From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   - Proverbs 17:16 -   
      
       Of what use is money in the hand of a fool, since he has no desire to   
   get wisdom?   
       __________________________   
      
       This verse is a warning against investing one's money or time in a fool,   
   since that investment is sure to be lost. The word "fool" can be defined as   
   one who is deficient in judgment, sense, or understanding; one who acts   
   unwisely on a given occasion. We all, unfortunately, know these kind of   
   people.   
      
      
   <><><><><>   
   June 22nd - St. 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 thousand 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 Proto-Martyr of England is portrayed in art as a warrior with a cross   
   and shield. He may be depicted (1) crowned with laurel; (2) with a peer's   
   coronet, holding a crossing; (3) with his head cut off; (4) with his head in   
   a holly bush; (5) spreading his cloak under the sun; or (6) as his   
   executioner's eye drops out (Roeder). Alban is especially venerated in Saint   
   Albans and Angers (Roeder).   
      
   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   
      
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)