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Adrian was born in Africa.

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January 9 · Abbot

St. Adrian of Canterbury

St. Adrian of Canterbury

Adrian was born in Africa.

Traditional feast

January 9
1914 / pre-1969 calendar, per Baring-Gould (1914)

Current feast

January 9
Secondary source · Wikipedia

Represents

Abbot

Their story

Adapted in modern English from the Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) · original text below

Adrian was born in Africa. While still young he became abbot of Nerida, a Benedictine (monks following the Rule of St. Benedict) monastery near Naples. When the Archbishop of Canterbury, Deusdedit, died, Pope Vitalian wanted Adrian to succeed him. Adrian thought himself unworthy and suggested a Greek monk, Theodore, instead. The pope agreed on condition that Adrian go with Theodore to England as his adviser.

They left Rome in 668, but in France Ebroin, Mayor of the Palace, held Adrian for two years, suspecting he carried a secret mission from the Eastern emperor. Once released he reached England, and Theodore made him Abbot of St Peter's at Canterbury, later called St Austin's.

Adrian travelled with Theodore on his visitations and helped bring the customs of the English Church into line with Rome. He was learned in sacred and secular studies, and under him the school of Canterbury became the centre of English learning. He founded other schools too, which trained many of the saints, scholars and missionaries of the next century. He died in 710 after thirty-nine years in England and was buried at Canterbury.

Early life

Selected sentences from the original account, unaltered.

"There was at that time, in Rome, a monk called Theodore, well-known to Adrian, born at Tarsus, in Cilicia, a man well instructed in worldly and divine literature, as also in Greek and Latin; of known probity of life, and venerable for age, being sixty-six years old.

What they represent

How they teach us to live

Drawn from themes in the original account

Build up the community you belong to. This life was lived with and for a community.

Feed your mind with Scripture and good books. Learning and the Scriptures matter in this life.

From the Catholic Encyclopedia

1913 · 367 words

​Adrian of Canterbury, Saint, an African by birth, d. 710. He became Abbot of Nerida, a Benedictine [monks following the Rule of St. Benedict] monastery near Naples, when he was very young. Pope Vitalian intended to appoint him Archbishop of Canterbury to succeed St. Deusdedit, who had died in 664, but Adrian considered himself unworthy of so great a dignity, and begged the Pope to appoint Theodore, a Greek monk, in his place. The Pope yielded, on condition that Adrian should accompany Theodore to England and be his adviser in the administration of the Diocese of Canterbury. They left Rome in 668, but Adrian was detained in France by Ebroin, the Mayor of the Palace [the chief officer who held real power under the later Frankish kings], who suspected that he had a secret mission from the Eastern Emperor, Constans II, to the English kings. After two years Ebroin found that his suspicion had been groundless and allowed Adrian to proceed to England. Immediately upon his arrival in England, Archbishop Theodore appointed him Abbot of St. Peter in Canterbury, a monastery which had been founded by St. Augustine, the apostle of England, and became afterwards known as St. Austin's. Adrian accompanied Theodore on his apostolic visitations of England, and by his prudent advice and co-operation assisted the Archbishop in the great work of unifying the customs and practices of the Anglo-Saxon Church with those of the Church of Rome. Adrian was well versed in all the branches of ecclesiastical and profane learning. Under his direction the School of Canterbury became the centre of English learning. He established numerous other schools in various parts of England. In these schools of Adrian were educated many of the saints, scholars, and missionaries, who during the next century rekindled the waning light of faith and learning in France and Germany. After spending thirty-nine years in England Adrian died in the year 710 and was buried at Canterbury. His feast is celebrated 9 January, the day of his death.

Stanton, A Menology of England and Wales (London, 1892); Ranbeck, The Benedictine Calendar (London. 1896); Montalembert, The Monks of the West (Boston), II, 344; Butler, Lives of the Saints; Lechner, Martyrologium des Benediktiner-Ordens (Augsburg, 1852); St. Bede [English monk and historian (d. 735)]. Life of Adrian, in Hist. Eccl., tr. by Baring-Gould, Lives of the Saints, 9 January.

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The full original · 1044 words

Read Baring-Gould’s full account

Baring-Gould’s sources: Anglican and some of the German Martyrologies. Life in Bede, Eccles. Hist., lib. iv., c. 1, 2; lib. v. c. 20.

"Deusdedit," says the Venerable Bede [English monk and historian (d. 735)], "the sixth Bishop of the church of Canterbury, died on the 14th July, 665. The see then became vacant for some considerable time, until the priest Wighard, a man skilled in ecclesiastical discipline, of the English race, was sent to Rome by King Egbert (of Kent), and Oswy, King of the Northumbrians, with a request that he might be ordained Bishop of the Church of England; sending at the same time presents to the Apostolic Pope, and many vessels of gold and silver. Arriving at Rome, where Vitalian presided at that time over the Apostolic see, and having made known to the aforesaid Pope the occasion of his journey, he was not long after snatched away, with almost all his companions that went with him, by a pestilence which happened at that time.

