Adrian of Canterbury
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| Adrian of Canterbury | |
|---|---|
| Born | c.635, North Africa |
| Died | January 9, 710, Canterbury |
| Feast | January 9 |
 Saints Portal |
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Saint Adrian of Canterbury (died 710) was a famous scholar and the Abbot of St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury in the English county of Kent.
According to Bede, he was a native of Greek-speaking North Africa, and abbot of a monastery near Naples, called Monasterium Niridanum (perhaps a mistake for Nisidanum, as being situated on the island of Nisida), to whom the vacant archbishopric of Canterbury was offered by Pope Vitalian in 667, but who modestly declined the appointment, and, after having first recommended that it should be given to Andrew, a monk belonging to a neighbouring nunnery (monachum quemdam de vicino virginum monasterio), by whom it was also declined on the plea of advanced years, introduced to the pontiff his friend Theodore of Tarsus, who then chanced to be at Rome, and who consented to undertake the charge. Vitalian, however, stipulated that Adrian should accompany the new archbishop to Britain, both because, having twice before made a journey into Gaul, he knew the road and the mode of travelling, and in order that he might prevent Theodore, who was of the Greek communion, from introducing anything contrary to the orthodox faith into the church over which he was to preside.
The two set out from Rome on May 27, 668, and proceeding by sea to Marseille, crossed the country to Arles, where they remained with John, the archbishop, till they got passports from Ebrinus, or Ebroin, who ruled that part of Gaul as Maire du Palais under, or rather over, the minor king, Clotaire III. Having then made their way together to the north of France, they parted company, and went severally to reside for the winter, Theodore with Agelberctus, bishop of Paris, Adrian first with Emme, bishop of Sens, and afterwards with Faro, bishop of Méaux. Theodore, being sent for in the following spring by Egbert, king of Kent, was allowed to take his departure, and he reached England in the end of May, 669; but Adrian was detained by order of Ebrinus, who is said to have suspected him of being an emissary of the Greek emperor sent to stir up troubles against the kingdom of the Franks. At length, however, the tyrant became convinced that there was no ground for this notion, and Adrian was permitted to proceed to England, where, immediately on his arrival, he was made abbot of the monastery of St. Peter (afterwards called St. Austin's) at Canterbury, an appointment which was in conformity with instructions given by the pope to Theodore. Such is the account given in the Ecclesiastical History (iv. 1.).
In another account, also attributed to Bede, in his Lives of the Abbots of Wearmouth, it is stated that Adrian was not made abbot till after the resignation of Benedict Biscop, who is made to have accompanied Theodore all the way from Rome, and to have been immediately on their arrival appointed to this place, which he appears to have held for about two years. The facts in the two relations are not perhaps absolutely irreconcilable; but they are strangely dissimilar in manner, and in the circumstances which they respectively notice, to have come from the same pen. Bede describes Adrian (or Hadrian, as he calls him in the Ecclesiastical History), as not only a distinguished theologian, but eminently accomplished in secular learning; he and Theodore, we are told, traversing all parts of the island, gathered multitudes of scholars around them wherever they appeared, and employed themselves daily with equal diligence and success in instructing those who flocked to them not only in the truths of religion but in the several branches of science and literature then cultivated. Bede particularly mentions the metrical art, astronomy, and arithmetic (which may be considered as representing what we should now call rhetoric and the belles lettres, physical science, and mathematics); and he adds, that while he wrote (in the early part of the eighth century), there still remained some of the pupils of Theodore and Adrian, who spoke the Greek and Latin languages as readily as their native tongue.
To the flourishing state of learning thus introduced into England, and for a short time maintained, King Alfred appears to allude in the preface to his translation of Pope Gregory I's Liber Pastoralis Curae, in the latter part of the ninth century, where he says that it often came into his mind what wise men there were in the country, both laymen and ecclesiastics, in a former age; how the clergy in those happy times were diligent both to teach and to study, and how foreigners then came hither to acquire learning and wisdom; whereas now, in his own day, if any Englishman desired to make himself a scholar, he was obliged to go abroad for instruction. Adrian, long surviving his friend the archbishop, is said to have lived for thirty-nine years after he came to England, continuing till his death to preside over the monastery at Canterbury. (Bede, Hist. Eccles. iv. 1, 2.; and Vita Abbatum Wiramuth., in Smith's Beda, p. 293.; W. Malmes. De Pontif. p. 340.) He died on January 9 which is now his feast day.
[edit] Sources
- Long, George. The Biographical Dictionary of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. London: Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, 1842-1844. 4 vols.
