ST. ADRIAN, M.

THIS saint was an officer in the Roman army, who, having persecuted the Christians in the reign of Maximian Galerius, was so moved by their constancy and patience, that he embraced their faith, and suffered many torments and a glorious martyrdom for the same at Nicomedia, about the year 306, in the tenth or last general persecution. His relics were conveyed to Constantinople, thence to Rome, afterward into Flanders, where they were deposited in the Benedictin abbey of Decline, dedicated in honor of St. Peter, in the time of the first abbot Severald. Baldwin VI., earl of Flanders, surnamed of Mons, because he married the heiress of that county, bought of a rich lord, named Gerard, the village of Hendelghem, in which stood a famous chapel of our Lady. The count founded there in 1088, the town now called Geersbergen or Gerard’s-mount, on which, by a famous charter, he bestowed great privileges. Besides many pious donations made to that place, he removed thither this abbey of St. Peter, which has since taken the name of St. Adrian, whose relics, which it possesses, have been rendered famous by many miracles. Geersberg, called in French Grammont, stands upon the Dender in Flanders, near the borders of Brabant and Hainault, St. Adrian is commemorated in the Martyrologies which bear the name of St. Jerom, and in the Roman, on the 4th of March, and chiefly on the 8th of September, which was the day of the translation of his relics to Rome, where a very ancient church bears his name. See on the translation of his relics to the abbey of Geersberg, Gramay’s Antiquitates Gerardi-montii, p. 40. Sanderus in Flandria Illustrata, &c. Stilting, p. 231.