   
   mission. He brought back from England a handful of earth from the   
   place where Alban, the soldier, and the priest were martyred   
   (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopaedia, Gill, Morris).   
      
   The Story of Saint Alban as recounted in the Ecclesiastical History of   
   the English People by the Venerable Bede [672-735]   
   http://www.stalbansva.org/alb.htm   
      
      
   Bible Quote:   
      
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