Amphibalus

Saint Amphibalus is a venerated early Christian priest who is said to have converted Saint Alban to Christianity, and, although his identity and historicity are dubious, he at one point occupied a place in British hagiography almost as revered as Saint Alban himself. According to many hagiographical accounts, including those of Gildas, Bede, Geoffrey of Monmouth, and Matthew of Paris, Amphibalus was a Roman Christian fleeing the religious persecution under Emperor Diocletian. While in the Roman city of Verulamium, in modern day England, Saint Amphibalus was offered shelter by Saint Alban, who was so impressed with the priest's faith and teaching that Alban began to emulate him in worship and eventually became a Christian himself. When Roman soldiers came to seize St. Amphibalus, Alban put on Amphibalus' robes and was punished in his stead. According to Matthew Paris, after St. Alban's martyrdom, the Romans eventually caught and martyred Amphibalus, too.

Neither Gildas (c. 570) nor Bede (c. 730) nor the three texts of St Alban's Passio, perhaps going back to the fifth century, name Saint Amphibalus in their accounts of Saint Alban. They do not refer to the yet unnamed Amphibalus as a saint, but simply as a priest and do not report his martyrdom. In fact, it was not until Geoffrey of Monmouth wrote his History of the Kings of Britain in the 12th century that St. Amphibalus gained his name and title. This change in name may have occurred because Geoffrey of Monmouth misunderstood the Latin word used for the cloak, amphiboles, that was worn by Saint Alban. However, It is also possible that Geoffrey is simply repeating a name for the priest that had come into common usage by his time. Nonetheless, it is highly unlikely that St. Amphibalus originally carried that name.

It may, moreover, not just have been the name 'Amphibalus' that was an invention. The story, going back to a probably 5th century Passio Albani, is, in itself, highly suspect. Wilhelm Levisonnoted that it is composed of countless borrowings from other Lives of Saints and it has, in his words “...no place in the ranks of Acta martyrum sincera; it is a legendary tale....”.

In his famous Historia Regum Britanniae(of c. 1136) Geoffrey repeated the story of Alban's martyrdom as given by Bede but adds the name of the confessor he shelters, as AmphibalusHe further recounts that there was a church of Amphibalus at Winchester where king Constantine consigned his son Constans to become a monkand where another, later, Constantine killed one of the sons of Mordred. Geoffrey, or his source, must have been influenced by the story that Alban dressed in the clothes of the confessor, including his cloak, although the word used for 'cloak' by Bede is not actually amphiboles but rather caracalla. Geoffrey appears to have got the former word actually from Gildas who describes his contemporary, one Constantine, king of Dumnonia, as having dressed in the amphibalo, or 'cloak', of an abbot to murder two royal youths in a church. This is clearly the inspiration for Geoffrey's story about the murder of the son of Mordred, of his association of Amphibalus's church with kings called Constantine and probably for its location in Winchester which for Geoffrey (by elision of later West Saxon history with that of the earlier 'British-Welsh' kingdom in roughly the same area) was the chief city of Dumnonia. How or why the story about Alban became connected to the one about king Constantine must remain somewhat mysterious but might be put down to Geoffrey's enterprising imagination, if not to some confusion in his sources.

The other details we have about Amphibalus's cult all originate with texts that appear to have been written with the express purpose of creating a new cult, and in particular to give a supportive context to the inventio, or 'discovery', of the body of Amphibalus at Redbourn, near St Albans in 1177. These texts were produced at St Albans Abbey in the second half of the twelfth century and the most important was written by a monk, William of St Albans, during the abbacy of Simon (1167–83). He provided a more elaborate version of the story of Saint Alban (than the one in Bede, Gildas etc..) and gave a prominent role in it to a new martyr-saint, Amphibalus, whose name he expressly states to have found in Geoffrey's work but the extra details of whose story he claims to have found in an ancient book (perhaps inspired by the similar claim Geoffrey had made for his entire History).

Of the inventio at Redbourn Baring-Gould and Fisherwrote “There can be no doubt entertained that the whole was a fraud”. Wilhelm Levison, meanwhile, stated that “The abbey had incurred heavy debts; anyone who knows the medieval misuse of of pious belief and offering, will not be surprised to learn that just at this time the generosity of the devotees was stimulated by the discovery of the history and, what is more, of the relics of St Amphibalus”. Benjamin Gordon-Taylor also notes the evidence that St Albans abbey was in debt whilst also suggesting that “a principal motive for the initiation of the cult of St Amphibalus was the success of the cult of St Thomas of Canterbury”(murdered in 1170) so that it was in a sense the result of the competition between St Albans and Canterbury for the attraction of pilgrims.

