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STA Crest
Azure, on a saltire or a mural crown Gules; on a chief of the last a Jerusalem Cross Argent.
That’s the “blazon,” or heraldry’s technical description, of St. Albans’ coat of arms, according to alumnus Rick DuPuy ’99. The St. Albans crest was designed around 1955, apparently at the request of history, religion, and language teacher John C. Davis. According to DuPuy, the blazon may be translated into layman’s language as follows:
- The shield is divided into two parts. The bottom two-thirds carry the medieval arms of St. Albans Abbey in Hertfordshire (now St. Albans Cathedral), which has a blue field and a gold X-shaped cross called a saltire, or St. Andrew’s Cross, after the instrument of St. Andrew’s martyrdom, and a symbol of Christian martyrdom. (St. Alban is considered Britain’s first martyr.) Superimposed on these ancient arms is a crown made from a city’s stone walls — a symbol often used by civic heraldry. The top third bears a silver Jerusalem Cross, a symbol commonly associated with the medieval Crusaders’ Kingdom of Jerusalem. These last elements evoke the arms of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.
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Pro Ecclesia et Pro Patria
Original artwork for the St. Albans crest. -
St. Alban and the Orcs
In this Tolkien-inspired stained-glass window of St. Alban, two Orcs (malicious minions of the Lord of the Rings’ Sauron) deliver the first British martyr in chains to his executor. -
The 1910 Class Window
"NCB," for National Cathedral School for Boys, was inscribed on the first class window. Each class since has created its own window.
St. Albans School
Phone: 202-537-6435
Located in Washington D.C., St. Albans School is a private, all boys day and boarding school. For more than a century, St. Albans has offered a distinctive educational experience for young men in grades 4 through 12. While our students reach exceptional academic goals and exhibit first-rate athletic and artistic achievements, as an Episcopal school we place equal emphasis upon moral and spiritual education.