St. Alban
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(
Catholic Encyclopedia)
First martyr of Britain, suffered c. 304.
The commonly received account of the martyrdom of St. Alban meets us as early as the pages of Bede’s “Ecclesiastical History” (Bk. I, chs. vii and xviii). According to this, St. Alban was a pagan living at Verulamium (now the town of St. Albans in Hertfordshire), when a persecution of the Christians broke out, and a certain cleric flying for his life took refuge in Alban’s house. Alban sheltered him, and after some days, moved by his example, himself received baptism. Later on, when the governor's emissaries came to search the house, Alban disguised himself in the cloak of his guest and gave himself up in his place. He was dragged before the judge, scourged, and, when he would not deny his faith, condemned to death. On the way to the place of execution Alban arrested the waters of a river so that they crossed dry-shod, and he further caused a fountain of water to flow on the summit of the hill on which he was beheaded.
His executioner was converted, and the man who replaced him, after striking the fatal blow, was punished with blindness. A later development in the legend informs us that the cleric’s name was Amphibalus, and that he, with some companions, was stoned to death a few days afterwards at Redbourn, four miles from St. Albans. What germ of truth may underlie these legends it is difficult to decide.
The first authority to mention St. Alban is Constantius, in his Life of St. Germanus of Auxerre, written about 480. But the further details there given about the opening of St. Alban’s tomb and the taking out of relics are later interpolations, as has recently been discovered (see Livison in the “Neues Archiv”, 1903, p. 148). Still the whole legend as known to Bede was probably in existence in the first half of the sixth century (W. Meyer, “Legende des h. Albanus”, p. 21), and was used by Gildasbefore 547.
It is also probable that the name Amphibalus is derived from some version of the legend in which the cleric’s cloak is called an amphibalus; for Geoffrey of Monmouth, the earliest witness to the name Amphibalus, makes precisely the same mistake in another passage, converting the garment called amphibalus into the name of a saint. (See Ussher, Works, V, p. 181, and VI, pg. 58; and Revue Celtique, 1890, p. 349.) From what has been said, it is certain that St. Alban has been continuously venerated in England since the fifth century. Moreover, his name was known about the year 580 to Venantius Fortunatus, in Southern Gaul, who commemorates him in the line:
Albanum egregium fecunda Britannia profert. (
“Lo! fruitful Britain vaunts great Alban’s name.”)
(“Carmina”, VII, iii, 155).
His feast is still kept as of old, on 22 June, and it is celebrated throughout England as a greater double. That of St. Amphibalus is not now observed, but it seems formerly to have been attached to 25 June. In some later developments of the legend St. Alban appears as a soldier who had visited Rome, and his story was also confused with that of another St. Alban, or Albinus, martyred at Mainz.
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Constantius: First mention of St. Alban
[Life of St. Germanus of Auxerre, ~ 480].
St. Germanus: Born of Rusticus and Germanilla at Auxerre, noblest in Gaul c. 380; died at Ravenna, 31 July, 448. Through an instant change Germain accepted the Divine will giving to prayer, study, works of charity, and, upon death of bishop St. Amator was chosen to fill the vacant see, consecrated 7 July, 418.
Year 429: St. Prosper [Rome, 431] tells in his Chronicle that Pope Celestine commissioned the Church in Gaul to send help fight the Pelagian heresy on Britain., and Germain and Lupus of Troyes were deputed.
Nanterre Stop: Met there with Genevieve (Patroness of Paris, daughter of Severus and Gerontia), which on this occasion, one of the early lives of St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland, tells us formed one of St. Germain’s suite.
Heretic encounter: The main discussion with the representatives of Pelagianism took place at St. Alban’s, and resulted in discomfiture of heretics. On his return in his episcopal city constructed a church in honour of St. Alban about this time.
Year 447: Revisits Britain along with the bishop of Trèves, Severus aiding Britons to gain victory over a marauding body of Saxons and Picts. On his return to Gaul proceeded to Armorica (Brittany) to intercede for the Armoricans.
17 June, 448: Reached Milan, Italy and then journeyed to Ravenna, where the empress Galla Placidia and the bishop of the city, St. Peter Chrysologus, gave him a royal welcome.
