Dom Prosper Guéranger's Prayer to St Alban for the Conversion of Britain

From Dom Prosper Guéranger's Liturgical Year:

I was a stranger and you took me in, will our Lord say to his elect on the great Judment Day; (Matthew 25:35) and to the inquiries of the elect as to the meaning of this word of his, Our Lord will explain that whatsoever they did to the least of their brethren, they did it unto Him. But thou, O Alban, knowest all this beforehand; that last hour, in which both the good and the wicked will hearken to their eternal doom, will reveal to the world on this point only what thou didst experience in thy very first steps along the path of salvation. By harboring within thy yet pagan house this unknown fugitive, thou deemedst that thou wast but yielding to the instincts of a heart naturally generous and faithful to the laws of hospitality! But far other than thou believedst was this unknown stranger that came knocking at thy door; for ere he left thee, it was manifest that Christ himself had become thy guest. Full soon did he invite thee, in return to come and dwell in his own home, and the triumphal gate of martyrdom presently opened unto thee his heavenly palace.

The way to God traced in thy blood lies opened wide, in this great island of ours. Long did the foe seem unable to cast his snares here: and thy fellow citizens of earth were to be seen flocking in crowds along this blessed pathway. Yea, nations thou didst never know came in their turn also, esteeming it an honor to forget, as it were, diversity of origin and rights of conquest, when uniting in thy name, O Alban, to do homage to thee, glorious Proto-Martyr of this land. Thus wast thou both the stem of this supernatural efflorescence which made ours to be the “Island of Saints,” and the link of national unity in the diverse phases of our history. Thou didst gather together the sons of Saint Benedict around the couch whereon thou wast reposing whilst awaiting the day of Resurrection; thou didst assemble them in that splendid temple dedicated to thee by a grateful people; thou didst invite them to the ministry of divine praise, whereby celebrating past benefits and daily blessings, they might also merit for thy fatherland a continuation of Heaven’s favors. Grand indeed were those ages, wherein God by his Saints thus ruled the world; and sadly misguided are those that think to serve the cause of the Lord and of nations, by suppressing the homage of foregoing generations to these their illustrious protectors.

Since thou wast treated, O Alban, like to thy divine Master, the King of saints, like him also remember not the injuries we have inflicted on thee. Rather, O thou our Proto-Martyr, exult in the triumph of all the other warriors who swell the ranks of the sacred phalanx placed under thy command in our eternal home. If for a while the era of martyrs seems once again to be closed, consider those of thy children whose constancy has survived so many rough assaults; bless those families in which has ever been kept alive the faith of the olden times; a noble-hearted race are they whose forefathers exposed themselves like thee, even unto death, in the “harboring of Priests.” Uphold the new sons of the cloister in maintaining at a high standard those monastic traditions handed to them even in the very midst of the tempest; multiply, everywhere, laborers called in to repair our ruins.

The voice of the Lord is heard once more in Albion. The holy virtue of hospitality which was, in thy case, the beginning of salvation, has proved to her also in these our own days, an occasion for her return to the ancestral faith, just as though God willed that in this instance likewise, her history should be linked with thine. Like thee, she hath received priests from beyond the seas, driven to her coasts by the storm of persecution; like thee, hath she not even already heard that word of divine approval: I was a stranger, and you took me in? May she then go the whole length in her imitation of thee, her protector and father, by following the heavenly invitation to the last, so as to conclude with the ancient writer of the acts of thy martyrdom: “The known truth shall be our Island’s joy; great shall be our gladness when the fetters of falsehood are broken. For my part, without further delay, I will go to Rome, I will there cast off mine error, there merit reconciliation and pardon of my faults; yea, this very book I hold in my hands, I will present to the revision of them that dwell in that city, so that should aught unseemly be written therein, the Lord Jesus Christ may vouchsafe to correct it by their means, he who reigneth God for ever and ever. Amen.” (Acts SS Albani, Amphibali et Sociorum, DXC Anglice scripta, v 46, Bolland., Junli iv, p. 159)