SAINT ALBAN. - Ancient Benedictine abbey in Hertfordshire in England, not far from London. It was founded around 793 as an act of expiation by Offa, king of Mercia, near the church dedicated to the martyr Alban; it is already mentioned by Bede the Venerable at the beginning of the 8th century (Hist. eccl., I, 7). At the beginning of the 11th century the abbots Aldred and Eadmer sought material to repair the church among the ruins of the Roman city of Verulamium. The present building dates back to 1077, in the time of Abbot Paul of Caen, and constitutes the most grandiose Romanesque-Gothic church in England. Pope Adrian IV declared the abbey exempt from episcopal jurisdiction and conferred on it precedence over all other English abbeys; it underwent further restorations in the 13th and 14th centuries, when it especially flourished. To the scriptorium of St. Alban belong Roger of Wendover, Matthew Paris and John of Tynemouth. St. Alban's in 1521 was given in commendam to Cardinal Wolsey and was suppressed by Henry VIII in 1540. In 1553 the abbey was redeemed by the local authorities and transformed into a parish church; it underwent a bad restoration in the last century. Since 1877 it has served as the cathedral for the Anglican diocese of St. Albans.

Bibliography9 works

BIBL.: W. Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, II, London 1846, pp. 178-255; H. Riley, Chronicon monasterii S. Albani, ibid. 1872; Perkins, Cathedral church of St. A., ibid. 1910; W. Galbrith, The abbey of St. A. from 1300 to the dissolution of the monasteries, ibid. 1912; id., The Historia aurea of John, vicar of Tynemouth and the sources of the St. A. chronicle, in Essays presented to Reginald Pole, Oxford 1927, pp. 379-98; A. Gasquet, Abbot Wallingford, an inquiry into the charges made against him and its monks, London 1912; C. Jenkins, The monastic chronicles and the early school of St. A., ibid. 1928; W. Lowe - E. Jacob, Illustration to the life of st. A., Oxford 1924; Cottineau, II, coll. 2578-79.

Enrico Josi

@incollection{ec10_saint_alban, author = {Josi, Enrico}, title = {Saint Alban}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {X}, pages = {1619--1620}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/saint-alban} }

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