Alban of Mainz

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Alban of Mainz (Latin: Albanus or Albinus; supposedly died in or near Mainz[1]) 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.

Attempts at reconstruction

The accounts of Alban's life widely contradict each other in dating, geography, characters and acts, while other elements remain unclear; this has led scholars to create significantly divergent reconstructions of Alban.

Dating

It is sometimes assumed that he died in or near Mainz around the year 400 (Watkins 2015),[2] but others claim he died much later, around 483 (Hirschel 1855).[3] Still others base themselves on a 10th-century vita of his teacher Theonistus, which claims that Alban was martyred in Mainz before Theonistus was martyred near Altinum on 30 October 380.[4] As the death of Ambrose (397) and the reign of Huneric (r. 477–483) are well-known from other sources, this means Gozwin's claim that Theonistus and his disciples visited Ambrose in Milan after they were expelled from Africa by Huneric cannot be historically correct. The Vandal Kingdom in Africa was not established until 435 by Gaiseric, who died in 477,[5] and Gozwin specifies it was ruled by Huneric Wandalorum Rex post Gezericum patrem ('Huneric, King of the Vandals after his father Gaiseric').[6]

Geography

Aside from Milan and Mainz, all other locations mentioned by the sources are contested. A few authors have attempted to deduce from Alban's personal name that he was either from Albania or a city called 'Alba'.[7] Some writers assert that the island of Namsia, also written Nausia, is to be equated with Naxos in the Aegean Sea,[8][7] while others state that they are not sure about this identification, or that they have no idea where to locate it because it doesn't seem to have existed. Neither is it clear whether this Namsia was the birthplace of Alban, or (part of) the diocese of Theonistus, while others identify the latter as bishop of Philippi,[9] a city 450 kilometres north of Naxos. Many writers doubt or outright reject Gozwin's assertion that Alban and Theonistus had been active in North Africa at the time of Vandal king Huneric on chronological grounds and the fact that Rabanus doesn't mention this episode.[10][7] Finally, the city of Augusta or Augusta primae Retiae, in which Ursus is said to have been killed, has been interpreted as Augusta Treverorum (modern Trier, near Mainz), Augusta Vindelicorum (modern Augsburg in Bavaria) or Augusta Praetoria Salassorum (modern Aosta in northwestern Italy).[11][7] Mark Welser, a scholar from Augsburg, argued in 1594 that Augusta (primae Retiae) had to be Augsburg, whilst Henricus Canisius from Nijmegen responded in his 1614 reprint of the Passio sancti Albani that some other authors had arguments in favour of Aosta.[6]

General

Daniel Papebroch (1722) concluded that Alban had been killed by 'heretical' Arians on 21 June 404, when Aureus was the bishop of Mainz.[7] Alban Butler (1759) noted that Papebroch and Jean Mabillon claimed Alban was an African bishop who, because of his Catholic faith, was banished from the Vandal Kingdom by the Arian monarch Huneric, after which he settled in Mainz, where he was captured by the Huns and executed because of his faith. However, Butler favoured the viewpoint of Ruinart (1694) and Georgi (1745) that Alban was not from Africa.[10]

According to Schaab (1844), Alban came to Mainz around 404 to convert Arians to Catholicism, but they decapitated him at Gartenfeld.[12]

Hirschel (1855) alleged that both Alban and bishop Theonistus were expelled from Africa by the Arian Vandalic king Huneric, and that Mainz had no bishop when they arrived to proselytise the local Arians, who proceeded to expel Theonistus and behead Alban in Gartenfeld around 483.[3]

Stadler (1858) remarked that the Hunnic destruction of Mainz (during which bishop Aureus was allegedly killed) occurred in 451 (just before the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains), not in 404 as some authors claimed, thereby rejecting the assertion that Alban was killed by Huns.[7]

A timeline of Mainz constructed by Franz Falk (chaplain at Worms) for the Nassauische Annalen (1873) put the killing of bishop Aureus during the Hunnic sack of Mainz on 16 June 403, the killing of Alban by the Huns on 21 June 406, and the Crossing of the Rhine (by Alans and Gepids) on 31 December 406, based on Rabanus' Martyrologium, Gozwin's Passio, Prosper of Aquitaine's chronicle and Jerome's Epistola ad Ageruchiam. Falk explained the 'Arian persecution' mentioned by Gozwin and Sigehart as meaning that the Huns were Arians, and their persecution was 'both political and religious'.[11]

Smith & Wace (1877) wrote: "Albanus of Mentz, martyred at Mentz no one knows when, according to Baeda under Diocletian also, according to Sigebert (in Chron.), who says he had been driven from Philippi with Theonistus its bishop, in 425, and respecting whom Rabanus Maurus goes so far abroad as to call [Alban] an African bishop flying from Hunneric..."[13]

Häuptli (2003) argued that Alban's cult became associated with that of Theonistus, who may have been a bishop of Philippi but who was confused with Thaumastus, a 5th-century bishop of Mainz.[9]

Pelizaeus (2012) claimed that Mainz was conquered by the Vandals, Suebi and Burgundians in 406, during which Alban was killed.[14]

