June 17.

Sts. Nicandeo and Marcian, about A.D. 303. St. Botulph, Abbot, A.D. 655. St. Avitus, or Avy, A.D. 530. St. Molingus, or Dairchilla, Bp. A.D. 697. St. Prior, Hermit, 4th Cent.

St. Alban.

This saint, the proto-martyr of Britain, is in the church of England calendar and almanacs on this day, but he stands in the Romish calendar, on the 22d of the month.

St. Alban was born at Verulam, in Hertfordshire, in the third century, and went to Rome, where he served seven years as a soldier under Dioclesian. He afterwards returned to England, became a Christian, and suffered martyrdom in 303, during the dreadful persecution raised by Dioclesian. Several miracles are said by Bede to have been wrought at his martyrdom.* [1]

The fame of Alban, recorded as it was by Bede, made a deep impression on the minds of the superstitious. "The Ecclesiastical History" of that author, was published in 731; and in the year 795, Offa, king of the Mercians, built a monastery to the honour of Alban, on the place where he had suffered, then called by the Anglo-Saxons, Homhurst, but since, in honour of the martyr, named St. Alban's. The town built near the abbey still retains the latter appellation; and the abbey-church is even yet in existence, having, at the suppression of the monasteries by Henry the Eighth, been purchased by a rich clothier of the name of Stump, for 400l., and converted by him into a parochial church, for the use of the inhabitants. In the year 1257, some workmen repairing this ancient church, found the remains of some sheets of lead, containing relics, with a thick plate of lead over them, upon which was cut the following inscription:—

"In hoc Mausoleo inventum est
Venerabile corpus SANCTI ALBANI, Proto
Martyris Anglorum."† [2]

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FLORAL DIRECTORY.

Monkey Flower. Mimulus luteus.
Dedicated to St. Nicandeo.

Notes [all notes are Hone's unless otherwise indicated]:

1. Audley. [return]

2. Brady's Clavis. [return]