31 July, 450: While in Ravenna died and his body was brought back to Auxerre as requested when dying and interred in the Oratory of St. Maurice, which he had built. Later the oratory was replaced by a large church, which became a celebrated Benedictine abbey known as St. Germain’s.
St. Germain: Honoured in Cornwall and at St. Alban’s in England’s pre -reformation days, and always been the patron of Auxerre.
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Saint Alban of Britain
“In the story associated with Alban’s execution, Bede recounts that on his way to the place of execution,
Alban had to cross a river, and he parted the waters so that he could walk there on dry land, because the bridge was full of people. The executioner impressed immediately converted to Christianity and no longer accepted to kill Alban. Another executioner was chosen whose eyes fell out of his head at the moment of his act. The first executioner was also killed soon after and became the second British Christian martyr after Saint Alban. Because of his beheading, is often
represented in art as carrying his head in his hands. The Episcopal church in Washington which is also called The Washington National Cathedral is situated on Mount St. Alban. The only English-speaking church to be found in the Japan Anglican Church is called St. Alban’s and because it is located on the grounds of the St. Andrew’s cathedral its real full name is “St. Alban’s-by-St. Andrew’s”. St. Alban’s tradition is often seen as similar to that of Saint Alban of Mainz or Albinus, martyr of Mainz, 406.” [
Claudia Miclaus, 2011].
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Saint Alban of Mainz / Albinus
Rabanus Maurus Magnentius: (c. 780 – 4 February 856), also known as
Hrabanus or Rhabanus, Frankish Benedictine monk, archbishop of Mainz in Germany and a theologian, author of the
encyclopaedia De rerum naturis (On the Nature of Things), who also wrote treatises on education and grammar and commentaries on the Bible, one of the most prominent teachers and writers of the
Carolingian age, called “raeceptor Germaniae,” or “the teacher of Germany” on Roman calendar (Martyrologium Romanum, 2001, pp. 126f.), celebrated on 4 February and listed as ‘sanctus,’ though the online version of the Catholic Encyclopedia of nearly a century earlier lists him as ‘beatus’, wrote in his Martyrology about
Alban, who was sent to Gallia as a missionary by Ambrose of Milan. In 814 Rabanus (born of noble parents in Mainz) was ordained a priest. In 847 Rabanus was constrained to enter public life by his election to succeed Otgar in the archbishopric of Mainz. He died at Winkel on the Rhine in 856.
In Mainz, Alban helped bishop Aureus of Mainz to regain his bishopric. But in 406, during the Vandals crossing of the Rhine, Aureus was slain and Alban was beheaded while praying. His
cult became
associated with that of Theonistus, who may have been a
bishop of Philippi but who was confused with
Thaumastus, a 5th-century bishop of Mainz [Bruno W. Häuptli (2003). “
Theonest (Theonistus, Thonistus, Onistus) von Altino” n Bautz, Traugott. Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German) 22. Nordhausen: Bautz. cols. 1344–1346. ISBN 3-88309-133-2.].
According to one scholar, “
Albanus of Mentz, martyred at Mentz no one knows when, according to Baeda under Diocletian also, according to Sigebert (in Chron.), who says he had been driven from Philippi with Theonistus its bishop, in 425.” This scholar goes on to write that Rabanus Maurus
“goes so far abroad as to call [Alban] an African bishop flying from Hunneric...” [William George Smith; Henry Wace, A Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, Sects and Doctrines (J. Murray, 1877), 70.].
The legend says Alban carried his head on his hands to the place where he wanted to be buried. A Church was built at his gravesite. It became the centre of a large Benedictine monastery, which was renovated by Charlemagne in 806. The monastery was devastated in 1552 and never renewed.
