E01659: The Greek Martyrdom of *Floros and Lauros (martyrs of Ulpiana, S00871) recounts the martyrdom of two stonecutters and their companions in Ulpiana of Dardania (central Balkans). It also mentions the composition of their martyrdom account by a certain Alexios, and recounts the miraculous invention of their relics. Probably written in Constantinople, probably in the 5th - 7th c.

Martyrdom of *Floros and *Lauros (BHG 660-664)

The hagiographic dossier of Floros and Lauros includes five recensions of their passio (BHG 660-664), recounting the following story, here given in summary:

(1) Floros and Lauros are twin brothers from Byzantium, stonemasons by profession, and pupils of the martyrs *Proklos and *Maximos [who are otherwise unattested]. They move from Byzantium to Ulpiana in Dardania where they work at the local quarries, under the governor Lykon/Lykion. Likinnios, son of queen Elpidia, writes to Lykon asking for two good craftsmen to help him build a large temple at a place called Gracious Valley (εὔχαρις/ χαρίεις κοιλάς, Eucharis/Charieis Koilas), and Lykon sends Floros and Lauros. Likinnios receives them with joy, and grants them money and workers. (2) The saints distribute their wages to the poor, and spend their nights in prayer. Their work progresses in an amazingly faster and more accurate way than that of all the others, since they bless the stone with the sign of the cross before cutting it. While they work at the quarry, a chip of stone hits Anastasios/Athanasios, son of the pagan priest Merentinos, and removes his eye. Enraged, the priest reports to Likinnios. (3) The latter does not believe him, and refuses to condemn the saints. He intends to punish Merentinos, but the saints request his pardon. They miraculously heal Anastasios/Athanasios, (4) and finish the temple within two days, although it was due to be delivered in six years. Followed by the poor, they enter the building at night and consecrate it as a church, destroying all the idols. Encouraged by his son and by a menacing dream vision, Merentinos becomes a Christian. (5) Likinnios hears about the events, and orders that the poor be burned alive, and Floros and Lauros to be arrested. A great storm extinguishes the furnace of the martyrs and drowns many pagans. Likinnios flies to the mountain, and orders Merentinos and Anastasios/Athanasios to be fettered and dragged to the forest where they are buried under a mound of lumps of earth and thorns. Their tomb still exists in the form of a large mound of earth. (6) The palace collapses and kills the wife and children of Likinnios. He sends Floros and Lauros back to Lykon, in Ulpiana. On the way, they convert their guards, and, at Ulpiana, they report having accomplished the work they have been sent for, namely to build and consecrate the temple. Lykon puts them in gaol, and, instigated by the evil man Gerontios, he decides to have them thrown and buried in a deep well.

The final prayer of the saints in BHG 662z reads as follows:

6. (......) Ὡς δὲ τὸ ὄρυγμα γέγονεν καὶ ἀπήγοντο οἱ ἅγιοι μάρτυρες Φλῶρος καὶ Λαῦρος τοῦ βληθῆναι ἐν αὐτῷ, προσηύξαντο πρὸς κύριον λέγοντες οὕτως·
7. «Σῶτερ καὶ δημιουργὲ τῶν ἁπάντων, ὁ ὲξουσιαστὴς ζωῆς καὶ θανάτου, ἐπάκουσον ἡμῶν ἐν τῇ ὥρᾳ ταύτῃ· καὶ ὡς ἑπήκουσας τοῦ ἐκλεκτοῦ σου Ἰωάννου τοῦ εὐαγγελιστοῦ καὶ θεολόγου εὐξαμένου, δείξας αὐτῷ καὶ τὴν ἔξοδον ἵνα αὐτὸς ἑαυτῷ τὸν οἰκεῖον τάφον διατυπώσῃ, οὕτως καὶ τοῦτο τὸ φρέαρ ἡμῖν διαμένῃ κατὰ μίμησιν τοῦ τάφου ἐκείνου· καὶ τὸ ὕδωρ τὸ ἐν αὐτῷ γενηθήτω ἡμῖν εἰς λουτρὸν ἀναγεννήσεως παρέχον ἡμῖν καὶ τὴν χάριν τοῦ ἁγίου πνεύματος. Πρόσδεξαι δέ, κύριε Ἰησοῦ Χριστὲ καὶ τὰ πνεύματα ἡμῶν καὶ ἀπάγαγε εἰς τὴν ἀνάπαυσιν ἐκείνην τὴν τρισμακάριστον καὶ αἰωνίαν, ἐν ᾗ ἀναπαύονται οἱ ἄγιοί σου Πρόκλος καὶ Μάξιμος οἱ διδάσκαλοι ἡμῶν, ἵνα δοξασθῇς ὲν τοῖς ἔργοις τῶν χειρῶν σου. Φύλαξον δὲ καὶ τὰ σώματα ἡμῶν, κύριε, ἐν καιρῷ χριστιανισμοῦ · καὶ εἴ τις ἐὰν μνημονεύσῃ ἡμῶν ἐν τῇ προσευχῇ αὐτοῦ διὰ τὸ ὄνομά σου τὸ ἅγιον, τάχιον ἐπάκουσον αὐτοῦ. Πάντες δὲ οἱ ὑποκείμενοι ἐγκλήμασι καὶ φοβούμενοι ἀνθρώπους μᾶλλον ἢ σὲ τὸν ἁπάντων θεὸν καὶ ποιητήν, οὗτοι ἐὰν εἰσέλθωσιν ὀμόσαι ὅπου ἐὰν εὐδοκῇ τὸ θέλημά σου εἶναι τὰ σώματα ἡμῶν καὶ καταφρονοῦντες ἑπιορκὴσωσιν, ἐν μὲν τῷ νῦν αἰῶνι μὴ συγχωρήσῃς αὐτοῖς, ἀλλὰ παίδευσον ἐν κρίσει καὶ μὴ ἐν θυμῷ· ἐν δὲ τῷ μέλλοντι ὡς ἀγαθὸς καὶ φιλάνθρωπος, φεῖσαι αὐτῶν. Καὶ εἴ τις προσενέγκῃ τὰ πρωτότοκα αὐτοῦ καὶ τὰς ἀπαρχὰς ἐν τῷ ναῷ ἡμῶν, πολυπλασίασον αὐτά· καὶ πάντα ὅσα ὑπάρχει τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ ἐκείνῳ πλεονάσας φύλαξον, ὅτι ἐξ ἐπιθυμίας καὶ πίστεως ἦλθεν προσεύξασθαι, ἵνα δι’ ἡμῶν εἰσακούσῃς αὐτῷ, Ἔτι αἰτούμεθά σε, βασιλεῦ ἀθάνατε, ἵνα μετὰ τὸ προσδέξασθαι τὰ πνεύματα ἡμῶν ἐν εἰρήνῃ, ἐπιστρὲψῃς τὸν λαὸν τοῦτον καὶ τὴν πόλιν ταύτην εἰς τὴν ἐπίγνωσιν καὶ προσκύνησίν σου τοῦ μόνου ἀληθινοῦ καὶ αἰωνίου θεοῦ ἡμῶν, ὅπως σὲ μόνον προσκυνήσωσι ἐν ἀληθινῇ καρδίᾳ τὸν ζῶντα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας, ἀμήν.» Καὶ εὐθέως ἦλθεν φωνὴ ἐκ τῶν οὐρανῶν πρὸς τοὺς ἁγίους ἐνισχύοντα αὐτοὺς καὶ ὑπισχνουμένη πληροῖν πάντα τὰ αἰτήματα αὐτῶν. Καὶ εὐξαμένων αὐτῶν, ἀπέδωκαν ἐν εἰρήνῃ τὰς μακαρίας αὐτῶν καὶ θεολόγους ψυχὰς τῷ Χριστῷ μηνὶ αὐγούστῳ ιη’. Καὶ οὕτως ἐρρίφησαν ἐν τῷ φρέατι. Παραχρῆμα δὲ ἄγγελος κυρίου κατελθὼν ἐν τῷ φρέατι ἐδέξατο τὰ σώματα τῶν ἁγίων καὶ κατῆλθον ὥσπερ ἄχυρον ἐλαφρόν. Τότε ἐπέρριψαν ἐπάνω αὐτῶν οἱ ἕλληνες ψάμμον πολλὴν καὶ κατέχωσαν αὐτά.

