SAINT ALBAN

SAINT ALBAN. – An ancient Benedictine abbey in Hertfordshire, England, not far from London. It was founded ca. 793 as an expiation by Offa, King of Mercia, near the church dedicated to the martyr Alban; it is already mentioned by the Venerable Bede at the beginning of the 8th century (Hist. eccl., I, 7). At the beginning of the 11th century, Abbots Aldred and Edmer sought materials to repair the church among the ruins of the Roman city of Verulanum. The present building dates to 1077, during the abbacy of Paul of Caen, and constitutes the most grandiose Romanesque-Gothic church in England. Pope Adrian IV declared the abbey exempt from episcopal jurisdiction and granted it precedence over all other English abbeys; it underwent further restorations in the 13th and 14th centuries, when it especially flourished. The scriptorium of St. Alban’s produced Roger of Wendover, Matthew Paris, and John of Tynemouth. In 1521, St. Alban’s was given in commendam to Cardinal Wolsey and suppressed by Henry VIII in 1540. In 1553, the abbey was redeemed by local authorities and converted into a parish church; it suffered from poor restoration in the last century. Since 1877, it has served as the cathedral for the Anglican diocese of St. Alban’s.