Rabanus was surnamed Maurus, after the
favourite disciple of Benedict, Saint Maurus, by teacher Alcuin of Tours. Life of St. Maurus appeared in the late 9th century, supposedly composed by one of St. Maurus’s 6th-century contemporaries. Scholars now believe that this Life of Maurus is a likely invented story by the late-9th-century abbot of Glanfeuil, Odo. It was composed, as were many such saints’ lives in Carolingian France, to popularize local saints’ cults. According to this account [Life of St. Maurus], the bishop of Le Mans, in western France, sent a delegation asking Benedict for a group of monks to travel from Benedict’s new abbey of Monte Cassino to establish monastic life in France according to the Rule of St. Benedict. The Life recounts the long journey of St. Maurus and his companions from Italy to France, accompanied by many adventures and miracles as St. Maurus is transformed from the youthful disciple of Benedict into a powerful, miracle-working holy man in his own right. According to this account, after the great pilgrimage to Francia, St. Maurus founded Glanfeuil Abbey as the first Benedictine monastery in Gaul. Benedict’s main achievement is his “Rule of Saint Benedict”, containing precepts for his monks, influenced by the writings of John Cassian, showing
strong affinity with the Rule of the Master. But it also has a unique spirit of balance, moderation and reasonableness (ἐπιείκεια, epieikeia), and this persuaded most religious communities founded throughout the Middle Ages to adopt it. As a result, his Rule became one of the most influential religious rules in Western Christendom, reason, Benedict is often called, founder of western monasticism. Apart from a short poem attributed to Mark of Monte Cassino, the only ancient account of Benedict is found in the second volume of Pope Gregory I’s four-book Dialogues, thought to have been written in 593.
Gregory did not set out to write a chronological, historically anchored story of St. Benedict, but he did base his anecdotes on direct testimony. To establish his authority, Gregory explains that his information came from what he considered the best sources: a handful of Benedict’s disciples who lived with the saint and witnessed his various miracles. These followers, he says, are
Constantinus, who succeeded Benedict as Abbot of Monte Cassino; Valentinianus; Simplicius; and Honoratus, who was abbot of Subiaco when St Gregory wrote his Dialogues.
In Gregory’s day, history was not recognized as an independent field of study; it was a branch of grammar or rhetoric, and historia (defined as ‘story’) summed up the approach of the learned when they wrote what was, at that time, considered ‘history.’ Gregory’s Dialogues Book Two, then, an authentic medieval hagiography cast as a conversation between the Pope and his deacon Peter, is designed to teach spiritual lessons. He was a missionary.
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Venerable Bede: Bede used
Constantius’s Life of Germanus as a source for Germanus’s visits to Britain. Bede is mainly studied as a historian now, in his time his works on grammar, chronology, and biblical studies were as important as his historical and hagiographical works. The non-historical works contributed greatly to the Carolingian renaissance. Bede was aided in writing the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, or An Ecclesiastical History of the English People, completed in about 731, by Albinus, abbot of St Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury. Albinus (died 732) abbot of St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury, what we know concerning him is chiefly derived from the dedicatory epistle at the beginning of Historia Ecclesiastica.
Albinus was a pupil of Archbishop Theodore and his coadjutor Adrian of Canterbury, abbot of St. Peter's. Through the instructions of the latter he became versed in the Scriptures and a master of Greek and Latin (Chron. G. Thorne). On the death of Adrian, Albinus succeeded to the abbacy. Bede in his epistle says that he was indebted to Albinus for all the facts contained in his history relating to the Kentish church between the first conversion of the English and the time at which he was writing. Much of this information was collected by the presbyter Nothelm, who, at the instigation of Albinus, undertook a journey to Rome and searched the archives there. Nothelm was the medium of communication between Bede and Albinus, for it does not appear that the two ever met. Albinus died in 732, and was buried beside Adrian.
Bede’s first of the five books of
Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, begins with some geographical background, and then sketches the history of England, beginning with Caesar’s invasion in 55 BC. A brief account of Christianity in Roman Britain, including the martyrdom of St Alban, is followed by the story of Augustine’s mission to England in 597, which brought Christianity to the Anglo-Saxons.
Bede: The name probably derives from the Old English bēd, or prayer; if Bede was given the name at his birth, then his family had probably always planned for him to enter the clergy. The Liber Vitae of Durham Cathedral includes a list of priests; two are named Bede, and one of these is presumably Bede himself. Some manuscripts of the Life of Cuthbert, one of Bede’s works, mention that Cuthbert's own priest was named Bede; it is possible that this priest is the other name listed in the Liber Vitae. These occurrences, along with a Bieda who is mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle under the year 501, are the only appearances of the name in early sources.
