DIVINE Providence conducted this holy man to Britain, in order to make
him an instructor of innumerable saints. Adrian was an African by birth,
and was abbot of Nerida, not far from Naples, when pope Vitalian, upon
the death of St. Deusdedit the archbishop of Canterbury, judged him, for
his skill in sacred learning, and experience in the paths of true
interior virtue, to be of all others the most proper person to be the
doctor of a nation, zealous in the pursuit of virtue, but as yet
ignorant in the sciences, and in the canons of the church. The humble
servant of God found means to decline that dignity, by recommending St.
Theodorus as most capable, but refused not to share in the laborious
part of the ministry. The pope therefore enjoined him to be the
companion, assistant, and adviser of the apostolic archbishop, which
charge Adrian willingly took upon himself. In travelling through France
with St. Theodorus, he was stopped by Ebroin, the jealous mayor of the
palace, who feared lest the emperor of the East had given these two
persons, who were his born subjects, some commission in favor of his
pretensions to the western kingdoms. Adrian stayed a long time in
France, at Meaux, and in other places, before he was allowed to pursue
his journey. St. Theodorus established him abbot of the monastery of SS.
Peter and Paul, afterward called St. Austin, near Canterbury, where he
taught the learned languages and the sciences, and principally the
precepts and maxims of our divine religion. He had illustrated this
island by his heavenly doctrine, and the bright example of his virtues,
for the space of thirty-nine years, when he departed to our Lord on the
9th of January, in the year 710. His tomb was famed for miracles, as we
are assured by Joscelin the Monk, quoted by William of Malmesbury and
Capgrave; and his name is inserted in the English calendars. See Bede,
l. 4, c. 1, l. 5, c. 21. Malmesb. de Pontif. Angl. and Capgrave.