Discover Romanesque: Peoples and Legends

Saint Flor

In the Almanach de la mémoire et des coutumes de la Corse, the ethnologist Lucie Desideri suggested an explication of the oral tradition regarding the presence of the reliquary of Saint Flor within Nebbio cathedral. The legend holds that Florent probably made part of the 646 African bishops exiled by Huneric, king of Vandals, in the year 484. Once arrived in Corsica, Saint Florent and his companions would die for fatigue, after cutting huge amounts of wood meant for the construction of the nave and the aisles. The Corsicans decided to pay a tribute to Saint Florent’s courage by giving his name to the palaeo-Christian basilica whose ruins were found on the site of Nebbio cathedral. The Saint’s body left Corsica in the 8th century to be taken to Treviso, his relics being replaced by the reliquary of Saint Flor.