This travel devotional, like all good travel devotionals, began with travel, a lot of travel, thirty-six hours of travel. The goal of the first day of this travel devotional was St. Albans, and our guide was Bede.

The travel: a long day

Because I knew what lay ahead, when we boarded or plane in the States, I was determined to sleep on the flight to London.

I wouldn’t exactly call what I got REM sleep, maybe more like RUM sleep because every time the plane rumbled through the turbulence, I was awakened. Whatever level of sleep I got, I got about four hours of it before we landed.

Even though we arrived at Heathrow at 7:45 a.m., we were not settled in our rental car until nearly 10:45 a.m. We had planned five potential sightseeing stops on the way to York, the most important of which was the first: St. Albans. If all went according to schedule, we would arrive in York by 6:30 p.m.

Bede on St. Alban

Bede sets the stage for the story of St. Alban with this:

Meanwhile, Diocletian in the east, and Maximian Herclulius in the west, commanded the churches to be destroyed, and the Christians to be slain. This persecution was the tenth since the reign of Nero, and was more lasting and bloody than all the others before it; for it was carried on incessantly for the space of ten years, with burning of churches, outlawing of innocent persons, and the slaughter of martyrs. At length, it reached Britain also, and many persons, with the constancy of martyrs, died in the confession of their faith.

Bede, Ecclesiastical History, Bk. I, Chp. VI.

This was a great place to pick up this travel devotional given our stop in Split, Croatia, and Diocletian’s palace during our last travel devotional.

The year was 305 A.D., and as Bede notes, the Great Persecution had reached Britain. Alban, a pagan, lived about 30 miles north of Londinium (London), and took in a priest fleeing Roman persecution there. After seeing the priest’s piety, Alban was converted to Christianity.

When the Roman soldiers pursuing the priest approached Alban’s house, Alban switched clothes with the priest, taking on his vestment and sending the priest on his way.

Alban was arrested, and when the Romans discovered Alban’s ruse, gave him the option to renounce his new-found faith or be executed. Alban chose the latter and was beheaded, becoming Britain’s first martyr.

Lesson from the lives of Alban and Bede

Bede was not the first to write about Alban, but his is the oldest version that has survived and is the reason we are still talking about Alban today. Alban was called to martyrdom, and Bede was called to write about it.

Alban died fulfilling God’s purpose for his life, and Bede died shortly after having fulfilled God’s purpose for his life. Each served God’s purpose in their own generation, and then fell asleep.

Now when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep.

Acts 13:36

We should all hope to live lives worthy of the same acclamation.

St. Albans Cathedral

After the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century, the people deserted Veralamium for the place of St. Alban’s shrine across the river, and the town became known as St. Albans.

Parking was not easy when we arrived in St. Albans, and it drained much of our precious time. Still we were able to walk through part of the town centre and visit St. Albans Cathedral.

The cathedral is beautiful outside but felt like an odd connection of separate churches inside. With some help, we found our way to what we had hoped was the tomb and bones of St. Alban, only to find a shrine that supposedly held only his scapula. While Ann, who recently had shoulder replacement surgery, I’m sure appreciated the choice of remains, we were disappointed more of Alban was not in his shrine.

Supposedly, the rest of Alban’s remains are in a church in Cologne, Germany, where they were moved during the 8th-9th century to protect them from the Vikings, who were raiding Britain and destroying churches, which is what they did until they were converted to Christianity.

I wish we had had more time to explore St. Albans. We didn’t have time for the Roman ruins. We had to get to York.

Serendipitous stop in Stamford

Because we were already behind schedule, we decided not to stop in Peterborough, and then made the same decision with regard to Stamford. So, in Stamford I pulled into a car dealership to reprogram our car’s GPS.

After a few minutes, one of the mechanics, believing we were lost, walked over to our car. He told us if we wanted to eat we should try The George Hotel because it was a place where the Crusaders dined on their way to the way to Israel in the Third Crusade around 1190 A.D. Our interest was immediately piqued.

The Third Crusade, my second-favorite (behind the First) and which I rate just ahead of the Second, was the the crusade starring Richard I (the Lionheart).

We all agreed this chance meeting with the mechanic was the sovereign hand of God, and we quickly found our way back to The George Hotel, where we enjoyed a relaxing lunch. However, we learned the crusaders didn’t exactly dine in The George Hotel but in a building that existed here then. Close enough.

Lincoln Cathedral

Because we had crossed Fotheringhay off the itinerary for lack of time, only Lincoln and the Lincoln Cathedral were left.

Lincoln Cathedral was the tallest building in the world for nearly two hundred years (1311 – 1548 A.D.), beating out the Great Pyramid of Giza ,which had held the title for nearly 4,000 years. By the time we got to Lincoln, it was getting dark, and we couldn’t find an angle from far enough away to get a good pic. You’ll just have to take my word for it – It’s taller than the Great Pyramid of Giza.

So, after about ten minutes, it was back to the car for another two hours of driving before we rolled safely into York about 7 p.m. and rolled into bed not long after to prepare for our next day on this travel devotional. GS