4 May 2024 (MIA) 

Macedonian Orthodox Church Calendar

Great and Holy Saturday

On Great Saturday the Church contemplates the mystery of the Lord’s descent into Hades, the place of the dead. Great Saturday is the day between Jesus’ death and His resurrection. It is the day of watchful expectation, in which mourning is transformed into joy. The day embodies in the fullest possible sense the meaning of joyful-sadness, which has dominated the celebrations of Great Week.

Catholic Calendar

St. Florian

He was third century officer in Roman army stationed in modern Austria. Military administrator of the town of Noricum, and a closet Christian. Said to have stopped a town from burning by throwing a single bucket of water on the blaze, and thus his association with firefighters and those who protect us from fire, including chimney sweeps. When ordered to execute a group of Christians during the persecutions of Diocletian, he refused, and professed his own faith. Died c. 304; scourged, flayed alive, a stone tied to his neck, and dumped into a river; body later retrieved by Christians and buried at an Augustinian monastery near Lorch; relics translated to Rome in 1138; part of the relics given to King Casimir of Poland and the bishop of Cracow by Pope Lucius III, which led to Florian’s patronage of Poland and Upper Austria.