Our holy father Adolphus was the natural brother of Saint Botulph of East Anglia, and shared with him the vocation of a missionary monk. Both brothers were formed in the monastic life and set out to preach the Gospel and build up the Church in regions where it had not yet taken firm root. While his brother Botulph laboured in East Anglia, where he founded the celebrated monastery at Ikanho and became one of the most beloved saints of that region, Adolphus bore the light of the Gospel across the sea to Belgium, where he served as a monk and missionary among the Frankish peoples.
The two brothers are commemorated together on the seventeenth of June, witnesses to the remarkable missionary fervour of the Anglo-Saxon church in the seventh century, which in that same generation produced such apostles as Saint Boniface of Crediton, Saint Willibrord, and the brothers Hewald the Fair and Hewald the Dark. By his prayers, may the holy Adolphus intercede for all who labour in the foreign mission.