The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints. January, February, MarchButler, Alban
Religion
The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints. January, February, March
Butler, Alban
Christian patron saints -- Biography; Christian saints -- Biography
an officer, who, to deceive him, assured his majesty that the rebels
were returned to their duty. The king went to the church of St. Alban,
the martyr, to perform his devotions, and return God thanks for that
happy event. This the rebels being informed of by Blanco, they
surrounded the church with him at their head. In the mean time the holy
king, perceiving the danger that threatened his life, confessed his sins
at the foot of the altar, with great tranquillity and resignation, and
received the holy communion. His guards defended the church doors, and
Blanco was slain by them. The rebels threw in bricks and stones, through
the windows, by which they beat down the shrines of certain relics of
St. Alban and St. Oswald, which St. Canutus had brought over from
England. The saint, stretching out his arms before the altar, fervently
recommended his soul into the hands of his Creator: in which posture he
was wounded with a javelin, darted through the window, and fell a victim
to Christ. His brother Benedict, and seventeen others, were slain with
him, on the 10th of July, 1086, as AElnoth, a contemporary author,
testifies, who has specified the date of all the events with the utmost
exactness. His wicked brother Olas succeeded him in the kingdom. God
punished the people during eight years and three months of his reign
with a dreadful famine, and other calamities; and attested the sanctity
of the martyr, by many miraculous cures of the sick at his tomb. For
which reason his relics were taken up out of their obscure sepulchre,
and honorably entombed towards the end of the reign of Olas. His
successor, Eric III., a most religious prince, restored piety and
religion, with equal courage and success, and sent ambassadors to Rome,
with proofs of the miracles performed, and obtained from the pope a
declaration authorizing the veneration of St. Canutus, the proto-martyr
of Denmark. Upon this occasion a most solemn translation of his relics,
which were put in a most costly shrine, was performed, at which AElnoth,
our historian, was present. He adds, that the first preachers of the
faith in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, were English priests; that the
Danes then zealously embraced the Christian religion, but that the
Swedes still continued more obstinate, among whom Eschil, an Englishman,
received the crown of martyrdom, while he was preaching Christ to
certain savage tribes.
ST. HENRY, ARCHBISHOP OF UPSAL, M.
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