SAINT FLORIAN

SAINT FLORIAN

Saint Florian was an officer of the Roman army who occupied a high administrative post in Noricum. Saint Florian suffered death for his Faith during the days of Diocletian.

He gave himself up at Lorch to the soldiers of Aquilinus where they were rounding up the Christians. After making a bold confession he was twice scourged, half-flayed alive, set on fire and thrown into the river Enns with a stone around his neck. His body was recovered and buried by a pious woman.

Eventually his body was moved to the Augustinian Abbey of Saint Florian near Linz. In 1138 Pope Lucius III gave some of the saint’s relics to King Casimir of Poland and to the Bishop of Cracow. Saint Florian has been regarded as a patron of Poland as well as of Linz, Austria. Near the spot where the Enns flows into the Danube many miracles of healing are attributed to his intercession and he is invoked as a powerful protector in danger from fire or water.

Saint Florian is the patron of firemen. His feast day is May 4th.

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