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Saint Alban and Illyrian-Albanians
The Judeo-Illyrian world was a pre-runner of the Judeo-Christian world with the
Scipionic Eagle (Roman dominance) safeguarding the ancient and the
Saxonic Lion (British-American dominance) securing peace for the modern.
Alban / Bede: The Old English bēd, or prayer has its equivalent in Albanian ‘
be’, oath [Illyrian “oath of peace”,
be’sa]. The motif behind St. Alban’s story resembles typical Albanian tradition of providing shelter (to the point of risking one’s own life) for people fleeing from persecution, cult of generosity (towards the guest) [the cult of “
besa” (faith, pledge, vow)].
The Cloak of Amphibalus: The garment called
amphibalus is confused with the name of the cleric, which Alban shelters. The word, amphi+bal-us is used to describe a high ranking cleric’s garment and its origin must be traced to the root
amphi for
amphictony (tribal alliance), belonging to the same ‘
fi’ (thread) in whose ‘
ball’ (head) is a tribal leader holding a religious office, hence
amphi-ball.
I
n Martin Bernal’s ‘Black Athena’: “
Bartheley …….. believed in the Egyptian colonization and civilization of Greece and maintained that ‘it is impossible that in this exchange of ideas and goods, the Egyptian language did not participate in the formation of Greek’. He then gave a list of etymologies from Egyptian into Greek, several of which – such as Coptic hof, Demotic hf to the Greek ophis (snake) – would seem plausible today” (Page 171), a connection is made of ‘
ophis’ (Greek: snake), to an Egyptian literary reference. Greek ‘
ophis’ seems rather connected to Greek ‘
ta physika’, literally “the natural things,” name of Aristotle’s treatise on nature, Latin
physica “study of nature,” from Greek physike (episteme) “(knowledge) of nature,” from fem. of
physikos “pertaining to nature,” from
physis “nature,” from “
phyein “to bring forth, produce, make grow” (cf.
phyton “growth, plant,”
phyle “tribe, race”) from PIE root
*bheue- “to be exist, grow”. The Alb. cognate of Greek
phyle being fis, extends from ‘fie’, thread, Greek
phyein, which relates to Greek
physus “common origin” (Latins derived filii, sons from phyle, tribe).
The Amphictuons were originally prophetic personages, who attended at the temple at Delphi.
Amphi may have been a term of long standing, the sense of which for Greeks was lost in the lines of understanding am-phi in relation pertaining to nature,
physikos (
am-phy’s-icos). The Malians (Ancient Greek: Μαλιεῖς) were members of the
Amphictyonic League. As the Greek-Albanian seacoast is in close proximity to mountainous terrain, it is probable Latin ‘mole’, a harbour protected by a breakwater, derived from ‘
mal’; mid-Albanian dialect pronounced ‘
mol’, mount, which is most likely the name of
Molossi (Alb.
Malesi, the highland), rendered for the Eperiot leagues. It was long established among ancient authors the Greco-Egyptian equivalent
Amon/Zeus enduring into the Hellenistic era, hence ‘
Am’, in ‘
Amphi’, may be an abbreviation of
Am-on, whose earliest attested Mycenaean forms
di-we and
di-wo, written in Linear B syllabic script, relate with
Alphe-us, the mount “
M’al-phe” (Alb.
M’AL, ‘mount’ in Greek rendered
Al and
phe ‘faith’;
Alphe) of Parnassus of the Dii-Helios-Phi (Alb: Dielli, the Sun).. Am-phi-cty-on, was suggested by Pliny the Elder as the name of the earliest dream interpreter, son of Deucalion; of the Deucalion which in Greek mythology was the son of Prometheus. The Suda, a Medieval Greek encyclopedia, states that Trajan, made Plutarch [Boeotia ca. 45–120 CE], Apollo’s priest at Delphi’s sanctuary, procurator of Illyria, however, historians consider this unlikely, since Illyria was not a procuratorial province. The allusion to the sage of Chaeronea [ancient name Arne, subjected to royal Minyans of coastal Thessaly] having become procurator of Illyria suggests that he may have spoken Illyrian.