"But the Apostolic Pope, having consulted about that affair, made diligent inquiry for some one to send to the Archbishop of the English Churches. There was then in the Niridian monastery, which is not far from the city of Naples, an abbot called Adrian, by nation an African, well versed in holy writ, experienced in monastic and ecclesiastical discipline, and excellently skilled in both Greek and Latin. The Pope, sending for him, commanded him to accept the bishopric, and repair to Britain; he answered that he was unworthy of so great a dignity, but said he would name another, whose learning and age were fitter for the ecclesiastical office. And having proposed to the Pope a certain monk, belonging to a neighbouring monastery of virgins, whose name was Andrew, he was by all that knew him, judged worthy of a bishopric; but bodily infirmity prevented his being advanced to the episcopal office. Then again Adrian was pressed to accept the bishopric, but he desired a respite for a time, to see whether he could find another fit to be ordained bishop.

"There was at that time, in Rome, a monk called Theodore, well-known to Adrian, born at Tarsus, in Cilicia, a man well instructed in worldly and divine literature, as also in Greek and Latin; of known probity of life, and venerable for age, being sixty-six years old. Adrian offered him to the Pope to be ordained bishop, and prevailed; but upon these conditions, that he should conduct him into Britain, because he had already travelled through France twice upon several occasions, and was, therefore, better acquainted with the way, and was, moreover, sufficiently provided with men of his own; as also that, being his fellow labourer in doctrine, he might take special care that Theodore should not, according to the custom of the Greeks, introduce anything contrary to the true faith into the Church where he presided. Theodore, being ordained sub-deacon, waited four months for his hair to grow, that it might be shorn into the shape of a crown; for he had before the tonsure [shaving part of the head as a sign of entering the clergy or monastic life] of S. Paul [37] the Apostle, after the manner of the Easterns. He was ordained by Pope Vitalian, in the year of the Lord 668, on Sunday, the 26th of March, and on the 27th of May was sent with Adrian into Britain.

"They proceeded by sea to Marseilles, and thence by land to Arles, and having delivered to John, Archbishop of that city, Pope Vitalian's letters of recommendation, were by him detained, till Ebroin, the king's mayor of the palace, sent them a pass to go where they pleased. Having received the same, Theodore repaired to Agilbert, Bishop of Paris, and was by him kindly received, and long entertained. But Adrian went first to Emme, and then to Faro, Bishops of Sens and Meaux, and lived with them a considerable time; for the hard winter had obliged them to rest wherever they could. King Egbert, being informed by messengers, that the bishop they had asked of the Roman prelate was in the kingdom of France, sent thither his præfect, Redford, to conduct him; who, being arrived there, with Ebroin's leave, conveyed him to the port of Quentavic (S. Quentin); where, being indisposed, he made some stay, and as soon as he began to recover, sailed over into Britain. But Ebroin detained Adrian, suspecting that he went on some message from the Emperor to the kings of Britain, to the prejudice of the kingdom, of which he at that time took especial care; however, when he found that he really had no such commission, he discharged him, and permitted him to follow Theodore.

"As soon as he came, he received from him the monastery of S. Peter the Apostle, where the Archbishops of Canterbury are usually buried; for at his departure, the Apostolic Lord had ordered that Theodore should provide for him in his diocese, and give him a suitable place to live in with his followers.

"Theodore arrived in his church the second year after his consecration, on Sunday, May 27th. Soon after, he visited all the island, wherever the tribes of the Angles inhabited; and everywhere attended and assisted by Adrian, he taught the right rule of life, and the canonical custom of celebrating Easter. This was the first Archbishop whom all the English Church obeyed. And forasmuch as both of them were well read in both sacred and secular literature, they gathered a crowd of disciples, and there flowed from them daily rivers of knowledge to water the hearts of their hearers; and, together with the books of Holy Writ, they also taught them the arts of ecclesiastical poetry, astronomy, and arithmetic. A testimony of which is, that there are still living at this day some of their scholars, who are as well versed in the Greek and Latin tongues as in their own, in which they were born. Nor were there ever happier times since the English came into Britain; for their kings, being brave men and good Christians, were a terror to all barbarous nations, and the minds of all men were bent upon the joys of the heavenly kingdom of which they had just heard; and all who desired to be instructed in sacred reading had masters at hand to teach them."

S. Adrian died a.d. 709, after having spent thirty-nine years in Britain. His tomb was famous for miracles wrought at it.

Feast days

Feast: January 9

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Sources & notes

Feast-day sources

Story sources

Sources

Credits

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new and revised edition (Edinburgh: John Grant, 1914; first edition 1872). Public domain.

From “Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/St. Adrian of Canterbury,” The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907–1914), via Wikisource. Public domain. Matched by name and feast date; text unedited except for our bracketed notes in grey.

From Sabine Baring-Gould, The Lives of the Saints, new and revised edition (Edinburgh: John Grant, 1914; first edition 1872). Public domain in the United States. Reproduced unedited, except for short bracketed notes in grey that we added to explain names and terms (“S.” is the old abbreviation for Saint). Some history and judgments reflect 19th-century scholarship.