05 — The Cult
The veneration of Alban from late antiquity to the present: the visit of St. Germanus of Auxerre to the shrine in 429 — the relic exchange that anchors the whole tradition and links Alban to St. Genevieve’s Paris through the same travelling bishop; the tradition that King Offa of Mercia founded St Albans Abbey in 793 (a narrative whose reliability is disputed); the great medieval abbey and its Purbeck marble shrine; the Reformation destruction of 1539; and the modern resurrections — the fragments reassembled in 1872, the shrine restored and rededicated in 1993, and the Cologne relic question.
Tradition: Western (pre-Schism, Roman Britain)
This section is cult history — the biography not of the man but of his veneration, which is far better documented than his life. The first file treats the 429 visit in full: Prosper’s date, Constantius’s narrative, the relics deposited and the blood-stained earth taken away, and what the episode meant for the connection of the British church to Gaul. The second follows the site across fifteen centuries: from whatever stood there in the fifth century, through the Offa foundation tradition and the Norman abbey, to the smashed shrine of 1539, the antiquarian recovery of 1872, and the living shrine of today with its Cologne relic.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| the-visit-of-germanus.md | The 429 anti-Pelagian mission (Prosper s.a. 429); the visit to the tomb and the two-way relic exchange (Constantius, Vita Germani 16); the Alleluia victory; Germanus as the connective saint between Alban and St. Genevieve of Paris; the skeptical reading (Higham) reported. |
| the-abbey-and-the-shrine.md | The site from the 5th century to Bede’s church; Offa’s 793 foundation tradition [Disputed]; the Norman abbey and the 1308 Purbeck shrine; the dissolution of 1539; the 1872 reassembly and 1993 restoration; the Cologne (St Pantaleon) relics [Disputed] and the 2002 gift. |
See Also
- The Earliest Witnesses — the texts that record the 429 visit
- The Attestation Ledger — the cult as the best-attested fact about Alban
- The Blessing of Saint Germanus — the same bishop, the same journey, another saint
References
- Constantius of Lyon. Vita Germani 12–18, trans. Hoare, The Western Fathers (Sheed and Ward, 1954).
- Prosper of Aquitaine. Epitoma chronicon, s.a. 429, ed. Mommsen, MGH AA 9.
- Gesta Abbatum Monasterii Sancti Albani, ed. Riley (Rolls Series, 1867).
- Crick, Julia (ed.). Charters of St Albans. Anglo-Saxon Charters 12. Oxford: OUP, 2007.
- Biddle and Kjølbye-Biddle, “The Origins of St Albans Abbey,” in Henig and Lindley (eds.), Alban and St Albans (Maney, 2001).
- Levison, Wilhelm. “St Alban and St Albans.” Antiquity 15 (1941): 337–359.