The Delphic oracle was in the mainly pastoral region, belonging to the historically obscure Delphic-Pylaean
amphictyony, particularly that of Phocians. “
The head or bale in Albanian corresponds with the bala of the Macedonians, and the phala of the Beotians, which are both Aeolisms that were used instead of Kephala.” [“Précis de Géographie Universelle ou Description de toutes les parties du monde” Vol. 4”, by Conrad Malte-Brun].
The conquest of Peloponnesus by the Dorians raised Apellôn, [
whose original and essential feature is that of “the averter of evil” (alexikakos), originally a divinity peculiar to the Doric race] to the rank of the principal divinity in the peninsula (
an early form *Apeljon was found among Hittites). Plato in Cratylus connects the name with Ἀει-βάλλων (
aeiballon), “
ever-shooting”; which from an Alb. speaker’s perspective could be connected with the idea of facing evil, averting it (
perballon). The Homeric Hymn to Delphic Apollo recalled that the ancient name of the sanctuary had been Krisa, which gave its name to the Crissaean plain and the Crissaean gulf lying in the southwestern foothills of Mount Parnassus (Alb. Kroi signifies fountain; Kri, head).
“
It is in the country of the Mirdites or in the town of Scutari, that the traveller may reasonably expect to gain information concerning the manners and barbarous customs which the Illyrians have transmitted to their descendants, the Albanians … The Schypetar converses occasionally with the Mires or good goddesses,… Although the Mires worshipped by the Athenians and the inhabitants of Hellas might have been the Μοῖραι, it does not follow that they were the same with the Illyrian Mires. Mir, with the articles, i, e, te, affixed to it, is the Albanian adjective for bonus, a um, and corresponds with the ancient Greek word desirable.” [“Précis de Géographie Universelle ou Description de toutes les parties du monde” Vol. 4”, by Conrad Malte-Brun].
Baleares archipelago, off Spain, in the W Mediterranean (Catalan: Illes Balears; Spanish: Islas Baleares), derived their name “Balearic” from Greek [Βαλλιαρεῖς / Balliareis], in Latin (Baleares). The Greek and Roman writers generally derive the name of the people from their skill as slingers (baleareis βαλεαρεῖς, from ballo βάλλω: ancient Greek meaning “to launch”), whereas Strabo regards the names as of Phoenician origin. He observed it was the Phoenician equivalent for lightly armoured soldiers. Nostradamus makes this remark concerning the Albanese overtake of Athenian field:
“
…
They shall be surprised by the light horses
By Albanese Mars Leo Saturn in Aquarius.
…” [“Nostradamus: The Truth Be Told, A Complete History of Europe”, Clarence Gregory p.412 ]
Balios was Achilles’ horse. Folklorist Alexander Hagerty Krappe (1894-1947) discusses the Balor legend in his studies in Celtic and French literature and relates Balor to Janus, Kronos, the Welsh Ysbaddaden Pennkawr, and suggests the Balor myth goes back to fertility rites at the time of the introduction of agriculture, relating to the feminine character which may originally have been a cow goddess, such as Hathor, Io or Hera.
Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana 5. 15 (trans. Conybeare) (Greek biography C1st to C2nd A.D.): “[“Hermes”]
remembered the Horai (Horae, Seasons),
by whom he himself had been nurtured on the peaks of Olympos, and bethought how once, when he was still in swaddling clothes, they had told him a story about the cow, which had a conversation with the man about herself and about the earth, and so set him aflame after the cows of Apollon.”
