Lawrence of Rome

Lawrence was one of the seven deacons of Rome under Pope Sixtus II and one of the most celebrated martyrs of the early Church. He is believed to have been born around 225 AD in Huesca, in the Roman province of Hispania Tarraconensis — modern Aragon, Spain. As a young man he studied in Zaragoza, where he encountered the future Pope Sixtus II. The two traveled to Rome together, and Sixtus II later appointed Lawrence as Archdeacon, the senior deacon responsible for administering the Church's material goods and distributing alms to the poor, widows, and orphans of the city. In August 258, Emperor Valerian issued an edict ordering the immediate execution of all Christian clergy. Pope Sixtus II was arrested and executed on 6 August at the cemetery of San Callisto. According to Saint Ambrose of Milan, Lawrence approached Sixtus on the way to his death and begged not to be abandoned: 'Father, where are you going without your son?' Sixtus replied that Lawrence would follow him in three days. In the short interval before his own arrest, Lawrence swiftly distributed the remaining Church treasury to the poor to prevent its confiscation by Roman authorities. When the Roman prefect demanded Lawrence produce the Church's wealth, Lawrence assembled before him the sick, the lame, the blind, and the destitute of Rome. 'These are the treasures of the Church,' he declared. The prefect, outraged, condemned him to die slowly on a large iron gridiron over hot coals. Ambrose and the poet Prudentius both record that Lawrence endured this torment with extraordinary fortitude — and, according to tradition, with dark humor, telling his executioners at one point to turn him over, as he was done on one side. Lawrence died on 10 August 258. Prudentius writes that his courage and composure in death made a deep impression on pagan witnesses present at his execution and contributed to conversions in Rome. He was buried in the Catacombs of Saint Cyriaca on the Via Tiburtina. Emperor Constantine later built a basilica over his tomb, which Pope Pelagius II rebuilt as San Lorenzo fuori le Mura — one of the seven great pilgrimage churches of Rome. Lawrence's name is included in the Roman Canon (Eucharistic Prayer I), and his feast on 10 August is observed as a feast in the General Roman Calendar. He is venerated as the third patron of Rome after Saints Peter and Paul. The Perseid meteor shower, which peaks around his feast day each August, is traditionally known as the 'Tears of Saint Lawrence.'