St. Florian was born around AD 250, in Aelium Cetium, in present-day Austria. He was an officer in the Roman army, and held a high administrative post in Noricum, which is now part of Austria.
During the Diocletianic persecution of Christians, Florian was not enforcing proscriptions against Christians in his territory. When Aquilinus came to investigate, he ordered Florian to offer sacrifice to the Roman gods. Florian refused, and was sentenced to death by fire. On his funeral pyre, Florian challenged the soldiers, saying, “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.” Afraid of his words, the soldiers instead drowned him in the Enns River with a stone tied to his neck.
Florian’s body was recovered after his death and buried by a Catholic woman, and was eventually moved to the Augustinian Abbey of St. Florian, near Linz.
St. Florian is a patron saint of Upper Austria, Poland, and firefighters.
