LORENZO il CORAZZATO, blessed. — Monk and hermit, born at Fanello near Foggia, died at Subiaco on 16 August 1243.
For an involuntary homicide, he went on a penitential pilgrimage to S. Giacomo di Compostella; returning in 1209, he became a monk at Subiaco on 6 December and devoted himself to a hermit’s life in a grotto near the cave of s. Benedetto, where he lived for 33 years, subsisting on herbs and on a few pieces of bread supplied to him by shepherds. His mortifications were extraordinary: he wore chains and iron rings around his body and, over them, a sort of “cuirass”; on his head he wore a helmet completely furnished with iron spikes. He learned to read and write and composed a Liber orationum. At the insistence of Cardinal Ugolino (later Gregorio IX), he mitigated the austerities of his penance. At the command of the Blessed Virgin, he built a larger church on the ruins of another one erected by s. Benedetto (1226), as well as a house where he later lived with his disciples. He possessed the gift of prophecy and of miracles. As early as the time of Martino V, he is called “saint” in a privilege granted to the monks of Subiaco in 1426. Feast on 17 December in the Benedictine Order.
(from P. D'Ancona, La miniatura fiorentina, Firenze BII) LORENZO MONACO – Miniature initial from the Laurenziana choir book 3. Florence, Biblioteca Mediceo-Laurenziana.