ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MAY Saints celebrated on the 15th of May WELCOME! ALBAN BUTLER, PRIEST AND HAGIOGRAPHER The son of lawyer Simon Butler, Alban Butler was born October 10, 1710 in Appletree in Northamptonshire in central England. His once highly distinguished family was in decline by the time of his birth. He shares with the venerable Bishop Challoner the reputation of being one of the two most prominent Catholic students during the first half of the dreary eighteenth century, when the prospects of English Catholics were at their lowest. In 1712, he was sent to the celebrated "Dame Alice's School", at Fernyhalgh, in Lancashire. From thence while still young he was transferred to the English College at Douai. Not long into his tenure at Douai, his parents died in quick succession. Shortly before her death, Alban Butler’s mother, Ann, sent him a letter that said, " I beg of you to make constant resolutions rather to die a thousand times, if possible, than q...