Passio Albani

It currently survives in three different recensions and six separate manuscripts located throughout Europe, and forms the basis for all subsequent retellings of the Saint Alban martyrdom, from Gildas to Bede.

We know from the Vita Germani and Prosper of Aquitaine [5] that Germanus visited the tomb of Saint Alban in 429.

When Germanus awoke, he had the tale set down on tituli, possibly engraved onto painted illustrations of the martyrdom.

Some historians have argued that this short 'E version/ account of Alban's martyrdom could have been written beneath illustrations of the martyr's passion on the walls of a basilica, actually at Auxerre [3][4] This was a practice known to happen in 5th- and 6th-century churches, most notably in the collection from Tours known as the Martinellus.

[10] Crucial to the debate is the passage from the T text which describes the appearance of saint Alban to Germanus in a dream.

In any case what seems clear is that Germanus wanted to identify the cult firmly with continental orthodoxy as a part of his campaign against the Pelagian heresy in Britain.