Saint Lawrence

First Point

It is impossible to understand how much Saint Lawrence loved and esteemed the poor. His love for them was such that when Saint Sixtus, whose deacon he was, was being led to martyrdom and told him to give to the poor all the wealth he had placed in his hands, he executed the assignment and completely emptied the treasury of the Church.  Again he showed his extraordinary regard for the poor when the emperor, having learned that he had been given charge of all that belonged to the Church, demanded that he hand over the treasure entrusted to him. The saint gathered all the poor and presented them to the emperor, telling him, Here are the treasures of the Church.  Let us admire how great the faith of this saint was, for it led him to look upon the poor as the treasure of the Church, that is, as being the most precious and most valuable part in the Church, having the closest relationship with Jesus Christ. Let us share this saint’s attitude, we to whom God has entrusted the most valuable portion of his treasure.

Second Point

We cannot praise too highly the desire this saint had for martyrdom.  As Saint Ambrose relates it and as it is expressed in the Church’s Office, Saint Lawrence said to him: Where are you going, holy Father, without your son? Are you going to offer yourself in sacrifice unaccompanied by your deacon, without whom you have never been willing, up to now, to offer the sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ on the holy altar? Is there something in me that has displeased you? Have you found me unworthy of my ministry?  What! You trusted me to distribute the Blood of Jesus Christ, yet you will not allow me to accompany you when you are about to shed your own. This saint had an even greater ardor in his heart than in his words. Nothing could stop him except the response addressed to him by Saint Sixtus, who assured him that in three days he too would suffer very cruel torments.  When will we have as great a desire for suffering as this saint had for martyrdom? Ask this of God through the intercession of Saint Lawrence.

Third Point

This saint clearly gave witness that his desire to suffer was genuine by the joy he showed when he was made to suffer in his martyrdom. The emperor considered that Saint Lawrence’s action when he presented the poor as the treasure of the Church was an insult of the grossest kind. He had him tortured with pincers and iron claws, and red-hot iron plates were applied to his sides. Seeing that he remained unmoved and ever joyful in the midst of his sufferings, the emperor had him stretched out on a gridiron to roast his body by a slow fire to see whether by such means he could shake his constancy. But this fire, on the contrary, made him rejoice all the more and increased the interior flame that consumed him so strongly that when half of his body was roasted, he told the tyrant to have him turned over on his other side, so that being roasted completely, he could make a good side, so that being roasted completely, he could make a good meal.  What can we say of such constancy? Will it provide us with an incentive to encourage us to love suffering? We are born to suffer; we must live in suffering and die suffering. Let us beg this saint to obtain these holy dispositions for us from God.

Historical Context

Lawrence was a martyr during the persecution of the Emperor Valerian, probably in the year 258, and became one of the most famous of all martyrs. His popularity may be credited to the fourth-century story of his being roasted to death on a gridiron by the emperor. There are inconsistencies in this story that raise questions about its historical accuracy. It is probable that Lawrence was one of the seven deacons of Pope Sixtus II, who were all martyred in 258 by decapitation, which raises the question of why Lawrence was singled out to be ranked with the Apostles Peter and Paul among the early Christian martyrs.