Patron Of:
Austria, Firefighters, Fire Prevention, Fire, Brewers, Coopers
Profile Third century officer in Roman army stationed in modern Austria. Military administrator of the town of Noricum, and a closet Christian. Said to have stopped a town from burning by throwing a single bucket of water on the blaze, and thus his association with firefighters and those who protect us from fire, including chimney sweeps. When ordered to execute a group of Christians during the persecutions of Diocletian, he refused, and professed his own faith. Martyr.
Died c.304; scourged, flayed alive, a stone tied to his neck, and dumped into a river; body later retrieved by Christians and buried at an Augustinian monastery near Lorch; relics translated to Rome in 1138; part of the relics given to King Casimir of Poland and the bishop of Cracow by Pope Lucius III, which led to Florian's patronage of Poland and Upper Austria