¹ In the parts of the land of Hungary, in the province of Pannonia, that noble athlete of Christ Adrian was born; and his glorious end plainly proved how great was his faith, and how great before God were the works of divine power worked by his merits. This holy man, born of royal stock, possessed in his youthful years an immense maturity of mind; and for the marks of his excellent life he was raised to the rank of bishop. There, devoted to the divine service, a copious multitude of clergy and lay people who went with him bear witness to how many noble deeds and exploits he performed, how many proofs of goodness he showed, and how many souls he won for the Lord.

² This holy father, after the long sweats and labours he had spent on the divine flock in his own parts, wishing also to profit other peoples, took with him a venerable company and set out on pilgrimage for zeal of the Christian religion, coming by ship to the eastern parts of Scotland, which were then occupied by the Picts — having with him six thousand six hundred and six confessing clergy and common people, among whom were the notable Glodianus, crowned with glorious martyrdom, Gaius and Monanus, white confessors, Stobrand, and other high priests adorned with the mitre. The names of the rest are written in the book of life in purple blood.

³ These men, spread throughout the kingdom of the Picts with Bishop Adrian, worked many signs among the people, ceaselessly mingling words of salvation, and profited many; but afterwards they desired to have their dwelling only in the Isle of May, intent on works of virtue — where, once the multitude of demons and wild beasts had been driven out by God’s glorious servants, the place might become a house of prayer full of all holiness.

⁴ There they devoted themselves for some time to vigils and prayers; but afterwards the raging fury of the Danes came upon them — those who had laid waste nearly all Britain, which is now called England — and came as far as the same island, where God’s confessors fought against the pagan people with the arms of spiritual warfare. The Danes, not fearing their living preaching and unceasing confession of the most glorious name of Christ, drew their deadly swords and rushed howling upon the host of the Lord; and Adrian, striving to death for the words of his God’s law, was crowned with glorious martyrdom.

⁵ And so that the words of the prophets might again be fulfilled in them — where Rachel is said to have wept inconsolable for her children — those most wicked and cruel executioners made an onslaught upon so heavenly and holy a multitude, and upon the persevering assault of Christ’s confessors, and slaughtered them all in the Isle of May with two-edged swords, in the manner of cattle; where the martyrs of God, who loved servitude in this world, are not divided in death as they were not in life — since there was ever one spirit and one faith in them.

⁶ On the same Isle of May, to the honour of almighty God and of his holy martyrs, a monastery had been built of old with noble stonework, which was destroyed in an attack by the English people; but a church still remains there to this day, frequently visited by the faithful people on account of so many miracles of power — where women who come hoping for offspring are not disappointed — and there also remains a most celebrated cemetery, where the bodies of him and of that super-heavenly choir, that legion made white in rose-red blood, are at rest.