Many have followed St Alban in dying for their faith

The result is that we by-pass or trivialise the proper word for that: ‘martyr’.

“You really are a martyr,” we say to someone when they give up something trifling.

But, living in St Albans, we have an immediate connection with real martyrdom.

This city takes its name from St Alban, supposedly the first British, Christian martyr who was beheaded near Verulamium by the Romans.

The meaning of the word is concerned with the idea of witness to one’s beliefs leading to death.

The term has cropped up recently in the national news.

A fortnight ago 80 or more Christians in Peshawar, Pakistan were targeted and killed at All Saints’ Church.

The Archbishop of Canterbury used the term ‘martyr’ to describe their deaths because, as he pointed out, they were witnessing to their faith by attending church services when they knew there was real danger.

There have been many thousands of Christian martyrs around the world in recent years but we in St Albans and Harpenden today are shielded from all this.

For how much longer, I wonder.

Will there be British martyrs again in the city of St Alban in my children’s lifetime?  Or even in mine?

St Alban may have been the first on British soil.  Many others may have followed him throughout the centuries.

I suspect there will be still more to come.

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