Page:A Dictionary of Saintly Women Volume 2.djvu/113

ST, NATALIA 101 their oonrage and magnanimity. (Cahier, Endume.) Adrian and Natalia were natives of Nicomedia. Natalia certainly was of Christian parentage, hut was a&aid to confess Christ hocause the tenth persecn- tion was so fiercely ra^ng. They saw Christians tortured, and wondered why they endnred such agony, bnt soon they were both converted. Adrian was an officer of high rank in the Boma'n army. He remonstrated with the Emperor Maxi- mian on his injustice and cruelty to the Christians, and implored those who were writing down the names of the proscribed Christians to add his to the list. Natalia, who had been married little more than a year, heard that her hus- band had been taken and imprisoned among the other confessors. She visited the gaol and encouraged them to bear everything for Christ's sake, kissing her husband's chains and rejoicing in the honour that was come to him. He praised her as the right sort of wife. In accordance with Natalia's wish, Adrian promised to send for her when the time came for him to be led to the torture; so when the prisoners were condemned to death, he bribed the gaolers to let him go to fetch his wife. She was grieved when she saw him coming to her, because she feared he had renounced Christ, or at least had fled from the pros- pect of immediate martyrdom. She cried out to him not to come near her, lament- ing that after having gloried in being the spouse of a martyr, she now found herself the wife of an apostate. But when he explained the true reason of his coming, she let him into the house and then went with him to the prison, where she remained seven days. While there, she kissed the chains of the cap- tive Christians, and dressed their wounds, sending her maids for linen and oint- ment. After the confessors had been ques- tioned one by one and sent back to prison, Natalia returned with her hus- band to dress his wounds and to lighten his sufferings in every way she could. The rest of the prisoners were attended by their relations and by deaconesses and other pious women. The Emperor heard of it, and issued an order for- bidding women to enter the prison. Natalia cut off her hair and disguised herself as a man, and thus was able to go on devoting herself to the consolation of her husband and the rest of the suf- ferers. When the other women dis- covered the noble example set them by this brave matron, they also cut off their hair, put on men's clothes, and went to relieve the distress of the saints. Natalia sat at her husband's feet, and bade him not forget her when he arrived in the presence of the Lord ; but make it his first request that He would take her also to heaven and not leave her alone in that wicked place. When the tyrant knew the way in which his order had been evaded, and yet that the martyrs were dying of their wounds, he was enraged, and declared that they should not die the death of all men, but ordered that their feet should be laid on an anvil and their legs broken with an iron bar. Natalia went with Adrian to the place of execution, and begged the lictors that he might be tortured first, lest while he was waiting for his turn, his own courage should be shaken if he saw the other confessors suffering frightful pain. She took her husband's feet and stretched them on the anvil ; the lictors cut off his feet and broke his legs. But as the martyr still breathed, Natalia said to him, "I pray you, servant of Christ, stretch out your hand and let the heathen cut it off, that you may be like the saints, and while you still breathe, give your arm to be broken, in honour of Him Who set us the example of suffering." Then the lictors cut off his hand and broke his arm, as they had done with his feet and legs, and he died. His brave wife took the severed hand and hid it in her bosom. Afterwards the other mar- tyrs suffered, meeting their death with equal courage. The Emperor ordered that, lest the Galileans should take the bodies of the murdered Christians to worship them as gods, they should be burnt in his pre- sence. The wives of the martyrs stood a little way off, and when the bodies were cast into the furnace, they prayed