Saint Florian is the patron saint of Poland, Linz, Austria, and firefighters. His feast day is May 4.
Florian lived in the time of the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, and was commander of the imperial Army in eastern Bavaria. The emperors sought to root out Christianity, and sent Aquilinus to persecute Christians. When Aquilinus ordered Florian to offer sacrifice to pagan gods, he refused, and cheerfully accepted the beatings of the soldiers, who used clubs, spikes and fire to torture him. His corpse was tossed into a river, and later he appeared in a vision to a woman named Valeria so that she could bury him in a more appropriate location.
