Lawrence, Saint, Martyr

LAWRENCE, Saint, Martyr. - Archdeacon of the Church of Rome, put to death on 10 Aug. 258, together with the subdeacon Claudius, the priest Severus, the lector Crescention and the ostiary Romanus, and buried on the Via Tiburtina in a crypt of the cemetery of the Agro Verano, which would soon take the name of L. and only later that of Cyriaca (v.; cf. Lib. Pont., I, p. 155). The events of his martyrdom stand in close connection with the lightning-fast execution that had taken place, 4 days earlier, in the cemetery of Callistus, of Pope Sixtus II and of the deacons Januarius, Magnus, Vincent, Stephen, Felicissimus and Agapitus, all victims of the second persecution edict of Valerian (cf. St. Cyprian, Epist., 80 to Successus: CSEL, III, II, pp. 839-40, and Lib. Pont., loc. cit.). Feast on 10 Aug. in the Western liturgies (of obligation until the reductions at the beginning of the 19th century) and in the Eastern ones.

I. LIFE

The best-known events of L.'s martyrdom are: the pathetic conversation with Pope Sixtus conducted in prison; the clandestine distribution of the Church's goods to the needy faithful hidden in the various regions of the City; the arrest at the moment of the Pope's execution following the public declaration made to the Pontiff that the "treasures" of the Church had been distributed; the presentation, three days later, of a crowd of poor people to the judge, as the treasures of the Church; the interrogation, the torture and finally the ordeal of the gridiron with the sarcastic words addressed to the judge: ecce, miser, assasti tibi partem unam, regira alium et manduca; the burial in the crypt of the estate of the widow Cyriaca, on the Via Tiburtina. These events, which took place over the course of four days, are described with a wealth of detail (speeches, healings, conversions, etc.) in the so-called history of the persecution of Decius, recounted in the historical romance known under the title of Passio Polychronii (BHL, 4753; cf. H. Delehaye, Recherches sur le légendier romain. La passion de st Polychronius, in Analecta Bollandiana, 51 [1933], pp. 34-71 [critical introduction], 71-98 [critical edition]), of which there are three recensions, each with its own peculiarities, ranging from the end of the 5th century to the beginning of the 7th (kind personal communication from P. Franchi de' Cavalieri, who has its edition ready; cf. also P. Guidi, «Coemeterium Cyrincum» o «Coemeterium Laurentii», in Ric. di arch. crist., 26 [1950], pp. 163, 166; the text published by Fr. Delehaye would represent the last recension).

That the drama of L. described in the aforementioned Passio is as a whole legendary there is no doubt; nevertheless certain details, such as the encounter with Sixtus II, the presentation to the tyrant of the poor, the ordeal of the gridiron with the sarcasm, in its oldest version: assum est, versa et manduca, are already known from certain passages of St. Ambrose (De officiis, I, 41, II, 28; Epist. XXXVII, 36-37: PL 16, 90-92, 149-50, 1139; Hymn De s. Laurentio: PL 17, 1254-55) and exploited with rhetorical variations by Prudentius (Peristephanon, II), St. Augustine (Serm. 302-305: PL 38, 1385-1400), St. Maximus of Turin (Homil. 71: PL 57, 679-80, cf. also the other homilies attributed to St. Maximus, ibid., 675-82), St. Peter Chrysologus (Serm. 135: PL 52, 565-67), St. Leo the Great (Serm. 85: PL 54, 486), and from certain liturgical formulas contained in the Roman Sacramentaries, in the Missale Gothicum (ed. H. M. Bannister, London 1917, pp. 111-12) and above all in the Visigothic Orazionale (cf. ed. J. Vives, Barcelona 1946, pp. 370-72).

The poem placed by Pope Damasus in the basilica of St. L. at the Verano seems instead to ignore them and compresses into a single verse the tortures inflicted on L. (Verbera, carnifica, flammas, tormenta, catenae); even the inscription that was read in St. L. in Damaso, formerly attributed to Damasus, alludes only to the punishment of fire (A. Ferrua, Epigrammata Damasiana, Vatican City 1942, pp. 167-68). It is possible, however, that the text of the two inscriptions was so generic because they probably stood beneath a cycle of stories of St. L.

