St. Florian

Who they were

Florian was a veteran Roman administrator and officer in Noricum, modern Austria, who, when the Diocletian persecution reached his province, was ordered to help enforce it. He instead declared himself a Christian and, by the tradition, marched to the authorities to say so. He was scourged and condemned to be burned. The account says he stood on the pyre and told the soldiers to light it so he could climb to heaven on the flames. Unnerved, they drowned him instead, a millstone at his neck, in the river Enns. A monastery rose over his grave. Austria and Poland took him as patron, and firefighters worldwide adopted the officer associated with both fire defied and water, the two elements of their trade.

Why people turn to St. Florian

Firefighters and their families, as the standing patron. Households ask his protection against fire, and river towns against flood.

How to ask their intercession

For a firefighter by name and station, especially at the start of a shift. A Florian card in a firehouse is an old custom worth keeping.