In Watkins' reconstruction (2015), Alban was a Greek priest from the isle of Naxos, who was exiled by the Arians to Mainz, where he became a missionary; the local Arians killed him around 400.[2]

Legacy

A church and monastery were built in Mainz in 804 to honour Alban.[10] A map of Fulda from 786 seems to have already mentioned a chapel in Mainz dedicated to Alban.[8] It became the centre of Saint Alban's Abbey, a large Benedictine monastery, which was renovated by Charlemagne around 805.[15] The monastery was devastated in 1557 and never renewed.[8]

Albert II, Count of Namur founded the collegiate church of St. Alban at Namur in 1047.[10] When the Diocese of Namur was created in 1559, it was expanded as St Aubin's Cathedral, which claims to possess relics of Alban of Mainz. He used to be commonly venerated in Wallonia, but barely in Flanders and the Netherlands. Alban was a rare example of a saint who was invoked for calamities in general rather than for a specific domain of problems that Catholics were dealing with.[16]

Both Alban of Mainz and Alban of Verulamium are represented in art as carrying their head between their hands, having been beheaded.[17]

References

  1. 1.Parkes, Henry (2015). The Making of Liturgy in the Ottonian Church: Books, Music and Ritual in Mainz, 950–1050. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 38–39. ISBN 9781316240823. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
  2. 2.[2.2]Watkins, Basil (2015). The Book of Saints: A Comprehensive Biographical Dictionary. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 39. ISBN 9780567664150. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
  3. 3.[3.2]Hirschel, Johann Josef (1855). Geschichte der Stadt und des Bisthums Mainz (in German). Mainz: Verlag von Franz Kirchheim. p. 12. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  4. 4.Antonio Borrelli (31 August 2001). "San Teonesto (o Teonisto o Tonisto) Vescovo e martire". Santi e Beati (in Italian). Retrieved 13 October 2020.
  5. 5.Encarta Winkler Prins Encyclopaedia (1993–2002) s.v. "§ Geiserik". Microsoft Corporation/Het Spectrum.
  6. 6.[6.2]Canisius, Henricus (1725). "Passio sancti Albani martyris". Thesaurus monumentorum ecclesiasticorum et historicorum, Volume 4 (in Latin). Amsterdam: Jacobus Basnage. pp. 158–166. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
  7. 7.[7.2][7.3][7.4][7.5][7.6]Stadler, Johann Evangelista (14 April 2024). Vollständiges Heiligen-Lexikon, oder Lebensgeschichten aller Heiligen. pp. 97–98.
  8. 8.[8.2][8.3]F. Mohn & O. Weimar (2011). "Der hl. Albanus (Alwones), Schutzpatron der Kirche in Wolfshausen" (PDF). Heimatwelt (in German). Municipality of Weimar (Lahn). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 October 2020. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
  9. 9.[9.2]Bruno W. Häuptli (2003). "Theonest (Theonistus, Thonistus, Onistus) von Altino". In Bautz, Traugott (ed.). Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German). Vol. 22. Nordhausen: Bautz. cols. 1344–1346. ISBN 3-88309-133-2.
  10. 10.[10.2][10.3][10.4]Butler, Alban (1799). The Lives of the Primitive Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints by the Rev. Alban Butler. Edinburgh: J. Moir. pp. 323–325. Retrieved 8 October 2020.
  11. 11.[11.2]Falk, Franz (1873). "Das erste Jahrtausend christlicher Bau- und Kunstthätigkeit in Mainz". Annalen des Vereins für Nassauische Altertumskunde und Geschichtsforschung (Nassauische Annalen) (in German). 12. Verein für Nassauische Altertumskunde: 3–5. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
  12. 12.Schaab, Karl Anton (1844). Geschichte der Stadt Mainz, Volume 2 (in German). Mainz: F. Kupferberg. pp. 361–362. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
  13. 13.William George Smith; Henry Wace, A Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, Sects and Doctrines (J. Murray, 1877), 70.
  14. 14.Pelizaeus, Ludolf (2012). "Mainz". Handbuch kultureller Zentren der Frühen Neuzeit: Städte und Residenzen im alten deutschen Sprachraum. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. pp. 1393–1394. ISBN 9783110295559. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
  15. 15.Reinhard Schmid, Die Abtei St. Alban vor Mainz im hohen und späten Mittelalter. Geschichte, Verfassung und Besitz eines Klosters im Spannungsfeld zwischen Erzbischof, Stadt, Kurie und Reich, Mainz, 1996
  16. 16.Claes, Jo; Claes, Alfons; Vincke, Kathy (2006). Beschermheiligen in de Lage Landen (in Dutch). Leuven: Uitgeverij Ten Have. p. 144. ISBN 9789077942253. Retrieved 14 October 2020.
  17. 17.Murphy, Edward L. (October 1959). "The saints of epilepsy" (PDF). Medical History. 3 (4). Cambridge University Press: 303–311. doi:10.1017/S0025727300024807. PMC 1034505. PMID 14425381. Retrieved 11 October 2020.