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Patron Saint of
Firefighters
St. Florian, Mart.
A.D. 304
The Saint Florian commemorated in the Roman martyrology on this day was an
officer of the Roman army, who occupied a high administrative post in Noricum,
now part of Austria, and who suffered death for the faith in the days of
Diocletian. His legendary “acts” state that he gave himself up at Lorch to the
soldiers of Aquilinus, the governor, when they were rounding up the Christians,
and that after making a bold confession he was twice acourged, half-flayed alive
and finally thrown into the river Enns with a stone round his neck. His body,
recovered and buried by a pious woman, was eventually removed to the Augustinian
Abbey of St. Florian, near Linz. It is said to have been at a later date
translated to Rome, and Pope Lucius III, in 1138, gave some of the saint’s
relics to King Casimir of Poland and to the Bishop of Cracow. Since that time
St. Florian has been regarded as the patron of Poland as well as of Linz and of
Upper Austria. In these translations there may have been some confusion with
other reputed saints of the same name, but there has been great popular devotion
to St. Florian in many parts of central Europe, and the tradition as to his
martyrdom not far from the spot where the Enns flows into the Danube is ancient
and reliable. Many miracles of healing are attributed to his intercession and he
is involved as a powerful protector in danger from fire or water.
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