Today is the feast of mighty St. Florian and if you know any firemen, salute them today, since Florian is their patron. When I worked in the Catholic bookstore, we sure sold a lot of Florian medals to firefighters. The story is this: he was a Roman officer in Austria who suffered martyrdom in the days of Diocletian. He was twice scourged, half-flayed alive and thrown into the River Enns. A Christian woman named Valeria recovered his body, which was enshrined at the Augustinian abbey at Linz, with parts of it divvied up between King Casimir of Poland and the Archbishop of Cracow. He is invoked against damage from fire or water.
The fire connection seems to come from the threat of his being burned alive by Aquilinus, governor of the province. Florian bravely replied: "If you burn me I will climb to heaven in flames." He is paired with lovely St. Barbara, who is also traditionally invoked for protection against fire.
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