LAWBEKOE
90
LAWBraOE
the Ust of the seven deacons, also HufFered a martyr'e these narrativee a Dumber of the martyrs of the Via
death. The amiiversary of tbia holy martvr falls on Tiburtina and of the two CatacombB of St. Gyriaca in
that day, accordmg to the Almanac of Philocalua for agra Verann and St. Hippolytus were connected in a
the year 354, the inventory of which contains the prin- romantic and whoUy legendary fashion. The details
cipal feasts of the Roman martyrs of the middle ol the given in these Acts concerning the martvrdom of St.
fourth century; it also mentions the street where his lawrence and hia activity before his death oaoDot
S'ave is to be found, the Via Tiburtina ("IlII id. claim any credibility. However, in spite of this criti- ug. Laurantii in Tiburtina"; Ruicart, "Acta sin- cismof the lal«r accounts of the martyrdom, Uiere can Cera", Ratiabon, 1859, 632). The itineraries of the be no question that St. Lawrence was a real hlatorical graves of the Roman martyrs, as given in the seventh personage, nor any doubt as to the martyrdom of that century, mention the burial-place of this celebrated venerated Roman deacon, the place of its ooourrence, martyr in the Catacomb of C^riaca in agro Verano and the daU of his burial. Pope Damaaus built a (De Rossi, "Roma Sott", I, 178). basilica in Rome which he dedicated to St. lAwmice;
Suice the fourth century St. Lawrence has been one this is the church now known as tbstofSanLorenioin of the most honoured martyrs of the Roman Church- Damaso. The church of San Lorenzo in Lucina, also Constantine the Great was the first to erect a little dedicated ta this saint, still exists. The feast day of oratory over his burial-place, which was enlarged and St. Lawrence is kept on 10 August. He is pictured in beautified by Pope Felagius II (579-90). Pope Six- art with the gridiron on which be is supposed to have tus III (432-10) built a large basilica with three naves, been roasted to death. the apse leaning against the older church, on the summit of the hill where he was buried. In the thirteenth century Hon- orius III made the two build- ings into one, and so the bas- ilica of San LoronBO remains to this day. Pope St. Damssus (386-84) wrote a panegyric in verse, which was engraved in marble and placed over his tomb(lhm, " Damasi epigram- mato", Leipzig, 1895, 37, num. 32). Two contemporaries of the last-named pope, St. Am- brose of Milan and the poet Prudentius, give particular details about St. Lawrence's death. Ambrose relates (De ofHciis min., xxviii) that when St. Lawrence was asked for the treasures of the Church he brought forward the poor, among whom he had divided the treasure, in place of alms; also that when Pope Sixtua II was led away t« his death he comforted Lawrence, who wished to share his martyr- dom, by saying that be would follow h'im in three davs. Tbc saintly Bishop of Milan also Bbites that St. Ijawrence was burned to death on a grid- iron (De ofiic. xli). In like
~ "^^pm
»_
111
1
u
1B95), 3fl9 sqq.: Au-ahd, Hiihirt
dtt ttrrtfrulioru. III (PuH. 1387).
8S nqq,: Fhanchi db Cavaukm. S.
Lorauo e \l jiippKtio della artairola
in R'M. Quarlalxtirifl (1900). ISS
Hqq,: .Mahucchi, BanJiQtietti tatistf
dckomf (Rome, 1002), 4a5Kig.,419
Bqci„ 4rfl sqcj.
J. P. KiRSCH.
Itawranca, Saint, second Archbishop of Canterbury, d. 2 Feb., ei9. For the putic- ulars of his life and pontif- icate we rely exclusively on Venerable Bede's "History" details added by medieval
Lt LuDlwth PbIicc. Engl,
, but with r
T
, Hymnus
they may possibly embody
ancient traditions. According
to Bt. Bede, he was one of
the original missionaries who
leftRomewithSt. Augustine in
595andfinallylandedmThanet
immated in 697. After St. Augustine
^ had been consecrated be sent
St. Lawrence back to Rome,
the pope the news of the c
■■'and his pcop ask for direc
^ rtain questions.
in this' passage of the historian St. Lawrence is re- ferreil to as iireabyler, in ilistinction to Peter who
The meeting between St. Lawrence and Pope Six- ferreil to as iireaL^.-. , ,__ . _ _
tus II, when the latter was being led to execution, called munadtiie. From this it lias been conjectured related by St. Ambrose, is not compatible with tbc that he was a secular priest and not a monk; out this contemporaneous reports about the persecution of conclusion bun been questioned by_Bene<liotine_writers Valerian. The manner of bis execution— burning on such as KIrohara in the Middle A'ges and Mabillon in a red-hot gridiron — also gives rise to grave doubts, kter times. When St. Clregory had decided the ques- Thc narrations of Ambrose and Prudentius are tions asked, St. Lawn'nce returned to Britain bearing " founded rather on oral tradition than on written ac- the replies, and he remained with St. Augustine shar- counts. It is quite possible that between the year ing his work. That saint, shortly before his death 258 and the end of the fourth century popular legends which probably took place in 6(M, consecrated St. may have grown up about this highly venerated Lawrrnce us btsbop, lest the infant Church should l>e Roman deacon, and some of these legends have left for a time without a pastor. Of the new arch- been preserved by these two authors. We have, in any bishop's episcopate Bede writes; "Ijiwrencc, liaving case, no means of verifying from earlier sources the attained the dignity of archbishop, strove most vigor- details derived from St. Ambrose and Prudentius, ously to add to the foundations of the Church which or of ascertaining! to what extent such details arc he tad seen so nobly laid and to forward the work by supported by earlier historical tradition. Fuller ac- frequent wortls of holy exhortation and by the eon- counts of tlic miirtjTilom of SI. I^wrcnce were com- stiiTif fXiimple of bis ilevoted ialvnir." The only ex- posed, probably, curly in the sixth century, and in taut genuine di>cument relating to him is tbc frai^ient
