St. Lawrence, though considered a minor saint by many today,
was once one of the most beloved saints both in Rome and throughout Latin
Christendom, and rightly so. A deacon of the Roman Church in the
mid-third century, he found himself faced with the task of administering the
Church after the arrest of Pope Sixtus II and four of his fellow deacons in the
Catacombs of Callixtus on 6 August 258. Meeting the pope while he was
being led away to prison and execution, Lawrence begged to be able to accompany
him. The pope turned this request down, giving the deacon charge of the
temporal goods of the church, while telling him that the deacon would follow
his bishop in four days time. Lawrence then went forth and gave away the
material goods of the church to the poor in the city. Soon he in turn was
arrested and brought before the magistrates, and when the treasures of the
Church were demanded of him he presented to the authorities the poor, saying
that these were the true treasures of the Church.
The Romans, enraged by
this seeming insolence, cast the deacon into a dark prison cell near the site
of today’s church. There, he converted the jailer and his family.
With the authorities only further angered by his success, they condemned him to
be burnt alive over a gridiron set up on the site of today’s station. So
it was that on 10 August 258, that St. Lawrence was burnt alive for his
steadfast faith in Christ. As one final jab at his executioners, he is
said to have remarked to them as his torments neared their end, “Turn me over,
I’m done on this side.” And so he passed from the sufferings of this
world to the glory of the next.
Today, the spot of his martyrdom is marked by this small
church. A record of a church on this site, then called St. Lawrence in
Formonso, exists from the late eighth century, and it seems that this church
was built in the early seventh century. The current church was built to
replace this in the period 1565-1574, being consecrated three years later.
A restoration in 1757 gave the church the appearance it has today. (From Procedamus in Pacem, PNAC)
Collect
Bestow on us, we pray, O Lord,
a spirit
of always pondering on what is right
and of hastening to carry it out,
and
since without you we cannot exist,
may we be enabled to live according to your
will.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in
the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
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| First gate |
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| After the first gate, we find a serene courtyard before getting in the church |
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| Parts of the grill where St Lawarance was roasted. |
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| Romans attending their stational Mass of the day |
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| Faithful venerating relics of the saint |
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