‘6. (……) And when the pit was made, and the holy martyrs Floros and Lauros were taken to be thrown into it, they prayed to the Lord, saying the following:

7. “Saviour and creator of all, the Lord of life and death, hear us at this time, as you heard your elect, John the Evangelist, when he prayed, showing him the way of his exit, in order that he might dig his own tomb: may this well remain for us an imitation of that tomb; and may the water in it be for us a bath of rebirth, granting us the grace of the Holy Spirit. And accept, oh Lord Jesu Christ our spirits and lead them to that blessed and eternal repose where your saints Maximos and Proklos, our masters, rest, that you may be glorified through the works of your hands. And keep our bodies, Lord, into the Christian era. And if someone commemorates us in his prayer for our holy name, hear him more speedily. Now regarding all those subject to crimes and fearing men more than you, the God and Creator of all: if such men come to take an oath wherever your will pleases our bodies to be, and they disdain and break their oath, do not forgive them in this present world, but chastise them in judgement and not in wrath; but do spare them in the world which is to come, for you are good and love mankind. And if one offers his first-born and first fruit of harvest at our temple, multiply them, and increase and keep all the possessions of that man; for he has come to pray with fervour and faith that you may hear him through us. And we also ask of you, immortal king, that, after you receive our spirits in peace, you return this people and this city to the knowledge and worship of you, our only true and eternal God, that they may worship, in true heart, you alone who live forever. Amen.” And immediately a voice came down from heaven to the saints, strengthening them and promising to fulfil their requests. And, after they prayed, they gave up their blessed and godly souls to Christ, on 18 of the month of August. And thus they were thrown into the well. And immediately, an angel of the Lord came down and received the bodies of the saints, which fell down like light hay. Then the Hellenes [pagans] threw lots of sand onto them and buried them.’

(8) The author of this martyrdom account is a companion and friend of the saints called Alexios. He writes the text after a vision of the saints, who promise that he will receive promotion from the Prefect of Thessalonike, and prophecy the triumph of Christianity and the opening of the orthodox churches under the emperor Theodosius I (379-395). Alexios entrusts his text to the home of a pious woman called Sophronia, living by one of the gates of Ulpiana. Many years later, while at Dassaretia (or in Amphipolis), he receives the news of the liberation of Christianity by Constantine. He goes to Ulpiana, where he meets Phocas, a Christian missionary who had been miraculously brought from Africa in order to Christianise the city. They find Zosimos, the man who had thrown the martyrs into the well, and who from that moment had been blind. With his help, they find the well and recover the fragrant relics of the saints. Zosimos is miraculously healed and becomes a Christian. The relics are brought to Constantinople under Constantine the Great [in BHG 661 only].

Quoted text: Halkin 1983. Translation and summary: E. Rizos