The new story about Amphibalus that emerged from this (see below) is a set of rather transparently artificial elaborations based on the fact that mentioned together with Saint Alban, in the (sixth century) account of Gildas were another two martyrs, Julius and Aaron, said to have been martyred together at a place called Urbs Legionis, identified (probably correctly) as Caerleon in Wales, by the eighth century. As Wilhelm Levison noted, meanwhile, the large number of people supposedly martyred together with Amphibalus have their probable origin in a mistranscription made in the course of the transmission of the Martyrologium Hieronymianum (St Jerome's Martyrology) which connected the large number of martyrs originally associated with Rufinus of Alexandria, with saint Alban, under the date of the 22nd of June.

The location of the inventio at Redbourn, finally, was most likely determined by the presence there of some ancient Anglo-Saxon burial mounds, which would have looked like a promising place to find some human remains The two knives said to have been found with Amphibalus would be typical of the kind of thing included in an ancient pagan Anglo-Saxon burial.

Benjamin Gordon-Taylornotes that “The cult of St. Amphibalus and his companions is unique in late twelfth-century England ... in that we are seeing a cult beginning almost from scratch.” This somewhat unique phenomenon, in turn, bears witness to the extraordinary influence of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum at the time, something which, however, also lay ultimately behind the arguably somewhat comparable “discovery” of the 'grave' of 'King Arthur' at Glastonbury Abbey at around the same time as that of the bodies of Amphibalus and his companions – and which Gordon-Taylorsuggests was also motivated in part, by competition with the new Canterbury cult of St Thomas à Becket, for pilgrims.

Most of what is known of Amphibalus's life is derived from hagiographic texts centered on Saint Alban and written hundreds of years after his death. He was believed to be a citizen of Caerleon during the 3rd or 4th century. During a religious persecution, Alban sheltered Amphibalus from persecutors in his home. The priest was very pious and faithful, and while in Alban's home, he prayed and kept watch both day and night. He instructed Alban with "wholesome admonitions," influencing Alban to abandon his previous religious beliefs and follow Amphibalus in the Christian faith. Alban was so inspired by his guest that he chose to sacrifice his own life in order to save Amphibalus'.

The martyrdom of St. Amphibalus from a 13th Century manuscript of The Life of St. Alban (Dublin, Trinity College Library)

After the martyrdom of Alban, Amphibalus was believed to have returned to Caerleon, where he converted many others to Christianity, including the Saints Julius and Aaron. It was believed that he was eventually captured by the Romans and returned to Verulamium, where he too was martyred for his faith. Where and how he was killed is unclear. Some sources say he was beheaded, others say he was stabbed. A later version of the legend says that Amphibalus and some companions were stoned to death a few days afterwards at Redbourn, four miles from St. Albans. This adaptation further clouds the origin of this rather obscure Saint. Saint Amphibalus is remarkable for being one of four martyrs of the early Christian church in Roman Britain along with Albus, Julius and Aron. There is little known about any of the four early Saints except that they seemed to all be acquainted with each other.

In 1178, some 800 years after Amphibalus' traditional death date, his remains were discovered at Redbourn in Hertfordshire, England, near the town of St Albans. According to the tale, Saint Alban appeared in a vision to a monk named Robert, indicating that he wished to make known the location of the remains of Amphibalus. Robert followed the spirit of Saint Alban, and was led by the saint to the spot where the remains of Amphibalus and his companions lay. Healing miracles occurred on the spot, and the abbot ordered the site to be excavated. Several bodies were discovered, and one body seemed consistent with manner of Amphibalus' death. The body believed to belong to Saint Amphibalus was moved to Saint Alban's. It was there that a shrine was constructed for the veneration of the relics.

The first shrine in the Norman Abbey of St. Alban's stood before the Great Rood Screen, near the high altar, on the north side of the shrine of St. Alban. However, in 1323, a portion of the abbey roof collapsed, damaging the shrine. It was then moved to the north aisle of the presbytery. Eventually, around 1350, he was given a more suitable position in the center of the retrochoir, just east of St. Alban's own shrine in the 'Saint's Chapel', complete with a stone tomb, paintings, and a silver gilt plate.

During the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII, the shrine was destroyed, and the pieces were used to block the eastern arches of "Saints Chapel." The relics themselves were scattered and lost. The remains of the shrine were discovered in the 19th century during renovations, and were reassembled in 1872 under the direction of Sir George Gilbert Scott. Today, the reassembled stone shrine can be seen in St. Alban's cathedral.

Traditionally, Amphibalus' feast day was held in June, with various sources saying it was held on the 22nd, the 24th, and the 26th. Winchester Cathedral was under the patronage St Amphibalus before it was dedicated to St Swithun.