ABSTRACT
The hagiographers have so elaborated St Alban’s simple story that many people to-day doubt that any such man ever lived. It seems certain that Alban was real, a legionary stationed at Verulamium at the beginning of the 4th century, though whether he was British or Roman is unknown. There is an interesting Latin manuscript life of St Alban composed especially for and dedicated to Henry VII by the abbey of St Pantaleon in Cologne. The tradition of Odense in Denmark has more circumstantial evidence in its streets, bridge, market, church and so on still named after Saint Alban. The comparative worldliness of St Albans emerges from the lack of recorded interest in what went on at the shrine which was the heart of the abbey’s existence. Pilgrims came, gifts were received and the accumulation of fantastic relics was almost as great as at Durham.
