Alban Nazarism
 Alban Emendatic Church | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Classification | Non-Nicaean |
| Orientation | Modalistic Monarchianism |
| Polity | Monastical |
| Leaders | John XVIII, Protohegumen |
| Founder | St Paul (according to tradition) Saint Alban of Vigueria |
| Origin | 1st century Sydalon |
| Members | Over 36 million |
The Alban Laura, or Alban Nazarism, officially the Holy Emendatic Pneumatic Laura of Saint Alban but more often simply referred to as Albanism is a major Sarpetic religion, alongside Fabrianism and Aethelism. The faith is named for its founder, Saint Alban of Vigueria, who popularized a Gnostic interpretation of the Two Treasures, and codified a Monatist set of rules to help people abandon the material world and reach the purely spiritual domain where God resides – the “Land of the Living”.
In modern day, Albanism is especially common around Lake Kulpanitsa, with Ostrozava having the largest Alban community worldwide. It remains, in this country and others, an important and influential cultural factor. Pockets of Alban Nazarists remain in western Belisaria, but are a minority. Despite Latium being the birthplace of the religion, due to centuries of condemnation and persecution, the core of the community was driven eastward. The most famous episode of this persecution being the so-called Alban Crusades of the 12th century, which failed to purge Nazarists heresies from Eastern Belisaria. Worldwide, in 2020, Albanism represented around 40 million people.
Name
Albanism, the faith’s most common name, comes directly from its supposed founder: St. Alban of Viguera, who was a candidate to the Patriarchate of Alba before he published his thesis and became the icon of a Monist Gnosticism. He was ultimately forced into exile and spent the rest of his days on the border between the Latin Empire and Tervingia.
The more proper name of Holy Emendatic and Pneumatic Laura is an aggregation of multiple concepts. A Laura is the name given to a kind of Monasteries especially popular among Albans. Pneumatic, Spiritual, refers to in the Alban Gnosis the highest order of humans, above the Psychics and the Hylics. Through his discipline of life, inner cultivation, and study of the Gnosis. Pneumatic beings can escape the doom of the material world. Finally, Emendatic refers to both the latin verb Emendo, “without fault”, and to the practice of the Emendatio where a Corrector improves a text by adding Emendationes, or corrections. By his work, St Alban “corrected” the too-literal interpretations of his time, and allowed the true meaning of the Treasuries to reveal themselves.
Organisation
A Laura is a type of monastery consisting of a cluster of cells or caves for hermits, with a church and sometimes a refectory at the center. It is the core of a semi-eremitic lifestyle promoted by Saint Alba, where the Monks live in their cells alone during weekdays, but would gather for masses and festivities during week-ends and holidays in the central cenobium and church. The church itself was public, and the monks would celebrate the sunday’ mass with the Psychics (unordained people who still believe in Saint Alba’ lessons).
With two ordained Abbots and a position of priest (Hierodeacon) rotating weekly among the Monks, the Laura became the basic unit of the Alban Faith. As the social and political importance of Lauras grew during the ending years of the Tervigian Empire, the monks ended-up forming Orders, often between a parent-laura and the communities it had established. An example of such an order is the Order of Achamoth, originating from Barbellon, which became a dominant political faction during the post-Tervingia era, with its own military and bureaucracy. Posterity gave the name of Alban Pentapolis to their state. Leadership varies from order to order, but it is standard for their highest authority to hold the titles of Protohegumen.
Beside Lauras, other forms of religious organisations exist within Albanism: solitary hermits that live completely isolated even from their fellows while some monachist orders prefer to live in their own community… Some orders even promote a wandering life, their monks living a Mendicant life traveling from town to town, teaching and preaching among the communities that receive them.
Beliefs
The beginning of Creation is considered to have been a Pleroma (literally, a 'fullness'). At the centre of the Pleroma was the primal Father or Bythos, the beginning of all things who, after ages of silence and contemplation, projected 30 Aeons, heavenly archetypes representing the Six Principles of the Nazarist faith. Among them was Sophia, whose weakness, curiosity, and passion led to her fall from the Pleroma and the creation of the world and man, both of which are flawed. The work of redemption consists in freeing the spiritual souls that got caught in the fall of Sophia from the material world. The first step needed is to recognize the Father of All Things as the true source of divine power in order to achieve gnosis (knowledge). This represents the main point of divergence between Albanism and other Sarpetic religions – knowledge, and not Faith, is the key to salvation.
Salvation
In Alban theology, Immortality can only be reached once the soul has been shed of all physical and material shackles, and rejoined God in the Pleroma. Immortality thus cannot be reached either through self-improvement nor Miracle, but through the process of Salvation.
Salvation is not merely individual redemption of each human soul; it is a cosmic process. It is the return of all things to what they were before the flaw in the sphere of the Aeons brought matter into existence and imprisoned some part of the Divine Light into the evil matter. This setting free of the light sparks is the process of salvation; when all light shall have left Hyle, it will be burnt up and destroyed.
Albanism in various countries
| Country | Patriarchate | Followers | Percentage of population |
|---|---|---|---|
 Drevstran
|
Metrolaurate of Barbellon | 6,750,000 | 15.0% |
 Ostrozava
|
Grand Laurate of Karsko | 26,095,270 | 33.8 % |
 Polnitsa
|
Laura of Modbrjoh | 1,698,681 | 43% |
 Zamorodna
|
Laura of Potyk | 1,572,200 | 11.0% |