St. Lawrence

St. Lawrence of Rome (Laurence in the Anglican Communion) (Latin: Laurentius, lit. “laurelled“; c. 225–258) was one of the seven deacons of Ancient Rome under Pope Sixtus II that were martyred during the persecution by Emperor Valerian in 258.

St. Lawrence is thought to have been born in Huesca, a town in the Aragon region that was once part of the Roman province of Hispania Tarraconensis. Here he encountered the future Pope Sixtus II, who was of Greek origin, one of the most famous and highly esteemed teachers in Caesaraugusta (today Zaragoza), which was one of the empire’s most renowned centres of learning. Eventually, both left Spain for Rome. When Sixtus became the Pope in 257, he ordained St. Lawrence as a deacon, and though still young appointed him first among the seven deacons who served in the patriarchal church. He is therefore called “archdeacon of Rome”, a position of great trust that included the care of the treasury and riches of the church and the distribution of alms among the poor.

St Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, notes that Roman authorities had established a norm according to which all Christians who had been denounced must be executed and their goods confiscated by the Imperial treasury. At the beginning of August 258, the Emperor Valerian issued an edict that all bishops, priests, and deacons should immediately be put to death. Sixtus was captured on 6 August 258, at the cemetery of St Callixtus while celebrating the liturgy and executed forthwith.

After the death of Sixtus, the prefect of Rome demanded that St. Lawrence turn over the riches of the Church. Saint Ambrose is the earliest source for the tale that St. Lawrence asked for three days to gather together the wealth. He worked swiftly to distribute as much Church property to the poor as possible, so as to prevent its being seized by the prefect. On the third day, at the head of a small delegation, he presented himself to the prefect, and when ordered to give up the treasures of the Church he presented the poor, the crippled, the blind and the suffering, and said these were the true treasures of the Church. One account records him declaring to the prefect, “The Church is truly rich, far richer than your emperor.” This act of defiance led directly to his martyrdom and can be compared to the parallel Roman tale of the jewels of Cornelia.

On 10 August, St Lawrence, the last of the seven deacons, suffered a martyr’s death.

Holy Chalice

According to lore, St Lawrence was able to spirit away the chalice used during Christ‘s Last Supper (the “Holy Grail“) to Huesca, in present-day Spain, with a letter and a supposed inventory, where it lay hidden and unregarded for centuries. When St Augustine connects St. Lawrence with a chalice, it is the chalice of the Mass:

For in that Church, you see, as you have regularly been told, he performed the office of deacon; it was there that he administered the sacred chalice of Christ’s blood.

According to Catholic tradition the Holy Grail is a relic sent by St. Lawrence to his parents in northern Aragon. He entrusted this sacred chalice to a friend who he knew would travel back to Huesca, remaining in the monastery of San Juan de la Peña, core of spiritual strength for the emerging Kingdom of Aragon. While the chalice’s exact journey through the centuries is disputed, it is accepted by many Catholics that it was sent by his family to this monastery for preservation and veneration. Historical records indicate the chalice has been venerated and preserved by a number of monks and monasteries through the ages. Today the Holy Grail is venerated in a special chapel in the Catholic Cathedral of Valencia, Spain.

By tradition, St. Lawrence was sentenced at San Lorenzo in Miranda, imprisoned in San Lorenzo in Fonte, and martyred at San Lorenzo in Panisperna. The Almanac of Philocalus for the year 354 mentions that he was buried in the Via Tiburtina in the Catacomb of Cyriaca by Hippolytus and Justin the Confessor, a presbyter. One of the early sources for the martyrdom was the description by Aurelius Prudentius Clemens in his Peristephanon, Hymn II.

A well-known legend has persisted from earliest times. As deacon in Rome, St. Lawrence was charged with the responsibility for the material goods of the Church and the distribution of alms to the poor. St Ambrose of Milan relates that when St. Lawrence was asked for the treasures of the Church he brought forward the poor, among whom he had divided the treasure as alms. “Behold in these poor persons the treasures which I promised to show you; to which I will add pearls and precious stones, those widows and consecrated virgins, which are the church’s crown.”The prefect was so angry that he had a great gridiron prepared, with coals beneath it, and had Lawrence’s body placed on it (hence St Lawrence’s association with the gridiron). After the martyr had suffered the pain for a long time, the legend concludes, he made his famous cheerful remark, “I’m well done. Turn me over!” From this derives his patronage of cooks and chefs, and also of comedians.

