Next Thursday we celebrate the feast of St. Alban, proto-martyr of England. Those blessed to live in Wales will have the additional benefit of celebrating St Julius and St. Aaron as well (the three being known as the 'proto-martyrs of Britain'). We have no firm dates to ascribe to their martyrdom but Allban seems to have died within the first decade of the third century, and Julius and Aaron about fifty years later. Over Alban's tomb a magnificent Abbey now stands, Julius and Aaron still want for a Church fitting to their heroic sacrifice.

All three were Romano-Britains and among the first to embrace Christianity in these islands. All three were adult converts. And all three showed their faith in the power of the risen Lord by laying down their lives for him.

There is an old saying that goes back to their time which we find several times in the writings of the Fathers: 'The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church'. Where their lives were sown in death over sixteen hundred years of Christian life have followed. In the difficulties we face witnessing to Christ in our day, we need to thank these three proto-martyrs for their courage and faith. We do this best of all by showing in our Churches the hope that the Lord Jesus is leading us from death to new life.

P.D.