The details concerning the arrest and the appearance of St. L. before the judge, fitting poorly with the immediate application of the decree of persecution of Valerian (episcopi et presbyteri et diacones in continenti animadvertantur) with regard to Sixtus and his companions, have been considered as legendary data, reminiscences of other hagiographic texts adapted to St. L. in order to link his passion with that of the martyrs of August 6 and in a certain sense to justify his delayed martyrdom. The texts studied and the comparisons made by P. Franchi de' Cavalieri and by Fr. H. Delehaye are in this regard certainly significant, but they do not remove a priori the possibility that in Rome there existed a genuine tradition, set forth with evident rhetorical embellishments by St. Ambrose, concerning the tragic capture and the end of St. L. precisely by means of fire, a punishment known to have been inflicted, also under Valerian, on St. Fructuosus and his deacons Eulogius and Augurius at Tarragona. On the other hand, the verb animadvertere used in the decree of persecution in the Cyprianic recension may also refer to other forms of capital execution besides "beheading." What is certain is that the ordeal of the gridiron became the iconographic motif peculiar to St. L., as is evident from the medal of Successa (end of the 4th century), if its authenticity is admitted, from the mosaic of the so-called mausoleum of Galla Placidia at Ravenna (ca. mid-5th century) and subsequently from countless other monuments. Also the Spanish origin attributed by the Passio Polychronii (ed. cit., p. 91) to St. L. is legendary in character. It should be noted that the preface of Mass XII of the so-called Leonine Sacramentary (ed. C. L. Feltoe, Cambridge 1896, p. 98) calls him a Roman «civis».

II. CULT

The driving center of the cult paid to the protodeacon L. was his tomb in the Ager Veranus, over which Constantine (314-35) had a basilica built, communicating with the crypt below by means of gradus ascensionis et descensionis (Lib. Pont., I, p. 181). In the same locality other basilicas later arose: namely the melior (not yet identified), that ad corpus of Pelagius II (579-90), and the other of Honorius III (1216-27; cf. W. Frankl-E. Josi-R. Krautheimer, Le esplorazioni nella basilica di S. L. nell'Agro Verano, in Riv. di Arch. crist., 26 [1950], pp. 9-50). From the 12th century the basilica of S. L. al Verano is numbered among the Patriarchal basilicas (v. BASILICHE).

Within the city of Rome there was in antiquity and especially in the Middle Ages a whole flowering of churches and chapels (about 35) dedicated to St. L. (cf. C. Huelsen, Le chiese di Roma nel medio evo, Florence 1927, pp. 280-97), which arose on all the places where, according to popular imagination, the principal scenes of the martyrdom of St. L. had taken place. Particularly worthy of mention are the titulus erected by Pope Damasus over his own paternal house, the present S. L. in Damaso (cf. F. Lanzoni, I titoli presbiteriali di Roma antica nella storia e nella leggenda, in Riv. arch. christ., 2 [1925], pp. 201-202) and that of Lucina dedicated to him by Sixtus III (432-40), whence the name S. L. in Lucina (cf. ibid., p. 204), or also, beginning with St. Gregory of Tours, of basilica ad craticulum (cf. B. Pesci, L'itinerario romano di Sigerico arctiv. di Canterbury, ibid., 13 [1936], pp. 51-55). Mention should also be made of S. L. in Palatio, the pope's private oratory in the Lateran patriarchium. According to Grisar, the prayer in honor of St. L. in the thanksgiving of the Mass should come from the one that the pope recited in this oratory before the Avignon exile; but it is perhaps more probable that the intention was to associate St. L. with the "Three Youths," all victims of fire (cf. H. Grisar, Il Sancta Sanctorum ed il suo tesoro sacro, Rome 1907, p. 32; J. A. Jungmann, Missarum sollemnia, II, Vienna 1949, pp. 558-59).

The first document that records the dies natalis of St. L. is the Depositio Martyrum: "IIII id. Aug. Laurenti, in Tiburtina" (ed. R. Valentini-G. Zucchetti, Codice topografico di Roma, II, Rome 1942, p. 23). In order of precedence, from the end of the 4th century the feast of St. L. came immediately after that of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, since he was regarded as the leader of Rome's victory over paganism and a worthy counterpart of St. Stephen (cf. Prudentius, Peristephanon, II, vv. 2-4 and passim), for which reason St. Augustine calls the 10th of August dies Romae solemnisimus qui magna frequentia populi celebratur (Serm. XIII, of 10 Aug. 401, edited by Denis, reproduced in G. Morin, Miscellanea agostiniana, I, Rome 1930, p. 55; cf. also the Sermo 303, of 10 Aug. 425-30: PL 38, 1393), echoed by the preface of the XII Mass of the so-called Leonine Sacramentary: "de beati tamen solemnitate Laurentii peculiarius prae caeteris Roma laetatur" (ed. C. L. Feltoe, Cambridge 1896, p. 98; E. Bourque, Etude sur les Sacramentaires Romains, Vatican City 1949, pp. 138-139). The importance of St. L. is revealed also by the stational order; Septuagesima: St. Lawrence;

Sexagesima: St. Paul; Quinquagesima: St. Peter. The neophytes were led, after Easter, on Monday to St. Peter's, on Tuesday to St. Paul's, on Wednesday to St. Lawrence's. Among the monuments of this period that attest the high esteem in which St. L. was held, various gilded glasses must be mentioned, and principally the one in which the martyr is seated between Peter and Paul, and the one in the National Museum of Florence in which St. L. is depicted after St. Paul and before St. Sixtus II (cf. G. Bovini, Monumenti figurati paleocristiani conservati a Firenze, Vatican City 1950, pp. 18-22).