Constantine I is said to have built a small oratory in honour of St. Lawrence, which was a station on the itineraries of the graves of the Roman martyrs by the seventh century. Pope Damasus I rebuilt or repaired the church, now San Lorenzo fuori le Mura, while the minor basilica of San Lorenzo in Panisperna was built over the place of his martyrdom. The gridiron of the martyrdom was placed by Pope Paschal II in the church of San Lorenzo in Lucina.

Miracles

The life and miracles of St. Lawrence were collected in The Acts of St Lawrence, but this is now lost. The earliest existing documentation of miracles associated with him is in the writings of St Gregory of Tours (538–594), who mentions the following:

A priest named Fr. Sanctulus was rebuilding a church of St. Lawrence, which had been attacked and burnt, and hired many workmen to accomplish the job. At one point during the construction, he found himself with nothing to feed them. He prayed to St. Lawrence for help, and looking in his basket he found a fresh, white loaf of bread. It seemed to him too small to feed the workmen, but in faith he began to serve it to the men. While he broke the bread, it so multiplied that that his workmen fed from it for ten days.

Veneration

Due to his conspiring to hide and protect the written documents of the Church, St Lawrence is known as the patron saint of archivists and librarians.

Roman Catholic Church

St. Lawrence is one of the most widely venerated saints of the Roman Catholic Church. Legendary details of his death were known to Damasus, Prudentius, Ambrose and Augustine. The church built over his tomb, San Lorenzo fuori le Mura, became one of the seven principal churches in Rome and a favorite place for Roman pilgrimages. Devotion to him was widespread by the fourth century. Since the Perseid Meteor Shower typically occurs every year in mid-August on or near his feast day, some refer to the shower as the “Tears of St Lawrence.”

St. Lawrence is especially honoured in the city of Rome, where he is one of the city’s patrons. There are several churches in Rome dedicated to him, including San Lorenzo in Panisperna, traditionally identified as the place of his execution; the area near the San Lorenzo basilica is called Quartiere San Lorenzo. He is invoked by librarians, archivists, cooks, and tanners as their patron. His celebration on 10 August has the rank of feast throughout the Catholic world. On this day, the reliquary containing his burnt head is displayed in the Vatican for veneration.

The Escorial Palace, at the foot of Mount Abantos in the Sierra de Guadarrama, was built by King Philip II of Spain to commemorate the victory over King Henry II of France at the Battle of St Quentin, which took place on the feast of St Lawrence, 10 August 1557. To honour him, the floor of this imposing edifice was laid out in the form of a gridiron, the means by which St Lawrence was martyred.

St Lawrence is the patron saint of Ampleforth Abbey whose Benedictine monks founded one of the world’s leading public schools for Catholics, located in North Yorkshire (North East England).

Anglican Communion

Within Anglicanism the saint’s name is traditionally spelt Laurence. His feast appears (on 10 August) in the calendar of the Book of Common Prayer, the volume of prayers which, in its 1662 format, was the founding liturgical document of a majority of Anglican Provinces. In the Book of Common Prayer the feast is entitled “S Laurence, Archdeacon of Rome and Martyr”. The celebration of his feast, on 10 August, has carried into the contemporary calendars of most Anglican Provinces,^[11] including the Church of England,^[12] which designates it a lesser festival, under the title “Laurence, deacon, martyr, 258”.

Laurence is venerated by Anglo-Catholics, and is the patron of many Anglican parish churches, including more than 200 in England. A major church in Sydney, Australia, in the former civil (land division) parish of St Laurence, known as “Christ Church St Laurence“. The Brotherhood of St Laurence, an Anglican-foundation charitable society, also bears his name.

Secular memorials

French explorer Jacques Cartier gave the name of St Lawrence to the widest river estuary in the world. At the mouth of this river is the large Gulf of Saint Lawrence, surrounded by Quebec and the Canadian Maritime provinces. Closer to the source are the Laurentian mountains (north of the city of Montreal), Saint-Laurent (borough), and the famed Saint Lawrence Boulevard, which spans the full 11.25 km width of the island of Montreal. Further upstream, on the south side of the river near its source at Lake Ontario, is St Lawrence County, New York.

Legacy

According to Fr Francesco Moraglia, Professor of Dogmatic Theology, the role of deacon is distinguished by service of the poor. He is destined both to the service of the table (corporal works of mercy) and to the service of the word (spiritual works of mercy). “The beauty, power and the heroism of Deacons such as Lawrence help to discover and come to a deeper meaning of the special nature of the diaconal ministry.”

The Basilica of St Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr is in Asheville, North Carolina.

Rescue operation for the miners trapped in the 2010 Copiapó mining accident in Chile was termed Operación San Lorenzo after the saint.

Holy Cross Church in Lehre, Germany has St Lawrence as its patron saint.