St Lawrence
Today we celebrate the feast day of St. Lawrence. St. Lawrence’s martyrdom has left a deep and lasting impression on the early Church that his martyrdom is still remembered today. The celebration of his feast day had also spread rapidly.
For some time of his life St. Lawrence was a Roman deacon under Pope Saint Sixtus II. Four days after this pope had been put to death, St. Lawrence followed by four clerics had suffered martyrdom, probably during the persecution of the Emperor Valerian.
A beautiful church had been built over his tomb and became one of the seven principal churches in Rome and a very popular place for Roman pilgrimages.
While St. Lawrence was serving as a deacon in Rome, St. Lawrence was charged with the responsibility for the many different material goods of the Church, and the distribution of alms to the many poor people in his community. When St. Lawrence had found out that he would be arrested like the pope was, he decided to find the poor, widows, and orphans of Rome and he decided to give them all the money he had on hand. When the prefect of Rome had heard of this event, he imagined that the Christians must have considerable treasure. Therefore he decided to sent for St. Lawrence and said, “You Christians say we are cruel to you, but that is not what I have in mind. I am told that your priests offer in gold, that the sacred blood is received in silver cups, that you have golden candlesticks at your evening services. Now, your doctrine says you must render to Caesar what is his. Bring these treasures—the emperor needs them to maintain his forces. God does not cause money to be counted: He brought none of it into the world with him—only words. Give me the money, therefore, and be rich in words.”
St. Lawrence decided to reply to this by saying that the Church was indeed rich. “I will show you a valuable part. But give me time to set everything in order and make an inventory.” After three days he gathered a great number of blind, poor, sick, orphaned, and widowed people and he lined them up in rows. When the prefect arrived, St. Lawrence simply said, “These are the treasure of the Church.”
The prefect out of anger told St. Lawrence that he would indeed have his wish to die but St. Lawrence’s death would be by inches. He had a great gridiron prepared with burning hot coals beneath it, and he had St. Lawrence’s body placed on it. After the martyr had suffered the pain for a very long time, the legend concludes, he made his famous remark, “It is well done. Turn me over!” St. Lawrence's feast day is celebrated on August 10 and he is the patron saint of cooks, deacons and the poor.
Prayer to St. Lawrence
St. Lawrence help us to guide more people to Christ regardless of all the challenges we may encounter. Help us to serve the poor and vulnerable in our community and help us to serve Christ through our service to them.
Amen
St. Lawrence pray for us
St. Joseph pray for us
May we continue to strengthen our journey to sainthood and keep others in our prayers.
Works cited
Information (read from, not taken):
Franciscan media. “Saint Lawrence. ”Saint Lawrence | Franciscan Media. Accessed August 10, 2021.
Images:
Saint Lawrence. August 10, 2021. Saint Lawrence - Google Search.