1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Adrian, Saint

ADRIAN, SAINT, one of the praetorian guards of the emperor Galerius Maximian, who, becoming a convert to Christianity, was martyred at Nicomedia on the 4th of March 303. It is said that while presiding over the torture of a band of Christians he was so amazed at their courage that he publicly confessed his faith. He was imprisoned, and the next day his limbs were struck off on an anvil, and he was then beheaded, dying in his wife’s, St Natalia’s, arms. St Adrian’s festival, with that of his wife, is kept on the 8th of September. He is specially a patron of soldiers, and is much reverenced in Flanders, Germany and the north of France. He is usually represented armed, with an anvil in his hands or at his feet.