Baring-Gould’s sources: German Martyrologies. Venerated at Mainz and Cologne. At Mainz also, on account of a translation, on December zst. Authority Tradition or legend of a very untrustworthy nature.] S. Alban is said to have been of Mauritanian origin, and his name must have been given to him in jest, for it is derived from Albus, white, whilst on account of his Moorish origin he must have had a dark complexion, somewhat astonishing to the Germans on the Rhine. The existence of Moorish soldiers at Roman stations on that river is proved by the discovery of a skull of a distinctly African type lately at Cologne, with Roman coins and pottery.

It is pretended that Alban was banished from Africa by Huneric, king of the Vandals, in 483, and that he retired to Mainz; but this is only a guess to account for the tradition of the martyr being a Moor. He is said to have been massacred by the Huns [nomadic invaders from Central Asia, led in the 5th century by Attila].

In 804 a celebrated monastery was erected on the site of his martyrdom, and took his name. Some hagiographers have confounded him with S. Alban of Verulam. His relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] are preserved at Mainz, but some fragments at Cologne.