Florus of Illyria

Holy Martyr Florus of Illyria was a brother, in flesh and in spirit, of the holy martyr Laurus. They lived in the second century, in Byzantium, and then moved to Illyria. They were stone-⁠cutters, and their teachers were the Christians Proclus and Maximus, from whom they also learned a God-⁠pleasing life.

The governor of Illyria, Licaon, sent them to a neighbouring region to work on a pagan temple under construction. The saints worked at the building, giving the money they earned to the poor, keeping a strict fast and praying unceasingly. Once the son of the pagan priest Mamertinus came carelessly near the site, and a chip of stone struck him in the eye and damaged it badly. Florus and Laurus reassured the angry father, telling him that his son would be healed. They took him to themselves and taught him faith in Christ. After the youth confessed Jesus Christ as the true God, the brothers prayed for him and the eye was healed. Seeing the wonder, the father too believed in Christ.

When the building of the temple was finished, the brothers gathered the Christians who had helped with the building, shattered the idols and set the holy cross in the eastern part of the temple. All night they spent in prayer, lit by a heavenly light. Learning of it, the head of the region condemned the former priest Mamertinus to be burned, with his son and three hundred Christians. Florus and Laurus, sent to the governor Licaon, were thrown into an empty well and covered with earth.

After many years the holy relics of Florus and Laurus were found incorrupt and carried to Constantinople. In the year 1200 they were seen by the Novgorod pilgrim Anthony, and around 1350 the heads of the martyrs were seen in the Pantocrator monastery by Stephen of Novgorod. In the Menaion for August it is said that in Russia the martyrs Florus and Laurus are honoured as protectors of domestic animals; this veneration goes back to ancient times. According to an old tradition from the Novgorod land, with the finding of the relics the dying of cattle ceased, and the martyrs began to be honoured as protectors of horses. Tradition says that they were taught by the Archangel Michael to handle horses, and in the old iconographic guides it is said that they must be painted with the horses they protect. To this day many churches and museums in Russia keep beautiful icons of them with horses, above all the subject the Miracle of Saints Florus and Laurus.

The saints are commemorated on 31 August.