Category Archives: Saints

SS. Florus and Laurus

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16th century Russian icon of SS. Florus and Laurus.

Florus and Laurus, twin brothers who were second century martyrs, are considered the patrons of horses among the Rus because a local horse plague was healed by their relics. Russian peasants would tether their horses around the church on their feast day (August 18) and avoid putting the horses to work in order to avoid a recurrence of the plague. According to The Golden Bough, peasants didn’t plough with horses on the brothers’ feast day for fear of causing a cattle plague but would lead their horses round their village church. The horses were often also driven to a local pond and driven into the water after a priest had blessed it; the horses were washed in the pond and then led in procession around the church.

The twin brothers were stonemasons in the district of Illyricum. According to the story, Likaion, the prefect of Illyricum, employed the brothers in the construction of a pagan temple. The brothers gave their salaries to the poor. When the son of a local pagan priest named Mamertin was injured by a chip of stone from the saints’ temple, Florus and Laurus cured the boy after the boy converted to Christianity. Mamertin also decided to convert to Christianity as a result of his son’s recovery.

After the temple was built, Florus and Laurus brought together many local Christians there. The group smashed all of the statues of the pagan gods, a cross was set up in the temple, and the Christians spent the whole night in prayer in the converted temple. As a result of this action, the local authorities had 300 Christians, including Mamertin and Mamertin’s son, burned to death. However, Florus and Laurus were executed by being thrown down an empty well which was then covered over with earth.

Later tales also say that one day Florus and Laurus lost their horses. The two brothers appealed to the Archangel Michael to help them recover the runaway horses. The archangel helped them recover the horses and the two decided to dedicate their lives to horses. In addition, SS. Elashippus, Speushippus & Melashippus are often depicted with SS. Florus and Laurus. These three other men were Cappadocian brothers, two of them twins, who were grooms and horse doctors, who were said to have been trained as horse doctors by SS. Florus & Laurus and the Archangel Michael himself.

This icon was painted approximately AD 1500 – 1600 in Nizhny Novgorod and depicts the 3 horse doctor brothers below SS. Flarus and Laurus.

St. Lawrence on the Griddle

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Medieval illumination of St. Lawrence being roasted to death.

As archdeacon of Rome, St Lawrence was responsible for the material goods of the Church and the distribution of alms to the poor. During the persecution of Christians in AD 258, he was arrested and told that the financial resources of the Roman Church–which the judge suspected was quite considerable–would be confiscated but he would be spared from execution if he would help gather the Church’s resources for the imperial authorities. Lawrence said that he would need three days to gather all the wealth of the Church and bring it to the court; he was released, with the understanding that he would came back to the court in three days with the wealth of Roman church.

Three days later, Lawrence came back to the court at the head of a large crowd of the old, the ill, the crippled, the orphaned, and the destitute. The judge asked where the Church’s treasure was. Lawrence pointed to the people behind him and answered, “These are the treasures of the Roman Church.” He went on to say, “Behold in these poor persons the treasures which I promised to show you. In addition to these, I will add pearls and precious stones, those widows and consecrated virgins, which are the Church’s crown.” The judge was so angry that he had a great gridiron prepared with hot coals beneath it, and had Lawrence placed on it, hence St Lawrence’s association with the gridiron. After the martyr had suffered pain for a long time, the legend concludes, he cheerfully declared: “I’m well done on this side. Turn me over!”

In many places, the feast of St. Lawrence–August 10–is the end of the summer harvest and the beginning of sowing the winter crops (such as rye). Because of his quip on the gridiron, Lawrence is the patron of cooks, chefs, and comedians. In some parts of eastern Europe, Lawrence the archdeacon was also a patron of horses because he was confused with Laurus the saint associated with horse doctors.

Seven Sleepers

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Illuminated manuscript from the 14th century shows the seven sleepers being walled into the cave.

In Christian and Islamic tradition, the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus is the story of a group of seven youths who hid inside a cave outside the city of Ephesus around 250 AD to escape a religious persecution. The fell asleep and came out of the cave 300 years later.

The story says that during the persecutions by the Roman emperor Decius, around 250 AD, seven young men were accused of following Christianity. They were given some time to recant their faith, but chose instead to give their worldly goods to the poor and retire to a mountain cave to pray, where they fell asleep. The emperor, Decius, ordered the mouth of the cave to be sealed.

Decius died in 251, and many years passed during which Christianity went from being persecuted to being the state religion of the Roman Empire. At some later time – usually given as during the reign of Theodosius II (408–450) – the landowner decided to open up the sealed mouth of the cave, thinking to use it as a cattle pen. He opened it and found the sleepers inside. They awoke, imagining that they had slept but one day, and sent one of their number to Ephesus to buy food, with instructions to be careful lest the pagans recognize and seize him.

Upon arriving in the city, this person was astounded to find buildings with crosses attached; the townspeople for their part were astounded to find a man trying to spend old coins from the reign of Decius. The bishop was summoned to interview the sleepers; they told him their miracle story, and died praising God.

The survival of the Seven Sleepers in the cave was taken as proof of the possibility of the general resurrection of the dead, which some were denying in the fifth century. The Seven Sleepers were invoked by people suffering terrible nightmares. Their aid was also sought by people suffering insomnia or who could not sleep because of great pain or other illness.

The story appears in Christian collections of saints’ lives and in the Qur’an (Surah Al-Kahf, verse 9–26) and is thus important to Islam. The Quranic story does not state the exact number of sleepers, but gives the number of years that they slept as 300 solar years (equivalent to 309 lunar years). The Islamic version includes mention of a dog who accompanied the youths into the cave and appears to keep watch. In Islam, these youths are referred to as “The People of the Cave”.

The flag of Kelantan in the 19th century, located in present-day Malaysia, incorporated elements from the Islamic interpretation of the story. In the surah, the dog is believed to act as a guardian, looking out for the believers until they awake.

See more icons of the Seven Sleepers here.