 The Rt Rev Jack L Iker, SSC, Bishop The Rev Mark A Stockstill, SSC, Vicar Office 325.356.2997 Vicarage 325.356.2198 Cell 325.330.2411 mstockstill@fwepiscopal.org |
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There were probably
Christians in the British Isles already in the first century. However, Alban
is the first recorded Christian martyr. The traditional date of his death is
304, during the persecution under the Emperor Diocletian; but many scholars
now date it as around 209, during the persecution under the Emperor
Septimius Severus. Alban was a pagan, and a soldier in the Roman Army. He
gave shelter to a Christian priest who was fleeing from arrest, and in the
next few days the two talked at length, and Alban became a Christian. When
officers came in search of the priest, Alban met them, dressed in the
priest's cloak, and they mistook him for the priest and arrested him. He
refused to renounce his new faith, and was beheaded. He thus became the
first Christian martyr in Britain. The second was the executioner who was to
kill him, but who heard his testimony and was so impressed that he became a
Christian on the spot, and refused to kill Alban. The third 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. The place of
their deaths is near the site of St. Alban's Cathedral today.