St. Florian

Florian was born in Roman-occupied present-day Austria around 250. As a young man he joined the Roman army and advanced quickly, becoming the commander of the army in the province of Noricum (modern Austria and part of Slovenia). In additional to other duties, he organized firefighting brigades.

During this time was Diocletian’s persecution of Christians. When word reached Rome that Florian was not enforcing the persecutions in his province, he was put under investigation. He was ordered to sacrifice to the Roman gods and refused. He was scourged and sentenced to be burned at the stake.

It is said that at the pyre, Florian said, “If you wish to know that I am not afraid of your torture, light the fire, and in the name of the Lord I will climb onto it.” The soldiers in charge of the execution then decided instead of burning him to drown him in the Enns River near the Danube with a millstone around his neck.

Fellow Christians later retrieved Florian’s body from the river and gave him proper burial.

At the beginning of the year, I like going to one of the random saint generators and picking a saint. This year’s was Florian, which made me rather nervous that I would be facing fire of some sort in this year. Florian is often invoked against fire, as well as flood, lightning, and the pain of purgatory. So I certainly would accept his protective prayers over any of those.

Florian has a large devotion in Austria, Germany, and Poland. In Austria and Germany, fire services use “Florian” as a call sign for fire stations and fire trucks. He is the patron of Upper Austria, Poland, firefighters, chimney sweeps, brewers, and soap-makers. His feast day is May 4.