Hadrian of Nicomedia

Holy Martyr Hadrian of Nicomedia was a Roman officer in the guard of Emperor Galerius and received the crown of martyrdom on 4 March 306 at Nicomedia, by the cutting off of his limbs and his head. He was only twenty-⁠eight years old. He is remembered together with his wife, Saint Natalia, as an example of the love of husband and wife, enlightened by the Christian faith.

The confession

Hadrian had a successful military career and became an officer in the guard of Emperor Galerius Maximian (305-311), who had urged Diocletian to issue, in 303-304, four edicts against the Christians, the beginning of the greatest persecution in the history of the empire. Arrests and tortures then began at Nicomedia.

Hadrian met a group of Christians in chains. The Menaion speak of twenty-⁠three, other sources of thirty-⁠three, and the Ukrainian and Serbian traditions of twenty-⁠two. They stood before the emperor and endured the tortures. Struck by their steadfastness, he asked how they could bear so many sufferings for their faith. They answered that they suffered for the good things God had prepared for those who love him, things that "eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man" (1 Corinthians 2:9). Hearing these words, Hadrian felt the grace of God and asked the officials present to write his name too on the list of martyrs. He was arrested on the spot.

Martyrdom

Before the emperor he again confessed Christ as the true God. His torturers stretched him face down and beat him with rods, then turned him over and struck him on the belly as well. According to tradition his hands and feet were cut off first, and then his head was struck off.

His wife Natalia, who was present, comforted him in his pains. After he was killed, his body and those of other martyrs were taken to be burned, but a thunderstorm broke out, the fire in the furnace went out and lightning killed several of the executioners. Natalia was held back from throwing herself into the fire. Later the Christians took Hadrian's body and buried it at Argyropolis, near Byzantium. Natalia took one of his hands with her and went to Argyropolis, escaping the pressing of an official of Nicomedia who wished to marry her; she died in peace on 1 December.

Veneration

The Christians of Constantinople honored the saint's tomb. His relics were later moved to Rome and placed in a church that bears his name, in the Roman Forum, and in the West the feast of their translation is on 8 September. From the seventh century his cult spread through the Byzantine Empire, and from the twelfth century it entered the devotion of Christians in France and the Netherlands. The Orthodox, Coptic and Armenian Churches commemorate him on 26 August.