Preceded by a solemn vigil held in the basilica of the Verano (cf. Vita s. Melaniae senatricis Romae, 5, ed. M. Rampolla del Tindaro, S. Melaniae giuniore senatrice romana, Rome 1905, pp. 5-6 and note on pp. 266-268), the feast of St. L. was followed by an octave. In fact the so-called Leonine Sacramentary contains the Masses of the vigil (3 formularies, the I, X, XII) and of the octave, and 10 formularies for the Mass of the natal day (ed. C. L. Feltoe, Cambridge 1896, pp. 94-99). When the vigil was transferred to 9 August, the celebration of a Mass mane prima came into use, distinct from the publica in die, as is evident from the Gelasian (ed. H. A. Wilson, Oxford 1894, pp. 189-91) and Gregorian (ed. H. Lietzmann, Münster in W. 1921, pp. 85-86) Sacramentaries, from the Comes Evangeliorum of Würzburg (ed. G. Morin, in Rev. béad., 28 [1911], p. 312) and from other Capitularia (cf. Th. Klauser, cited below, pp. 34-35, 80, 120). The vigil is called in ieunio s. Laurentii in the Lectionary of Capua (codex Fuldemis of 546) and in the Capitulo Evangeliorum of Naples of the 7th century (cf. G. Morin, Liber Comicus, Maredsous 1893, pp. 429, 433). For this vigil Amalarius noted the existence in Rome, in his time, of duo nocturnalia officia (cf. Liber de Ordine authiphonarii, 61: ed. J. M. Hanssens, Amalarii Opera liturgica, III, Vatican City 1950, p. 97). The morning Mass later disappeared in most of the Gelasians of the 8th century (cf. P. De Puniet, Le Sacramentaire Romain de Gelloue, Rome [1938], pp. 126-28, 130). In the Capitularia Evangeliorum, among which the oldest is that of Würzburg, the 4 weeks (sometimes 5) that followed the feast of St. L. were called: "Ebdomada I, II, III, IV, post. S. Laurentii" (cf. Th. Klauser, Das römische Capitulare Evangeliorum*, Münster in W. 1935, pp. 35-36, 81-83, 161-63).

In the Canon of the Roman Mass the name of L. follows that of St. Cyprian, whereas in the Ambrosian it stands between Sixtus and Hippolytus (cf. V. L. Kennedy, The Saints of the Canon of the Mass, Vatican City 1938, pp. 68-69, 124-28), a group that will later be found in various iconographic monuments (v. IPPOLITO, saint, martyr). Also in the Mozarabic liturgy St. L. (10 Aug.) is joined with Sts. Sixtus and Hippolytus (cf. M. Férotin, Le Liber Mozarabicus Sacramentorum, Paris 1912, p. 389; J. Vives-A. Fàbrega, Calendarios hispánicos anteriores al siglo XIII, in Hispania sacra, 2 [1949], pp. 353, 365, 371, 377; however in the Liber Comicus he is with Sixtus alone: cf. ed. G. Morin, Maredsous 1893, p. 265).

