Saint Alban was the first British Christian martyr. Along with his fellow saints Julius and Aaron, Alban is one of three martyrs remembered from Roman Britain. Alban is listed in the Church of England calendar for 22 June and he continues to be celebrated in the Anglican, Catholic and Orthodox Communions.
In 2006 some Church of England clergy suggested that Alban should replace St George as the patron saint of England. There have been claims that he should be patron saint of Britain as a whole.
According to Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Alban was a pagan living at Verulamium (now St. Alban's, Hertfordshire), who converted to Christianity, and was executed by decapitation on a hill above the Roman settlement of Verulamium. St Alban's Abbey was later founded near this site.