St. Lawrence of Rome

Month of Saints - Day 18

Today's Saint come at a very special request and in loving memory of my Uncle Lawrence.  When I first received the request, I thought that I must have already done a post on St. Lawrence, as he is one of my favorite Saints -- but it turns out that I had not.  So this is for all my cousins who are missing their Dad today.

St. Lawrence is believed to have been born in what is now Spain, then the Roman province of Hispania Tarraconensis, around the year 225.  He encountered the future Pope Sixtus II, a famous and highly esteemed teacher, and the two left Spain for Rome.  When Sixtus became the Pope in 257, he ordained St Lawrence as a deacon, and though Lawrence was 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.

At the beginning of August 258, Emperor Valerian ordered that all bishops, priests, and deacons should immediately be put to death. Sixtus was captured on August 6, 258, at the cemetery of St Callixtus while celebrating the liturgy and was summarily executed. As he was led to execution, Lawrence followed him weeping, "Father, where are you going without your deacon?" he said. "I am not leaving you, my son," answered the Pope. "in three days you will follow me." After the Pope's death, the prefect of Rome demanded that the Deacon, Lawrence, turn over the riches of the Church as it was the norm that Christians who had been denounced and executed had their goods confiscated by the Imperial treasury. 

A well-known legend has persisted from early on: Lawrence asked for three days to gather together the wealth of the Church.  He then worked swiftly to distribute as much of the Church property to the poor as possible.  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. This defiance led directly to Lawrence's martyrdom. 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, "Turn me over, I'm done on this side!" From this derives his patronage of cooks, chefs, and comedians. His feast day is August 10.