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ST ADRIAN OF NICOMEDIA, MARTYR - 4 MARCH

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH

Saints celebrated on the 4th of March

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 OF NICOMEDIA, MARTYR 

Saint Hadrian [Adrian] was a martyr; he died about the year 306. The Christians of Constantinople venerated the grave of this victim of Diocletian’s persecution. We are told by legendary and unverified records, which have been preserved in Greek and Latin, that Hadrian was an officer in the bodyguard of Emperor Galerius. In this capacity he was present one day, with the emperor, at the trial and torture of twenty-two Christians in Nicomedia. 

HE DECLARED HIMSELF A CHRISTIAN

He was so impressed that he forthwith declared himself a Christian, and with the others was thrown into prison. His wife, Natalia, who had secretly become one herself, cheered and ministered to her husband and his fellow-prisoners. The account given in the Acts of the martyrs is embellished with a number of legendary and, in part, very poetical details. 

MARTYRDOM

Hadrian and his companions in martyrdom were finally put to death. Their members were first broken, after which they were delivered up to the flames. Natalia is supposed to have brought to Constantinople the mortal remains of her martyred husband. Another legend speaks of a martyr, Hadrian of Nicomedia, who figures in the Roman Martyrology and in the Greek Menaion under August 26. Though different in detail, the story deals with the same person. 

HIS RELICS

The remains of St Hadrian were later laid in the church erected under his name and patronage on the Roman forum, which church (S. Adriano al Foro) is standing at the present day. The feast of the translation, which, in the Roman Church is the principal feast of this martyr and of his companions, is celebrated on September 8. The Roman Martyrology, however, mentions them also on March 4, while the Greek calendar places their feast on August 26. On this last date the Roman Martyrology likewise makes mention of a Hadrian.

(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913)

***

Saint Adrian, A.D. 290, September 8. Patron saint of Flanders and Germany, also of soldiers, and against the plague. He was long considered in the North of Europe the chief military saint next to St George. 

St Adrian was a noble Roman, and served in the army under the Emperor Galerius Maximian. When superintending the martyrdom of some Christians during the tenth persecution, he was so struck by their constancy that he too became converted.

His wife Natalia was already a Christian, though secretly, and when Adrian was imprisoned for the faith she comforted and strengthened him, greatly rejoicing that he was found worthy to suffer for Christ. When she was forbidden to see him, she disguised herself as a man, and thus visited him in prison and supported him in the intervals of torture. 

Adrian was martyred by having his limbs struck off on an anvil, and then being beheaded. He died in the arms of Natalia, and was buried at Byzantium.

Soon after this the Emperor wished to make Natalia marry one of his officers, but she fled to Byzantium, and lived near the tomb of her husband where she was comforted with many visions of him. And soon her pure spirit was released that she might follow him , and when she died, Adrian with angels met her, and together they entered the presence of God.

Natalia is one of the great martyrs in the Greek Church, as she is considered to have suffered worse things than man could inflict.

(Saints and their symbols, E. A. Greene; Sampson, Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington; London, 1881)


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