May 4: Saint Florian, Martyr

Witness of Christ

Tradition holds that Florian was born in the second half of the 3rd century in Zeiselmauer, near Vienna. He was baptized and raised as a Christian. After several years of service as an officer in the Roman army, he was appointed head of the chancellery of the imperial governor in Lauriacum, present-day Lorch near Enns in Upper Austria.

Emperor Diocletian had made Lauriacum the capital of the province of Noricum Ripense, granting it a certain importance.

When persecution against Christians broke out in Lauriacum, forty believers were arrested and imprisoned. Florian attempted to free them, but he was discovered and brought before the governor Aquilinus, who ordered him to sacrifice to the gods. When he firmly refused, he was tortured and, with a millstone tied around his neck, was drowned in the Enns River. It was May 4, 304.

A widow named Valeria found Florian’s body and buried it on her estate. In the 8th century, the Bishops of Passau built a church on the martyr’s burial site, first entrusted to the Benedictines and later to the Canons Regular of the Lateran. In 1183, part of the saint’s relics were transferred to Kraków, where Grand Duke Casimir II the Just had a basilica built in his honor.

Since 1971, the saint has been the principal patron of the Diocese of Linz. He is also the patron saint of firefighters, potters, blacksmiths, soap makers, and brewers.