Feast of Sts. Adrian and Natalia

 

St. Adrian was a pagan who converted to Catholicism. He was a Herculian Guard under the Roman Emperor Galerius Maximian, and while torturing a band of Christians he asked one what kind of reward he expected in heaven. The tortured man said, "Eye hath not seen, nor ears heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him." This inspired his conversion; he was immediately thrown in prison. He was visited there by St. Natalia, who asked for his prayers when he got to heaven. The next day his limbs were knocked off on an anvil and he was beheaded (along with several others). The bodies then were taken to be burned but a thunderstorm came up and blew out the fire - lightning killed some of the executioners. Natalia (who was with him the whole time) grabbed one of his severed hands and kept it with her until she died.

St. Adrian is the patron saint of butchers, although I think he'd be a better patron saint of the butchered.