Lawrence, Deacon, Martyr
Mark 8:34-38
34 He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel will save it. 36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Lawrence, Deacon, Martyr (From Festivals and Commemorations by Philip H. Phatteicher)
Lawrence was born, perhaps of Spanish parents, in the early part of the third century. While still a young man he came to Rome where Bishop Sixtus II ordained him a deacon, and he was made the chief of the seven deacons of Rome, responsible for the distribution of the charities of the church and the care of its properties.
In 257 the Roman emperor Valerian began a vigorous persecution of the church, aimed primarily at the clergy and laity of the upper classes. All of the properties of the church were confiscated and assemblies for worship were forbidden. On August 4, 258 the Bishop of Rome, Sixtus II, who had just become bishop the year before, and his deacons were apprehended at the cemetery of Callistus where they were celebrating the liturgy, and all except Lawrence were summarily executed and buried in the same cemetery. The Roman calendar commemorated them on August 7. Lawrence, who knew of the location of the church’s treasure, was tortured and then executed on August 10.
There are unreliable traditions concerning the martyrdom of Lawrence. One says that the behavior of Lawrence in jail led to the conversion and baptism of his jailer Hippolytus and his family. When the governor demanded the treasures, Lawrence is said to have gathered together a great number of the blind, the lame, the maimed, lepers, orphans, and widows of Rome and brought them to the governor’s palace, saying, “Here is the treasure of the church.” He was, tradition says, condemned to die slowly and painfully by roasting on an iron grill. Even there Lawrence’s courage and humor were apparent, for he is reported to have said at one point to his executioners, “I am done on this side. Turn me over.” (More probably Lawrence was beheaded, as was Sixtus.)
St. Lawrence met death on August 10, 258, and his feast is listed in the lists of martyrs as early as the fourth century. During the reign of the Emperor Constantine a church was built over his tomb in the catacomb on the Via Tiburtina. It was enlarged by Pelagius II (579-590) into the basilica now known as St. Lawrence outside the Walls and became one of the seven principal churches of Rome and a favorite place for Roman pilgrimages. St. Augustine (354-430) wrote of Lawrence in a sermon: “In his life he loved Christ; in his death he followed in his footsteps.”
Let us pray…Gracious Lord, in every age you have sent men and women who have given their lives for the message of your love. Inspire us with the memory of those martyrs for the Gospel, like your servant Lawrence, whose faithfulness led them in the way of the cross, and give us courage to bear full witness with our lives to your Son’s victory over sin and death; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.