SAINT OF THE DAY MAY 4 ( Saint Florian of Lorch ).

Saint Florian of Lorch

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 praying and 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

• scourged, flayed alive, a stone tied to his neck, and dumped into a river c.304
• 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

Patronage

• against battle
• against drowning, drowning victims
• against fire
• against flood
• barrel-makers, coopers
• brewers
• chimney sweeps
• fire prevention
• firefighters
• harvests
• soap-boilers
• Austria
• Poland
• diocese of Chur, Switzerland
• Linz, Austria

Representation

• bearded warrior with a lance and tub
• boy with a millstone
• classical warrior leaning on a millstone, pouring water on a fire
• dead man on a millstone guarded by an eagle
• dead man whose body is being protected by an eagle
• man being beaten
• man on a journey with a hat and staff
• man thrown into a river with a millstone around his neck
• man with a palm in his hand and a burning torch under his feet
• man with a sword
• young man, sometimes in armor, sometimes unarmed, pouring water from a tub on a burning church.