Lawrence the Corazzato, Blessed

LAWRENCE THE CORAZZATO, Blessed. - Monk and hermit, b. at Fanello near Foggia, d. at Subiaco on 16 Aug. 1243.

For an involuntary homicide, he went on a penitential pilgrimage to St. James of Compostela; having returned in 1209, he became a monk at Subiaco on 6 Dec., and gave himself to the eremitical life in a grotto near the cave of St. Benedict, where he lived for 33 years, feeding on herbs and on some crust of bread supplied to him by shepherds. His mortifications were extraordinary: he wore chains and iron rings around his body and over them a kind of "cuirass"; on his head he had a helmet entirely fitted with iron spikes. He learned to read and write and composed a Liber orationum. At the insistence of Card. Ugolino (later Gregory IX) he mitigated the harshness of his penance. By command of the Blessed Virgin he built a larger church on the ruins of another built by St. Benedict (1226) and a house where he then lived with his disciples. He had the gift of prophecy and of miracles. Already by Martin V he is found called "saint" in a privilege granted to the monks of Subiaco in 1426. Feast on 17 Dec. in the Benedictine Order.