This article needs additional citations for verification .(May 2020) |
Chantry Island is currently a small (5,300sq.m.) [1] deciduously wooded area with a narrow, and now dry, moat, [2] giving the impression that it is an island. It is located in the grounds of the former All Saints Pastoral Centre in London Colney, Hertfordshire.
Chantry Island is famous as being the alleged place of arrest of Saint Alban, the first Christian martyr in what is now the United Kingdom.
The local legend associated with the island is that Alban had harboured a fugitive priest at his home on Chantry Island and, when they heard of the impending arrival of Roman soldiers, Alban changed clothes with the priest so that he himself, and not the priest, would be arrested. Alban was arrested, and taken to nearby Verulamium, where he would later be martyred. Verulamium was later renamed St Albans in his honour.
The chantry chapel on the island is first mentioned in land records around 1100 AD. It was then dedicated to St John the Baptist. The chapel fell into disuse in 1471. The remains of the chapel built on Chantry Island became a site of local pilgrimage and, in about 1920, some restoration workers rebuilt the walls to a height of about 60 cm. [3]
St Albans is a city located in Hertfordshire, England. It was originally founded as Verlamion a settlement belonging to the Catuvellauni. It was subsequently transformed into the Roman settlement of Verulamium from where it grew into a municipium around AD 50.
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial county in the East of England and one of the home counties. It borders Bedfordshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. The largest settlement is Watford, and the county town is Hertford.
St Albans is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, 20 miles (32 km) north-west of London, 8 miles (13 km) south-west of Welwyn Garden City and 11 miles (18 km) south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roman road of Watling Street for travellers heading north and became the city of Verulamium. It is within the London commuter belt and the Greater London Built-up Area.
Verulamium was a town in Roman Britain. It was sited southwest of the modern city of St Albans in Hertfordshire, England. A large portion of the Roman city remains unexcavated, being now park and agricultural land,although due to ploughing on the privately owned agricultural half of the city a lot of damage has been done, as proven by parts of mosaic floors that have been found on the surface, and results of ground penetrating radar show outlines of buildings as smudges rather than clearly defined walls like those protected by the parkland. Part of the Roman city has been built upon, such as St Michael's church and other parts along the centre of the medieval village. The major ancient Roman route Watling Street passed through the city. Much of the site and its environs is now a scheduled monument.
St Albans Cathedral, officially the Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Alban but often referred to locally as "the Abbey", is a Church of England cathedral in St Albans, England.
Amphibalus is a venerated early Christian priest said to have converted Saint Alban to Christianity. He occupied a place in British hagiography almost as revered as Alban himself. According to many hagiographical accounts, including those of Gildas, Bede, Geoffrey of Monmouth, and Matthew of Paris, Amphibalus was a Roman Christian fleeing religious persecution under Emperor Diocletian. Amphibalus was offered shelter by Alban in the Roman city of Verulamium, in modern-day England. Alban was so impressed with the priest's faith and teaching that he began to emulate him in worship, and eventually became a Christian himself. When Roman soldiers came to seize Amphibalus, Alban put on Amphibalus' robes and was punished in his place. According to Matthew Paris, after Alban's martyrdom, the Romans eventually caught and martyred Amphibalus as well.
A chantry is an ecclesiastical term that may have either of two related meanings:
Saint Alban is venerated as the first-recorded British Christian martyr, for which reason he is considered to be the British protomartyr. Along with fellow Saints Julius and Aaron, Alban is one of three named martyrs recorded at an early date from Roman Britain. He is traditionally believed to have been beheaded in Verulamium sometime during the 3rd or 4th century, and his cult has been celebrated there since ancient times.
Alban of Mainz was a Catholic priest, missionary, and martyr in the Late Roman Empire. He is venerated as Saint Alban of Mainz in the Catholic Church, not to be confused with Saint Alban of Verulamium.
Julius and Aaron were two Romano-British Christian saints who were martyred around the third century. Along with Saint Alban, they are the only named Christian martyrs from Roman Britain. Most historians place the martyrdom in Caerleon, although other suggestions have placed it in Chester or Leicester. Their feast day was traditionally celebrated on 1 July, but it is now observed together with Alban on 20 June by the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches.
Margaret Ward, called the "pearl of Tyburn", was an English saint and martyr who was executed during the reign of Elizabeth I for assisting a priest to escape from prison. She was canonised in 1970, as one of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.
St Michael's Church is a Church of England parish church in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England. Much of the building is late 10th or early 11th century, making it the most significant surviving Anglo-Saxon building in the county. It is located near the centre of the site of Roman Verulamium to the west of the modern city.
All Saints Pastoral Centre is a complex of buildings at London Colney on the southern outskirts of St Albans, Hertfordshire, England. It was built as a convent for the Anglican Society of All Saints Sisters of the Poor.
Alban is a community opera in two acts with music by Tom Wiggall and libretto by John Mole.
New Southgate Cemetery is a 22-hectare cemetery in Brunswick Park in the London Borough of Barnet. It was established by the Colney Hatch Company in the 1850s and became the Great Northern London Cemetery, with a railway service running from near Kings Cross station to a dedicated station at the cemetery, similar to the service of the London Necropolis Company to Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey.
St Alban the Martyr, Birmingham is a Grade II* listed Church of England parish church in the Anglican Diocese of Birmingham. It is dedicated to Saint Alban, the first British Christian martyr.
St Augustine's Church or the Shrine of St Augustine of Canterbury is a Roman Catholic church in Ramsgate, Kent. It was the personal church of Augustus Pugin, the renowned nineteenth-century architect, designer, and reformer. The church is an example of Pugin's design ideas, and forms a central part of Pugin's collection of buildings in Ramsgate. Having built his home, Pugin began work on St Augustine's in 1846 and worked on it until his death in 1852. His sons completed many of the designs. This is the site where Pugin is buried, in a vault beneath the chantry chapel he designed, alongside several members of his family.
St Alban's Church, Holborn, is a Church of England parish church in Holborn, central London, for a time becoming one of two churches of its parish which retains the name and St Peter's Saffron Hill to serve the mixed-use zone, notable for jewel-setting and for law firms. It has been Grade II* listed since 1951. This land is commonly – other than mainly to state Holborn, meaning part of Holborn – called Hatton Garden. St Peter's church is defunct, rationalising the number of churches in line with population changes of the district.
Thomas Reynolds, born Thomas Green, was an English Reformation Catholic priest and martyr.
There are 225 scheduled monuments in the county of Hertfordshire, England. These protected sites date from the Neolithic period and include barrows, ruined abbeys, castles, and Iron Age hill forts. In the United Kingdom, the scheduling of monuments was first initiated to ensure the preservation of "nationally important" archaeological sites or historic buildings. Protection is given to scheduled monuments under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.