The Name day of
Adrian, Adriana (after the name of the Roman Commander) and Natalia
(meaning "natal, native").
The Martyrs Adrian and Natalia were married in their youth
for one year prior to their martyrdom, and lived in Nicomedia during
the time of the emperor Maximian (305-311). The emperor promised a
reward to whomever would inform on Christians to bring them to trial.
Then the denunciations began, and twenty-three Christians were
captured in a cave near Nicomedia.
They were tortured, urged to worship idols, and
then brought before the Praetor, in order to record their names and
responses. Adrian, the head of the praetorium, watched as these people
suffered with such courage for their faith. Seeing how firmly and
fearlessly they confessed Christ, asked: "What rewards do you expect
from your God for your suffering?" The martyrs replied: "Such rewards
as we are not able to describe, nor can your mind comprehend." Saint
Adrian told the scribes, "Write my name down also, for I am a
Christian
and I die gladly for Christ God."
The scribes reported this to the emperor,
who summoned Saint Adrian and asked: "Really, have you gone mad, that
you want to die? Come, cross out your name from the lists and offer
sacrifice to the gods, asking their forgiveness."
Saint Adrian answered: "I have not lost my mind,
but rather have I found it." Maximian then ordered Adrian to be thrown
into prison. His wife, Saint Natalia, knowing that her husband was to
suffer for Christ, rejoiced, since she herself was secretly a
Christian.
She hastened to the prison and
encouraged her husband saying: "You are blessed, my lord, because you
have believed in Christ. You have obtained a great treasure. Do not
regret anything earthly, neither beauty, nor youth (Adrian was then 28
years of age), nor riches. Everything worldly is dust and ashes. Only
faith and good deeds are pleasing to God."
On the pledge of the other martyrs, they released Saint Adrian from
prison to tell his wife about the day of his execution. At first Saint
Natalia thought that he had renounced Christ and thus had been set
free, and she did not want to let him into the house. The saint
persuaded his wife that he had not fled from martyrdom, but rather had
come to give her the news of the day of his execution.
They tortured Saint Adrian cruelly. The
emperor advised the saint to have pity on himself and call on the
gods, but the martyr answered: "Let your gods say what blessings they
promise me, and then I shall worship them, but if they cannot do this,
then why should I worship them?" Saint Natalia did not cease to
encourage her husband. She asked him also to pray to God for her, that
they would not force her into marriage with a pagan after his death.
The executioner ordered the hands and the legs of the
saints to be broken on the anvil. Saint Natalia, fearing that her
husband would hesitate on seeing the sufferings of the other martyrs,
asked the executioner to begin with him, and permit her to put his
hands and legs on the anvil herself.
They wanted to burn the bodies of the saints, but
a storm arose and the fire went out. Many of the executioners even
were struck by lightning. Saint Natalia took the hand of her husband
and kept it at home. Soon an army commander asked the emperor's
approval to wed Saint Natalia, who was both young and rich. But she
hid herself away in Byzantium. Saint Adrian appeared to her in a dream
and said that she would soon be at rest in the Lord. The martyr, worn
out by her former sufferings, in fact soon fell asleep in the Lord.
Click on thumbnail to
return to Festival Calendar
PEACE HAVENS of BULGARIA
