2nd century
Saints Florus and Laurus
Twin brothers and stonemasons from Byzantium who were martyred at Ulpiana in Illyricum in the 2nd century.
Biography
Florus and Laurus were twin brothers from Byzantium, trained as stonemasons, who were taught Christianity by Saints Proclus and Maximus. After their teachers' death they settled at Ulpiana in Illyricum.
There, invoking the name of Christ, they healed the blind son of a pagan priest, so that both father and son came to believe in Christ. When the prefect Lycaon learned of this, he arrested the two brothers, tortured them and threw them into a well, where they died.
Their relics were later brought to Constantinople; in Russian tradition they are venerated as patrons of horses.