Adrian (Hadrian) M and Natalia (RM)
Adrian died at Nicomedia on March 4, c. 304; other feasts for the martyr are celebrated on March 4 and August 26; September 8 is the date of the translation of his relics to Rome.
Saint Adrian, a Roman imperial officer (either a pagan or a catechumen), watched as 23 Christians were being beaten before Emperor Maximian at the imperial court of Nicomedia. Their bravery prompted him to cry out, "Let me be counted as one of these, for I too am a Christian."
When his Christian wife of 13 months, Natalia, learned the reason for her husband's arrest, she was extremely proud. She ministered to Adrian and his fellow prisoners, who suffered excruciating tortures, and arranged for her husband to be catechized while interned. After Adrian had been sentenced to death, visitors were forbidden, but Natalia disguised herself as a boy and bribed her way into the prison to ask Adrian's prayers for her in heaven.
Natalia accompanied her husband to the executioner's block where he was to be cut to pieces. As the axe dismembered Adrian over an anvil, Natalia managed to save one of his hands. Distraught, she had to be restrained from casting herself into the fire when Adrian's body was burned with those of other martyrs. A rain storm extinguished the fire, allowing the Christians to gather the remains and bury them. (Another version of the story relates that the prisoners were to be burned to death, but the rain put out the fire.)
A few months later a pagan official began pestering Natalia to marry him. She had no intention of consorting with the heathen who had been responsible for Saint Adrian's death. She set sail to Argyropolis on the Bosporus, near Constantinople, taking her husband's hand with her. There she died peacefully on December 1 and is said to have been buried among the martyrs. Adrian's relics were later translated to Rome, then to Decline, Flanders, where they were placed by Count Baldwin VI (husband of Saint Adela of Messines) in the abbey now named Saint Adrian (if I understood this circuitous tale correctly). Many miracles were wrought at this shrine and attributed to Saint Adrian.
It is unknown which version or how much of this romantic story is true. There were two martyrs named Adrian who suffered at Nicomedia: one under Diocletian and the other under Licinius (Attwater, Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney, Husenbeth, White).
In art, Saint Adrian is portrayed as a Roman soldier with an anvil. His hand may be chopped off on the anvil or Natalia may be shown holding his severed limbs (Roeder). Sometimes he may be shown with a sword, lion, or hammer; as being thrown from a cliff into the sea (perhaps another Adrian?), or being brought to land by dolphins(?) (White). Adrian is the patron of soldiers, butchers (Roeder), arms dealers (who use anvils in their work), and prison guards, and is invoked against the plague (White). They are venerated in Lisbon (Roeder).
September 8
St. Adrian, Martyr
THIS saint was an officer in the Roman army, who, having persecuted the Christians in the reign of Maximian Galerius, was so moved by their constancy and patience, that he embraced their faith, and suffered many torments and a glorious martyrdom for the same at Nicomedia, about the year 306, in the tenth or last general persecution. His relics were conveyed to Constantinople, thence to Rome, afterwards into Flanders, where they were deposited in the Benedictin abbey of Decline, dedicated in honour of St. Peter, in the time of the first abbot, Severald. Baldwin VI., earl of Flanders, surnamed of Mons, because he married the heiress of that county, bought of a rich lord, named Gerard, the village of Hundelghem, in which stood a famous chapel of our Lady. The count founded there, in 1088, the town now called Geersbergen or Gerard’s Mount, on which, by a famous charter, he bestowed great privileges. Besides many pious donations made to that place, he removed this abbey of St. Peter, which has since taken the name of St. Adrian, whose relics, which it possesses, have been rendered famous by many miracles. Geersberg, called in French Grammont, stands upon the Dender, in Flanders, near the borders of Brabant and Hainault. St. Adrian is commemorated in the Martyrologies which bear the name of St. Jerom, and in the Roman, on the 4th of March, and chiefly on the 8th of September, which was the day of the translation of his relics to Rome, where a very ancient church bears his name. See on the translation of his relics to the abbey of Geersberg, Gramay’s Antiquitates Gerardi-montii, p. 40. Sanderus in Flandria Illustrata, &c., Stilting, p. 231.
Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume IX: September. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.