Florentius of Peterborough was a seventh-century saint and

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

. Florentius was a Roman, and is known to history mainly through the hagiography of the

Secgan ''On the Resting-Places of the Saints'' is a heading given to two early medieval pieces of writing, also known as ''Þá hálgan'' and the ''Secgan'', which exist in various manuscript forms in both Old English and Latin, the earliest surviving m ...

Manuscript. According to the '' Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' manuscript E, Florentius'

relics In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains of a saint or the personal effects of the saint or venerated person preserved for purposes of veneration as a tang ...

were purchased from Bonneval Abbey and moved to

Peterborough Cathedral Peterborough Cathedral, properly the Cathedral Church of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew – also known as Saint Peter's Cathedral in the United Kingdom – is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Peterborough, dedicated to Saint Peter, Saint Pau ...

in 1013 or 1016 by

Abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The ...

Ælfsi of Peterborough. Florentius' was

venerated Veneration ( la, veneratio; el, τιμάω ), or veneration of saints, is the act of honoring a saint, a person who has been identified as having a high degree of sanctity or holiness. Angels are shown similar veneration in many religions. Etym ...

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

along with Cyneswith and Cyniburg. However, his feast day on 27 September might suggest that he was in reality Florentinus of Sedun, who was

ed by the

Vandal The Vandals were a Germanic people who first inhabited what is now southern Poland. They established Vandal kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula, Mediterranean islands, and North Africa in the fifth century. The Vandals migrated to the area betw ...

persecution.Swanton, ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', p. 144, n. 8.

References

{{Authority control Medieval English saints 7th-century Christian martyrs Year of birth unknown