Saint Lawrence of Rome
Deacon and Martyr
- Feast Day
- August 10
- Life
- 225–258
- Born
- Huesca, Roman Hispania (traditional)
Saint Lawrence was one of the seven deacons of the Roman Church under Pope Saint Sixtus II and was martyred at Rome on August 10, 258, four days after his bishop. He is traditionally said to have come from the Roman province of Hispania Citerior, from a family of the modern Huesca in Aragon, but the earliest evidence (Saint Ambrose, Saint Augustine, the Roman Calendar) attests only his deaconate at Rome and his martyrdom there.
Saint Ambrose of Milan, in his De officiis ministrorum (1.41) written about 391, gives the earliest extended narrative. When Pope Sixtus II was being led away to martyrdom on August 6, 258, Lawrence followed him weeping, asking why his bishop went to sacrifice without his deacon. Sixtus consoled him: After three days you will follow me. Charged by the Roman prefect with the surrender of the treasures of the Church, Lawrence requested three days to gather them; when he returned, he presented to the prefect the poor, the lame, the blind, and the widows of the Roman Church, declaring, These are the treasures of the Church.
For this defiance, according to Ambrose and the fourth-century hymns of Prudentius (Peristephanon 2), Lawrence was condemned to be roasted alive on a gridiron over a slow fire on August 10, 258. Tradition assigns him the celebrated dying words to his executioners: Turn me over; I am done on this side, an utterance Saint Augustine took as a sign of the supernatural fortitude that proved his confession of Christ. He is buried beneath the high altar of the Basilica of San Lorenzo fuori le Mura on the Via Tiburtina, one of the seven pilgrim churches of Rome.
Lawrence is named in the First Eucharistic Prayer (the Roman Canon), in the second list of saints (Stephen, Matthias, Barnabas, Ignatius, Alexander, Marcellinus, Peter, Felicity, Perpetua, Agatha, Lucy, Agnes, Cecilia, Anastasia). The post-Vatican II General Roman Calendar elevates his celebration to the rank of Feast, the only deacon-martyr (other than the protomartyr Saint Stephen) to enjoy that liturgical rank.
Lawrence's identification of the poor as the treasures of the Church is one of the most famous and frequently cited acts of Catholic social teaching from the early Church, recalled by Pope Saint Leo the Great (Sermon 85), Pope Saint Gregory the Great, and the Catechism. His Feast on August 10, observed in red, ranks among the highest in the late summer and is a major patronal feast at Rome, in Spain (with the Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial built in his honor), and throughout the Roman Catholic diaspora.
Patronages
the city of Rome (co-patron) · deacons · the poor · cooks · comedians · archivists · students · miners · tanners
Catholic Churches Named After Saint Lawrence of Rome
20 parishes on Catholic Church Times share Saint Lawrence of Rome's name. Find their Mass times, confession schedules, and adoration hours:
- St. Lawrence O'Toole — IRISHTOWN, NB
- St. Lawrence the Martyr Quasi-Parish — Cotmon, Camalig, ALBAY
- St. Lawrence the Deacon Parish — Prieto-Diaz, SORSOGON
- St. Lawrence the Deacon Parish — Buenavista, QUEZON
- St. Lawrence of Rome Parish — Villaviciosa, CAR
- St. Lawrence the Deacon Parish — Bangui, ILOCOS NORTE
- Saint Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr Parish — Dapitan City, IX
- St. Lawrence the Deacon Parish — CAPIZ
- St. Lawrence O’Toole Parish — Barry's Bay, ON
- St. Lawrence Parish — Mulgrave, NS
- St. Lawrence O'Toole Catholic Church — Green Meadows, PE
- St. Lawrence — Maple Creek, SK
- St. Lawrence of Rome — Harrisburg, PA
- St Lawrence's Church — Stanhope, VIC
- St. Lawrence Martyr — New Bedford, MA
- St. Lawrence Catholic Church — Hartford, WI
- St. Lawrence the Martyr — Webbwood, ON
- St. Lawrence of Ahousaht — BC
- St Lawrence — Chipping Sodbury, ENG
- St. Lawrence Parish — Thompson, MB
Sources