27 JANUARY 2006

Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, made some colourful new friends when she paid a visit to St Alban’s Cathedral in Hertfordshire this week. The Duchess was greeted by a throng of excited schoolchildren, all wearing vibrant homemade costumes, as she arrived for a traditional pageant on Thursday afternoon.

Cathedral Administrator Nicholas Bates describes the event:

“Every year on the Saturday after Saint Alban’s day (22nd June) we hold a national pilgrimage to the Saint’s Shrine. This starts with a procession across Verulamium Park tracing the route of Saint Alban’s last journey to his execution on the site of the Cathedral.

It is a procession of children and young people wearing huge Notting Hill type puppet costumes and carrying banners depicting Saint Alban, Saint Amphibalus (who converted Saint Alban to the faith), two roman soldiers (one who refused to carry out the execution and who was executed himself and the other who did the deed and whose eyeballs then fell out), the roses of the martyrs, panels from our rose window (representintg the flowers that burst into bloom as the saint passed by) and banners representing the waters of the River Ver which parted for Alban and the spring that appeared for him to drink from.

During Her Royal Highness’s visit, we re-enacted a small part of what we do at the pilgrimage.”