Icon within kyot, complex, tempera, kyot of linden tree; fogged subframe, gilded brass frame, glass. Silkscreen painting.
Size: 7 x 9 in.
History of the Saint:
Saints Adrian and his wife Natalia hailed from Nicomedia during the second reign of Maximian (306-308). Twenty-three Christian martyrs lived at that time in a cave in Nicomedia and were tortured for their love of Christ. When Adrian joined them in prison for the sake of Christ, Natalia arrayed herself in splendid clothes and went to visit him in prison. She counseled him to remain firm and unshaken in the tortures, and tended to the wounds of the Christian prisoners. When the emperor forbade Natalia and the other women from coming to the prison, she cropped her hair and bribed her way into the jail.
The prisoners were slain and Natalia assisted in their dismemberment, beseeching the executioner, and encouraging the martyrs to endure the pains courageously, so as not to betray Christ. As the martyrs' holy relics were cast into the flames, a sudden storm of rain fell and quenched the fire.
A certain Christian named Eusebius gathered up the sacred relics and brought them on board a boat to Argyropolis, near Constantinople. Natalia fled by ship to the location of her husband’s and the 23 martyrs’ sacred relics. She surrendered her soul to God soon thereafter. A church was built there in honor of Adrian and the 23 Holy Martyrs at the site of the holy relics.
