Farewell to an FDNY Legend Full Coverage: The 9-11 Tragedy BRIDGET HARRISON and JESSIE GRAHAM Courtesy New York Post

Thousands gathered for a High Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral honoring Capt. Patrick Brown, eulogized by Mayor Giuliani as a "fallen warrior and a great patriot," on what would have been the firefighter's 49th birthday. "Captain Patrick Brown was a legend in the life of the Fire Department," a tearful Giuliani said. Brown spent his 23 years as a firefighter performing rescues of near-superhero proportions. He didn't mind risking his life for his job, in part because the Fire Department helped save him from slipping into despair and hopelessness when he returned from two tours in Vietnam as a decorated Marine sergeant. Brown and 11 of his firefighters from Ladder Co. 3 rushed into the north tower at the trade center and were attempting a rescue on the 40th floor when the building fell. On the back of Brown's Mass card there was a photo of him stretched across the ledge of a 12-story Manhattan building, lowering a firefighter from the roof to a floor where a man was trapped below. His death-defying acts and movie-star good looks made him a media darling, and his face, covered in sweat and ash, always seemed to make the papers. In his spare time, he ran six marathons, became a second-degree black belt, taught karate to the blind and, recently, took up yoga with a vengeance. Despite all this, friends said Brown was the most humble of souls, quick to blush and never one to brag. "Men wanted to work for him because he lived his life so well," said firefighter Michael Moran, one of the surviving members of Ladder 3. In Rockaway Park, Queens, friends and relatives honored Richard Allen, 31, of Ladder Co. 15. He had been a firefighter for only 18 months, and the World Trade Center disaster was his first major fire. "Helping people is what gave Richie life," his eldest sister, Judy, told the congregation at St. Frances de Sales Church. "He didn't do these things because they were macho or cool. He was destined to be a hero."

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