Why was St Albans Cathedral built?

Answer 1

• When Jesus was alive, Palestine was occupied by the Romans; so were the countries which are now England and Wales. The map of this land was dotted by Roman garrison towns; these towns are easily identified today by names that end in -caster, -cester or -chester (from the Latin castra a camp).
• There were also a number of civilian towns. Londinium, now the enormous city called London, was then a small village. The largest and most important civil town was Verulamium, about twenty miles north of Londinium.
• During the early history of Christianity, people living in the Roman Empire were forbidden to adhere to it; the church had an underground existence both figuratively and literally, and anyone caught risked becoming lion's meat in the Colosseum. A Roman soldier called Albanus was caught practising Christianity while in Verulamium. He was taken to the top of a 300 ft hill just outside the city walls, and crucified.
• Later on Christianity became the official religion of the empire, and the site of Albanus's crucifixion was marked by a small church, containing relics (i.e. remains) of Albanus. As the first martyr in England, he was soon canonised, and large numbers of pilgrims came to visit.
• Shortly after the Norman conquest the "Cathedral and Abbey Church of St. Alban" commenced construction. From the word Abbey in the name we see that a monastery went with it. For some time this was the most important church in England, and it sent Nicholas Breakspeare to Rome as the only English Pope.
• The monastery was eventually destroyed by Henry VIII, but the cathedral is still there and has the longest nave of any cathedral in Europe.