Saint Lawrence

Saint Lawrence was a deacon of the Church of Rome in the time of Pope Sixtus II. He suffered martyrdom in 258, during the persecution of Christians under the Emperor Valerian. His name is mentioned in the Roman Canon, the First Eucharistic Prayer. The Church celebrates his feast on August 10, the anniversary of his death.

Nothing certain is known about his origins. According to tradition he was born in Spain in the first half of the third century, in or near Huesca in Aragon. He was one of the deacons of Rome. Pope Sixtus II entrusted him with the administration of the community’s goods and the care of those in need: the poor, widows, and orphans. Benedict XVI called him an archdeacon and a reliable steward of the Church’s goods.

In 258 the Emperor Valerian ordered that bishops, priests, and deacons be put to death. Pope Sixtus II was killed on August 6. Saint Ambrose relates that Lawrence followed him, asking where the father was going without his son, and the pope answered that he should stop weeping, for after three days he would follow him. Lawrence died on August 10, four days after his bishop.

According to the tradition handed down by the Fathers of the Church, when the persecutor demanded the treasures of the Church from him, Lawrence pointed to the crowds of poor people he supported as those very treasures. The same tradition says that he died on a red-hot iron gridiron. These accounts were written down by Saint Ambrose, the poet Prudentius, and Saint Leo the Great a century and more after the events, so their details are not historically certain. Leo wrote that Rome became as famous through Lawrence as Jerusalem was through Stephen.

The martyr’s body was laid to rest in Rome by the Via Tiburtina, in the field called Verano. A Roman list of martyrs’ anniversaries from the mid-fourth century, known as the Depositio martyrum, records his commemoration on August 10 on that road. The Emperor Constantine built the first church over the tomb. The present Basilica of Saint Lawrence Outside the Walls, which stands beside the Verano cemetery, was badly damaged in the bombing of July 19, 1943, and later rebuilt.

Lawrence is one of the patrons of Rome, and also the patron of deacons, cooks, and firefighters. Popular tradition calls the shooting stars seen on August nights his tears. In 2008, the jubilee year of the 1,750th anniversary of his martyrdom, Benedict XVI visited his basilica and recalled the words of Leo the Great that the fire burning outside was weaker than the love of Christ that burned within him. The Church has venerated Saint Lawrence since antiquity.