medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Many thanks John - I was pretty sure I could rely on you for a really
interesting and helpful reply!
And you are right that my quibble about it not being England was wrong. As
I now know, Alban was 'known from at least the tenth century as "protomartyr
Anglorum"' (ODNB). But he was never a priest. Nevertheless, as I suspect
St Aule is too obscure for a prep school test, I shall tell Peter to write
Alban, but with his fingers crossed.
Thank you
Rosemary Hayes
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Dillon" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 01, 2011 4:25 PM
Subject: Re: [M-R] England's first Christian martyr
>
> It's just possibly the Augulus or Augulius who is entered in early
> medieval martyrologies under 7. February as a martyr of Britannia and who,
> thanks to a more recent identification with the St. Aule venerated in
> Normandy, in English is also called St. Aule. The martyrologies tend to
> call him a bishop, in which case (assuming his consecration to have been
> canonical) he would have been a priest. Augulus got into Butler's _Lives
> of the Saints_ and from there he lives on in other compilations.
>
> I'm not sure that the objection that Alban (or, for that matter, Augulus)
> antedated England will cut much ice. Saints of territories that preceded
> various nation states are by retrojection commonly called saints of those
> later polities and Alban at least (Augulus is much trickier) is pretty
> clearly a saint of the parts of Britannia that became England.
>
> Best,
> John Dillon
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