[3] Alban was brought before a judge, who just then happened to be standing at the altar, offering sacrifices to "devils" (Bede's reference to pagan gods).

[3][5] The other executioners hesitated to pick up his sword, and meanwhile, Alban and they went about 500 paces to a gently sloping hill, completely covered with all kinds of wildflowers, and overlooking a beautiful plain.

[6] Upon hearing of the miracles, the astonished judge ordered further persecutions to cease, and he began to honour the saint's death.

[7] He does not mention Alban by name, but includes an unnamed martyr, who, "in the hands of the executioners told rivers to draw back, lest he should be delayed in his haste.

Another early text to mention Alban is the Vita Germani, or Life of St Germanus of Auxerre, written about 480 by Constantius of Lyon.

[3] Gildas calls Alban a martyr of Verulamium but says he crossed the river Thames prior to his execution, during the persecution of Diocletian.

Bede's account is much more detailed but sets the events during the reign of Septimius Severus and in the town of Verulamium, where a shrine devoted to Alban had been established by at least 429 AD, when Germanus of Auxerre is said to have visited the cult centre during his tour of Britain.

The martyrology is preserved in a 9th-century copy but was probably composed in something close to its present form around 600, with the surviving recension showing some signs of being based on a recension compiled at Auxerre (significantly, the hometown of Saint Germanus)[14] For Thornhill (see above), the date given for Alban's martyrdom is striking for its closeness to the summer solstice (on which some variants of the Hieronymianum actually place the saint's day).

Being the day when the sun is at its brightest in midsummer, that might suggest that there is indeed some significance in the literal meaning of the name Albanus (or at least the root albho- on which it is based) as 'white' or 'bright'.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle lists the year 283,[17] but Bede places it in 305, "when the cruel Emperors first published their edicts against the Christians."

English historian John Morris suggests that Alban's martyrdom took place during the persecutions of Emperor Septimius Severus in 209.

According to Morris St Gildas knew the source but mistranslated the name "Severus" as an adjective, wrongly identifying the emperor as Diocletian.

[20] Subsequent scholars (William Hugh Clifford Frend and Charles Thomas for example) have argued that such a single, localised British martyrdom in 209 would have been unusual, and they have suggested the period of 251–259 (under the persecutors Decius or Valerian) are more likely.

While it is certain that the cult devoted to Saint Alban was established in Verulamium, and his martyrdom was also alleged to have taken place there, the sources are unclear about where he was actually executed.

His chronicle, in the entry for the year 429 (published in 433), states: Meanwhile, it was recorded in the Vita Germani ('Life of St Germanus of Auxerre'), written probably sometime between 450 and 485[24] by Constantius of Lyons, that he, together with his fellow bishop Lupus, having stamped out the heresy of Pelagianism in Britain, visited the tomb of Saint Alban: The martyr Alban is also mentioned, one more time, in the context of Germanus's return journey, by sea: The Vita Germani was long regarded as the earliest source for the martyr Alban, but recent research by Richard Sharpe[26] has suggested the earliest version of the Passio Albani[27] (the official story of the saint's martyrdom) may be even earlier (see below and Sources).

That, in turn, encouraged him in his conclusion: "The story of the saint's martyrdom seems to have been revealed to, or invented by, Germanus in the context of his anti-Pelagian mission" and in a later article[28] "Alban may, therefore, have been 'discovered' by the bishop of Auxerre".

On this basis he states: "This would make good sense in terms of his mission, claiming Britain's most famous cult for Catholicism".

Key to the argument is a passage in the T version of the Passio that Sharpe has convincingly argued represents an 'interpolation' to the more original E text.

As part of his brief historical account, he describes the persecution of Christians in Britain, which he identifies as part of the persecution of Diocletian, adding at the end of a passage about "their graves and the places where they suffered": "I refer to Saint Alban of Verulam (Verolamiensem), Aaron and Iulius, citizens of Caerleon (Legionum Urbis) and others of both sexes, who in different places, displayed the highest spirit in the battle-line of Christ".

[36] Some doubt, however, is encouraged by the fact that in his account of Albans's martyrdom Gildas (De Excidio 11) describes the martyr as crossing the Thames to his place of execution (at Verulamium/St Alban's there is only the much smaller River Ver), which some have taken as an indication that the actual martyrdom (or the more original version of the story about it) was located in Londinium.

It has been claimed (but doubted by some) that a memoria over the execution point and holding the remains of St Alban may have existed at the site from c. 300, possibly earlier.

There was certainly a cult centre of St Alban at Verulamium by the time of Bede c. 731, and the mention in Gildas strongly suggests that it was already in existence by the early sixth century.

Gildas writing probably in the second quarter of the fifth century calls Saint Alban Verolamiensis, 'of Verulamium' in a passage that refers to the "graves and places where they suffered" of the early British martyrs.

There has also been an extensive cult of Saint Alban on the Continent from an early date such as in Mainz, Cologne and Basel on the Rhine as well as a number of other localities in Switzerland and Italy and a notable concentration in the French Alpine regions and the Rhone Valley.

[39] The original record was in a 12th-century manuscript that alleged that the relics were actually those of the British martyr, having been delivered to Ravenna by Germanus himself and taken from there to Rome.

[43] He was regarded as a separate figure in sources from Raban Maur's early 9th-century martyrology, including a 10th-century Life by Gozwin of 1060–2[44] However, Hippolyte Delehaye suggested that he very probably represents, in origin, a localised version of the British martyr since his feast date was recorded as 21 June in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum (just a day before that of the British one, who actually appears on the 21st and 22nd in early recensions).

A Saint Alban of Burano (near Altino, Italy), meanwhile was associated with one Domenicus in a legendary tale reminiscent of one told about Dionysus.

[47] Alban is remembered in the Church of England with a Lesser Festival on 22 June[48] and he continues to be venerated in the Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox Communions.

Finally, a church is dedicated to Saint Alban at Earsdon Village, Northumberland, which is the nearest one to Bede's Holy Island.

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