Dr. Augustin Sokolovski
Saint Adrian is known for his refusal to offer a sacrifice at a pagan festival and for destroying the altar that had been erected specifically for that purpose. In a fit of blind rage, a crowd of pagans burned Saint Adrian in a furnace.
Apart from his martyrdom, few details of the saint’s life are known. It appears that his commemoration and witness to the faith are linked to the feast day honoring the holy martyr Leonidas of Corinth and his seven female disciples, as well as many others, including saints such as Irene and Snezhana (in Greek, Chionia), which are very popular Christian names. The saints suffered for Christ in Corinth, presumably during the persecution under the Roman Emperor Decius (249–251), which was particularly cruel and widespread.
Leonidas was an itinerant Christian bishop who preached throughout what is now Greece, in both Corinth and Athens. In addition to his female companions—preachers whom hagiography refers to by the symbolic number seven—"many others" also became martyrs. Among them, it appears, was Saint Adrian. It can be assumed that Adrian came to the faith precisely upon witnessing the courage and staggering suffering of Leonid and his disciples. They were brought before the court, interrogated, and brutally executed by the Roman authorities, while Saint Adrian fell victim to the spontaneous, savage fury of the pagan mob. His martyrdom took place a little later, separately, and is commemorated the day after that of Leonidas and the seven female martyrs, on April 30 according to the Old Style, patristic calendar.
Saint Adrian of Corinth, pray to God for us!