St Florian: Better Left Unburned

 Today in the book In Caelo et in Terra, we read about St Florian. He was a soldier in the Roman army around 250 AD. He refused to follow orders to kill the Christians, and was vocal about the fact that he himself was a believer in Jesus. He was condemned to be burned at the stake, but as they tied him to the stake, he challenged them. He said if they set a fire, he would climb the flames to heaven.

Apparently this spooked his executioners. They made a rather strange decision. Instead of burning him, they beat him and then tied a stone around his neck and threw him in the river to drown. I guess that was better somehow?

A Christian woman found St Florian's body and gave it a proper burial. Many miracles were witnessed due to his intercession.

You can read more about St Florian and his being patron of firefighters here.

If you were on trial for your faith, would you taunt your executioners? Pray for them? Yell at them? What do you think you would do? Not what you SHOULD do... what do you actually think YOU would do? I'm pretty sure that, along with St Lawrence, I'd tell jokes.

God, thanks for the brave example of this fire defying saint. St Florian, pray for us.