St. Florian's Cross
St. Florian
It is popularly believed that Florian was a high-ranking Roman army officer in the Celtic kingdom of Noricum (stretching over the area of today's Austria and Slovenia). His martyrdom, in about 303, was during the persecution of Galerius and shows that as early as the 3rd century Christianity had reached that part of Europe.
There are several versions of the story and most centre on Florian's refusal to renounce his faith, which resulted in his execution. His job in the army was fighting fires and he is said to have prevented a town from burning by praying and throwing a single bucket of water into the flames. It's ironic that he was killed by being burnt on a stake.
His followers were confident the smoke from his body would raise his soul up to heaven, and to counter this possibility, the executioners tied a stone to Florian's neck and tossed his body into the river Enns. They were obviously too late, because several miracles have since been witnessed in the vicinity and Florian is recognised as a saint.
Because of his role as a firefighter and his steadfast faith which resulted in his martyrdom, St. Florian has become patron saint of firefighters.
St. Florian's Cross
Little wonder, then, that the cross associated with Florian is used as a badge for firefighters today in many countries, especially the US and Canada.
St. Florian's Cross
The St. Florian's Cross is based on the St. John's Cross. The main difference being the ends of the St. Florian Cross are convex, in contrast the St. John's Cross, where the ends are either flat or concave. (This 'bulging' of the cross ends may have been influenced by the French Occitan Cross.)
The main similarity is that there are eight corner points on both cross styles. As with the St. John's Cross, these eight points are often associated with the eight beatitudes.
For the fire service, the eight points on St. Florian's Cross represent the eight different virtues of Knighthood:
- Tact and discretion
- Loyalty and commitment
- Dexterity and mental adroitness
- Observation, attentiveness and perceptiveness
- Sympathy, compassion and sharing
- Explicitness and thoroughness
- Gallantry, and
- Perseverance
Other patron saints of firefighters include St. Barbara, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Eustachius and St. John.
In addition to being patron saint of firefighters, Florian is also protector for other dangerous occupations: chimney sweeps and soap-boilers. He's a patron saint for harvests and against battle, drowning, fire and flood. For locations, Florian is patron saint of Upper Austria, the town of Linz in Austria, the diocese of Chur in Switzerland, and Poland.
Florian is said to have thrown a beer cask of water to quell the flames of the burning town, and in consequence he is patron saint of coopers and brewers.
A cooper, in case you don't know (and even if you don't want to know) makes casks, barrels, buckets, tubs, troughs, etc. from wood or some other material. As with many ancient trades, coopers often took their trade as their name, and several sports and music celebrity Coopers have inherited that name.
Charles Cooper and his son John founded the Cooper Car Company (1947) which built Formula 1 racing cars. John also created the sporty version of the MINI in 1961 which was sold as the MINI Cooper, still a hugely popular classic car today.
The late comic magician Tommy Cooper had some classic one-line jokes that became known as Cooperisms:
- Two parrots sitting on a perch. One said to the other, "Do you smell fish?"
- The back of his anorak was leaping up and down, and people were throwing money to him. I asked "Do you earn a living doing that?" He replied "Yes, this is my livelihood."
- Two cannibals eating a clown. One says to the other "Does this taste funny to you?"
- It's strange, isn't it. You stand in the middle of a library and scream "Aaaaaaagghhhh!!!" and everyone just stares at you. But you do the same thing on an aeroplane, and everyone joins in".
- I got home, and the phone was ringing. I picked it up, and said "Who's speaking please?" And a voice said "You are."
- What's the greatest worldwide use of snakeskin? To hold snakes together!
- A man walked into the doctor's surgery and said "I've hurt my arm in several places". The doctor said "Well don't go there any more".
- The doctor told me to run 10 kilometres a day to lose some weight.
After one week, I was 70 kilometres from home!
Fire!
One dark night outside a small town, a fire started inside the local chemical plant and in a blink it exploded into flames. The alarm went out to fire departments for miles around.
When the firemen appeared on the scene, the chemical company president rushed to the chief and said, "All of our secret formulas are in the vault in the centre of the plant. They must be saved. I will give $50,000 to the fire crew that brings them out intact!"
But the roaring flames held the fire-fighters back. Soon, more crews had to be called in as the situation became desperate. As the firemen arrived, the president shouted out that the offer was now $100,000 to the fire crew who could bring out the company's secret files.
From the distance, a lone siren was heard as another fire truck came into sight. It was the nearby rural township volunteer fire company, composed entirely of men over the age of 65. To everyone's amazement, the little run-down fire engine passed all the newer sleek engines positioned outside the plant ... and drove straight into the middle of the inferno. Outside the other firemen watched as the old timers jumped off and began to fight the fire with a performance and effort never seen before. Within a short time, the old timers had extinguished the fire and saved the secret formulas.
The grateful chemical company president joyfully announced that for such a superhuman feat he was upping the reward to $200,000, and walked over to personally thank each of the brave, though elderly, fire-fighters.
The local TV news reporters rushed in after capturing the event on film asking, "What are you going to do with all that money?" "Well," said the 75-year-old fire chief, "The first thing we're going to do is fix the brakes on that old truck!"
Enns, where it flows into the river Danube, near Linz, between Salzburg and Vienna
The St. Florian's Cross is conspicuously absent from the badge of firefighters in Austria; the 'home' of St. Florian.