Alban was a Romano-Briton who was martyred for his Christian faith at Verulamium (St. Albans, Herefordshire).
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Julius and Aaron were Romano-Britons who were likewise martyred for their faith at Caerleon, South Wales.
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Various attempts have been made to date their martyrdoms, but it seems that the nearest that can be identified is during the mid-third century, during the Empire-wide persecution which was started in 249 by the Emperor Decius. St. Gildas the Wise (500-570) mentions two saints: “Aaron et Julianum legiorum Urbis cives” (Aaron and Julius, citizens of the city of legions (Caerleon). In his history, Geoffrey of Monmouth, names all three martyrs.
In a medieval document called the “Book of Llandaff”, a mid-ninth century charter records the grant of the “territorium sanctorum martirum Iulii et aaron” (territory of the martyrs Julius and Aaron), land immediately adjacent to Caerleon. In a medieval document called the “Book of Llandaff”, a mid-ninth century charter records the grant of the “territorium sancto-rum martirum Iulii et aaron” (territory of the martyrs Julius and Aaron), land immediately ad-jacent to Caerleon.
In the twelfth-century rubric the church is named as the “Merthir Iul et Aaron” A “menthir” was a church that held the remains of martyrs. The location of this church was on Chepstow Hill, overlooking Caerleon.
The final reference to the church of Julius and Aaron is a deed of 1495, but now it is named the “ecclesia Sancti Albon” (church of St. Alban). While it sounds like this is a different church, an 1143 confirmation of an earlier grant names the church “ecclesiam sanctorum Julii et Aaron atque Albani) (the church of Julius, Aaron, and Alban). The triple dedication occurs again in 1201 in a conformation of the same charter by King John. It has been suggested that during the medieval period, veneration of Sts. Julius and Aaron began to decrease, and that relics of St. Alban were brought to Caerleon as veneration for Alban increased.
By this time, veneration of St. Alban was well-established. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says that he was martyred in 286. We know that 125 years after the persecution ended, it was believed that a martyr named Alban died and was buried in Verulamium. In 793, St. Bede the Venerable wrote about a small church built there and dedicated to Alban the martyr. During the Danish invasion, the body was transferred to Ely for its protection. But the major shrine of St. Alban was in the great medieval cathedral of that name – St. Albans (Verulamium).
The shrine was dismantled as a component of Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries. On December 9, 1539, the abbot and forty monks were dispersed. The shrine was dismantled. But many fragments of the platform survived through the centuries and were recently reassembled. A bone believed to be one of St. Alban’s was returned to the restored shrine on June 29, 2002, when a group of German pilgrims brought it from the church of St. Pantaleon in Cologne, where it had been cherished since the 10th century. The bone was received by the cathedral at a service of Choral Evensong and was then place inside the shrine pedestal.
In a medieval document called the “Book of Llandaff”, a mid-ninth century charter records the grant of the “territorium sanctorum martirum Iulii et aaron” (territory of the martyrs Julius and Aaron), land immediately adjacent to Caerleon. In a medieval document called the “Book of Llandaff”, a mid-ninth century charter records the grant of the “territorium sancto-rum martirum Iulii et aaron” (territory of the martyrs Julius and Aaron), land immediately ad-jacent to Caerleon.
In the twelfth-century rubric the church is named as the “Merthir Iul et Aaron” A “menthir” was a church that held the remains of martyrs. The location of this church was on Chepstow Hill, overlooking Caerleon.
The final reference to the church of Julius and Aaron is a deed of 1495, but now it is named the “ecclesia Sancti Albon” (church of St. Alban). While it sounds like this is a different church, an 1143 confirmation of an earlier grant names the church “ecclesiam sanctorum Julii et Aaron atque Albani) (the church of Julius, Aaron, and Alban). The triple dedication occurs again in 1201 in a conformation of the same charter by King John. It has been suggested that during the medieval period, veneration of Sts. Julius and Aaron began to decrease, and that relics of St. Alban were brought to Caerleon as veneration for Alban increased.
By this time, veneration of St. Alban was well-established. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says that he was martyred in 286. We know that 125 years after the persecution ended, it was believed that a martyr named Alban died and was buried in Verulamium. In 793, St. Bede the Venerable wrote about a small church built there and dedicated to Alban the martyr. During the Danish invasion, the body was transferred to Ely for its protection. But the major shrine of St. Alban was in the great medieval cathedral of that name – St. Albans (Verulamium).
The shrine was dismantled as a component of Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries. On December 9, 1539, the abbot and forty monks were dispersed. The shrine was dismantled. But many fragments of the platform survived through the centuries and were recently reassembled. A bone believed to be one of St. Alban’s was returned to the restored shrine on June 29, 2002, when a group of German pilgrims brought it from the church of St. Pantaleon in Cologne, where it had been cherished since the 10th century. The bone was received by the cathedral at a service of Choral Evensong and was then place inside the shrine pedestal.
The three relics which have just come to our shrine in January of 2022 were originally in the treasury of Cardinal Marco Ce, the Patriarch of Venice from 1978 to 2002, and more recently in the Greek Orthodox monastic community of Mount Athos.
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