Holy Martyrs Florus and Laurus (II)

The holy Martyrs Florus and Laurus were blood brothers. They lived in the second century, first in Byzantium and then in Illyria (present-day Yugoslavia). The brothers were stonemasons. They learned this craft from the Christians Proclus and Maximus, and from them they also learned a God-pleasing life. Licaon, the governor of Illyria, sent Florus and Laurus to a neighbouring region to work on the building of a pagan temple. The saints gave most of the wages they earned to the poor, and themselves were content with only what was necessary, fasting and praying strictly. Once the son of the local priest, Mamertinus, came to the building site. Through carelessness a chip of stone struck him in the eye and badly injured it. Florus and Laurus calmed the enraged father and gave him hope, while they took the young man to themselves and instructed him in the truths of the Christian teaching. When the sick youth believed in Christ, the holy brothers prayed, and the youth’s injured eye was healed. Seeing this miracle, the priest too, with his whole household, believed in the true God, and others followed their example… The number of believers grew every day, and when the building of the temple was completed, about three hundred Christians were already gathered in it. Those who hoped in the Saviour smashed the idols and set up the holy Cross in the eastern part of the church. Then, shining with heavenly light, they prayed all night. When the governor of the region learned what had happened, he sentenced the former priest Mamertinus with his son and three hundred other Christians to death. Florus and Laurus were sent to Licaon himself, and he threw the martyrs into a dried-up well and buried them in it alive. Many years later the martyrs’ bodies were uncovered incorrupt. They were translated with honour to Constantinople.