Saint Adrian of Nicomedia

chiaroscuro drawing of Saint Adrian of Nicomedia by Hans Holbein the Younger, c.1521; swiped from Wikimedia Commons Also known as

Hadrian

Memorial

4 March
8 September (translation of relics)
26 August (Greek calendar)

Profile

Pagan officer and body guard at the imperial court of Nicomedia. Adrian was so impressed by the strength and faith shown by persecuted Christians that he declared himself a Christian, though he had not even been baptized. He was immediately arrested and tortured. He and fellow prisoners were tended by his wife, Saint Natalia until they were executed.

Died

thrown to a lion, which refused to touch him
legs broken with an anvil, and then hacked to pieces with a sword on 4 March 304
body burned, but when a storm extinguished the fire his wife salvaged his dismembered hand as a relic, and took it to Argyropolis near Constantinople
other relics at Grammont (Geertsbergen), Belgium