St. Adrian of Nicomedia

Adrian of Nicomedia is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers and one of the most popular martyrs of the early Church in the Germanic and Flemish traditions, whose cult centred particularly on his relics at Grammont in Belgium and who became the patron of soldiers, butchers, and those who work with their hands. His biography, as the passio presents it, belongs to the class of martyr literature that must be handled with consistent honesty: it is literary and schematic rather than documentary, and no early independent source confirms the specific narrative details.

This life: Adrian was a Roman officer at the imperial court of Nicomedia under Diocletian or Maximian, assigned to oversee the torture of twenty-three Christian prisoners. So moved was he by the steadfastness of the prisoners under torture — and by their answer when he asked what reward they expected from their God — that he announced himself a Christian on the spot and was immediately imprisoned. His wife Natalia, who was herself secretly a Christian, came to the prison, brought him comfort and instruction, and when the day of execution arrived obtained one of his hands as a relic. He was martyred with his companions around the year 306.

The literary character of this narrative is apparent — the instantaneous conversion by spectacle, the devoted Christian wife already concealed in the household, the trophy-relic obtained at the moment of death — yet a historical kernel remains: there was a Christian cult at Nicomedia associated with a martyr named Adrian from an early date, and the relics attributed to him at Grammont were among the most venerated in the Low Countries throughout the medieval period. The patronage of soldiers came from his military background; the patronage of butchers from the manner of his execution, the limbs struck off by hammer and anvil.