St Alban

Part of a pilgrim badge from the shrine of St Alban, the first English martyr, at the cathedral in St Albans, Hertfordshire. This shrine was one of the most important pilgrimage centres close to London. Alban lived in the Roman town of Verulamium in the 3rd century during a time of Christian persecution by the emperor Septimius Severus. Alban helped to hide a fugitive Christian priest called Amphibalus in his villa, and was converted to Christianity. When soldiers raided his house, Alban refused to renounce Christianity or tell them where the priest was so he was dragged up a hill above the town and beheaded. Badges of St Alban frequently show the scene of his execution, with a knight in armour carrying a sword and Alban’s decapitated head hanging from a tree by his hair as his body sinks to the ground. This fragment shows the upper part of the tree, and Alban’s head hanging by its hair.