Martyrs Florus and Laurus of Illyria

Florus and Laurus were brothers and stonemasons in Illyricum, in the 2nd century. They learned their craft and their faith from the masters Proculus and Maximus, who were martyred first. According to their Life, they were sent to a neighbouring land to build a pagan temple, gave their wages to the poor, and brought the son of a pagan priest, injured by a chip of stone, and his father to Christ. When the temple was finished they set up a cross in it and gathered some three hundred Christians there for a night of prayer, and the governor Licion had them thrown into a deep well, which was filled with earth. In Russia they were popularly regarded as protectors of horses.