FLORIAN, SAINT: The patron saint of Upper Austria, said to have suffered martyrdom by drowning in the Enns at Laureacum (Lorch or St. Lorenz, near Enns, 10 m. s. e. of Linz) during the Diocletian persecution. His Passio, however (ed. B. Krusch, MGH, Script. rer. . Merov., iii., 1896, 65-71), is a recast of the Passio Irenœi Sirmii and of no value. The saint is first mentioned in the eighth century, when his relics are said to have been worshiped ad puoche (= Buche, "the beech-tree," the site of the present abbey of St. Florian, 5 m. w. s. w. of Enns). There was probably a monastic settlement there as early as the eighth century under Otkar, an itinerant bishop. Charlemagne gave the cloister to Passau. In the beginning of the tenth century it is mentioned as a congregatio clericorum. Then it was destroyed by the Hungarians, but in the last quarter of the tenth century it was rebuilt, without, however, regaining its former flourishing condition until Bishop Altmann of Passau made it a foundation of regular canons in 1071, under an able leader, Hartmann. Since then its existence has never been shaken, but the relics of Florian are lost.

(A. HAUCK.)