ADRIANO of Nisida. — Benedictine, of African origin, abbot of Nisida near Naples, d. in 709 (or 710?). Pope Vitalian wished to appoint him Archbishop of Canterbury, but he declined the high dignity, presenting his friend Theodore of Tarsus (q.v.) in his stead. He followed the latter to England and became his right hand, especially in the ecclesiastical and cultural formation of the English Church. The school of Canterbury owes its first splendor to him.
BIBL.: Bede, Hist. eccl., IV, V. 20. Cf. also: Acta SS. Yamanii, I, Antwerp 1643, pp. 515 ff.; BHL. 558; Ph. Schmitz, L'Onde de S. Benoît, I, Maredsous 1942, p. 46. Giuseppe Löw