Suda (ω 159) [Greek Σοῦδα, 10th c. Byzantine encyclopedia with 30 000 entries, derived from the Byzantine Greek word souda, meaning “fortress” or “stronghold”, which Eustathius understood as the title for the proper name of the author “Suidas”] mentions one Horapollo as the last of leaders of Ancient Egyptian priesthood, at a school in Menouthis, near Alexandria, during the reign of Zeno (A.D. 474-491). Another, earlier, Horapollo alluded to by the Suda was a grammarian from Phanebytis, under Theodosius II (AD 408-450). To this Horapollo was attributed by most 16th century editors, a treatise on Egyptian hieroglyphs, extant in a Greek translation by one Philippus. More occult opinions identified Horapollo [from Horus Apollo, Ὡραπόλλων] with Horus himself, or with a pharaoh. The Suda, like the Horapollonian treatise on Egyptian hieroglyphs, is somewhere between a grammatical dictionary and an encyclopedia in the modern sense. It explains the source, derivation, and meaning of words according to the philology of its period, using such earlier authorities as Harpocation and Helladios. Articles on literary history are valuable as these entries supply details and quotations from authors whose works are otherwise lost. It includes much useful information on ancient history and life and deals with biblical as well as pagan subjects, from which it is inferred that the writer was a Christian.
Phoenician Gimel deriving from a Proto-Sinaitic glyph, possibly adopted from an Egyptian hieroglyph for a staff sling, known in Latin as stave sling, fustibalus, in French fustibale. One cord of the sling is firmly attached to the stave and the other end has a loop that can slide off and release the projectile, its effectiveness derived by essentially
extending the length of a human arm, thus allowing stones to be thrown farther than they could be by hand.
Vegetius, late Roman writer, in his work De Re Militari, wrote: “
The inhabitants of the Balearic islands are said to have been the inventors of slings, …” Representation of slingers can be found on artifacts from all over the ancient world, including Assyrian and Egyptian reliefs, the columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelus, on coins and on the Bayeux Tapestry. In the tomb of Tutankhamen [died about 1325 BC], a pair of finely plaited slings were found with other weapons intended for the departed pharaoh to use for hunting game. The sling is mentioned by Homer and by other Greek authors. The historian of the retreat of the Ten Thousand, 401 BC, relates that the Greeks suffered severely from the slingers in the army of Artaxerxes II of Persia, while they themselves had neither cavalry nor slingers, and were unable to reach the enemy with their arrows and javelins, a deficiency ractified when a company of 200 Rhodians was formed , who understood the use of leaden sling-bullets, able says Xenophon, to project their missiles twice as far as the Persian slingers, who used large stones.
The Bible provides what is believed to be the oldest textual reference to a sling in the Book of Judges, 20: 16. This text was thought to have been written about 1000 BC, but refers to events several centuries earlier. The battle between David and Goliath from the First Book of Samuel 17: 34-36, probably written in the 7th or 6th century BC, describing events alleged to have occurred around the 10th century BC. The shepherd David convinces Saul to let him fight Goliath on behalf of the Israelite militia, defeating the warrior champion Goliath with a well-aimed shot to the head. Use of the sling is mentioned in Second Kings 3: 25, First Chronicles 12: 2, and Second Chronicles 26: 14. Symbols of writing were often moulded into lead sling-bullets. Examples of symbols include a stylized lightning bolt, a snake, and a scorpion – reminder of how a sling might strike without warning. Julius Caesar writes about clay shot being heated before slinging, so that it might set light to thatch.
Saint Alban: Leonard Foley, OFM, says this of saints: “[Saints’]
surrender to God’s love was so generous an approach to the total surrender of Jesus that the Church recognizes them as heroes and heroines worthy to be held up for our inspiration. They remind us that the Church is holy, can never stop being holy and is called to show the holiness of God by living the life of Christ.” [Saint of the Day edited by Leonard Foley, OFM, (Cincinnati: St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2003), xvi. ISBN 0-86716-535-9]
Excluding Albanians from any possible connection to St. Alban is as if claiming Mother Teresa of Calcuta belongs exclusively to Albanians. In her own words she said: “
By blood, I am Albanian. By citizenship, an Indian. By faith, I am a Catholic nun. As to my calling, I belong to the world. As to my heart, I belong entirely to the Heart of Jesus.” [Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910–1997)Vatican news services retrieved 30 April 2012]. After all, both English and Albanian
right (Alb. “
d’rejt”) and
wrong (Alb. “
rrang”) sound quite close.
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