ST ADRIAN, MARTYR - 8 SEPTEMBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 8th of September

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

ST ADRIAN, MARTYR  

Saint Adrian 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 CAME TO FLANDERS

His relics were conveyed to Constantinople, thence to Rome, afterwards into Flanders, where they were deposited in the Benedictine abbey 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. 

GERARD'S MOUNT

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 moved 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. 

A VERY ANCIENT CHURCH BEARS HIS NAME

St Adrian is commemorated in the Martyrologies which bear the name of St Jerome, 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. 

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)