The evocative circumstances of his martyrdom, widely disseminated by St. Ambrose, by Prudentius, by St. Augustine, and others, the echo of the prodigies worked by St. L. at his tomb or elsewhere (famous is the healing that took place at Ravenna and is recalled by St. Augustine: Sermo 322) and the diffusion of his relics (brandea, sanctuaria, filings of the gridiron) gave from the end of the 4th century onward a very notable impulse to his cult outside the city of Rome. At Carthage and at Hippo the feast of St. L. is attested by the already mentioned sermons of St. Augustine, in two of which the Saint complains of the scanty presence of the faithful (Denis XIII of 401; and in the 303 of the Maurists, held between 425 and 430); at Sidi-Ferruch a mosaic inscription records the erection of a church between 449 and 538 (cf. E. Diehl, Inscriptiones Christiane latinae veteres, I, Berlin 1924, n. 1829). At Ravenna, according to the testimony of St. Augustine (Sermo 322, of 25 Apr. 425: PL 38, 1144), a "memoria" in honor of St. L. had recently been erected, whose dedication probably took place under Placidus Valentinian (cf. E. Diehl, op. cit., n. 1792); in the same city is also preserved the oldest depiction of the martyrdom of L. in a lunette of the so-called mausoleum of Galla Placidia, which dates to about the middle of the 5th century (cf. G. Bovini, Il cosiddetto mausoleo di Galla Placidia in Ravenna, City of Vatican City 1950, pp. 45-52). In Milan, during the course of the 5th century, the grand Basilica (perhaps the "Portiana") erected in the 4th century was dedicated to St. L. In Constantinople, relics of St. L. arrived under Theodosius the Younger (408-50), and the empress Pulcheria (d. 453) erected a church in his honor there. It is pointless to continue enumerating the churches erected in honor of the martyr, since from the 5th century onward, and especially during the Middle Ages, there was no diocese or city that did not count more than one; suffice it to say that in the diocese of Milan alone there were as many as 43 (cf. F. Savio, Gli antichi vescovi d'Italia. La Lombardia, I, Milan, Florence 1913, p. 775).

A. Pietro Frutaz

III. ICONOGRAPHY

In cemetery art L. is depicted in Rome in the arcosolium of Celerina in the cemetery of Praetextatus (R. Garrucci, Storia dell'arte cristiana, Prato 1881, pl. 39, 2; cf. the reservations of Wilpert, Pitture, pp. 379-380) and in Naples in the cemetery known as that of St. Januarius (H. Achelis, Die Katakomben von Neapel, Berlin 1936, pl. 41). He was later depicted in the mosaic of St. Maria of Capua Vetere (R. Garrucci, op. cit., pls. 256-57). The multiplication of buildings of worship in his honor developed and spread his iconography.

The attributes of the holy deacon were the cross, as stauroforos, the book and the gridiron, his instrument of martyrdom. He appears as stauroforos already in one of the gilded glasses mentioned above. In the mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna St. L. is represented as cross-bearer, between the red-hot gridiron and the cupboard containing the sacred texts. A similar reference to the reading of the Gospel occurs in the triumphal arch of the basilica dedicated to him, in Rome, of the 6th century: in honorable proximity to Jesus Christ, he clasps in his hand the cross and the book of Psalms with the words of v. III, 9: «Dispersit, dedit pauperibus». He is likewise depicted with the cross in a fresco of the 6th century in the catacomb of Albano.

In the following centuries the iconographic developments of the depiction of St. L. are to be sought in the miniatures of the Sacramentaries, among them those of Udine, Ivrea, Lucca, of the 9th and 11th centuries; notable is the miniature of the Sacramentary of Drogo, of the 9th century, where in a large letter «D» are depicted St. L., in the act of distributing the goods of the Church to the poor, and his martyrdom. The gridiron has been transformed into an enormous machine held in balance over the flames by two solid uprights and operated from a distance by two bailiffs, by means of long chains. Other bailiffs, at the orders of the judge who assists at the execution, hasten to feed the brazier with fresh wood.

Rome also possesses, in the early 13th century, during the papacy of Honorius (1216-27), besides a mosaic in the chapel of the «Sancta Sanctorum», three cycles with episodes from the life of the Saint, painted: 1) in a lateral portico today transformed into a sacristy, 2) in the atrium and 3) in the inner entrance wall of the basilica on the Via Tiburtina, in part unfortunately heavily restored, and by 1943 almost vanished; but of which copies from 1639 survive in a Vatican Barberini codex (4403). Intact, on the other hand, is the cycle that Masolino and assistants painted in the church of the Collegiata of Castiglione d'Olona near Milan, in the first decades of the 15th century; and shortly after the middle of the century, the one that Angelico completed with the help of very many assistants in the chapel of Nicholas V in the Vatican. In both, the principal episodes consist of the entrusting to L., by Pope Sixtus II, of the treasure of the Church, of the almsgiving to the poor, of the trial before the Emperor and of the martyrdom, albeit with some variation. In 8 episodes is the cycle in the church of Berching, by the painting school of Regensburg, with the scene of the imprisonment of Pope Sixtus, of the arrest and then of the interrogation, of the scourging, of the torture and of the martyrdom of the Saint. In the same church the cycle is repeated in the shutters of the altarpiece of the high altar. In modern art the Saint is usually depicted in dalmatic with the specific attribute of the martyr, the gridiron. Thus in a panel by Ghirlandaio in the Pinacoteca of Munich, in a painting by Titian for Philip V of Spain, at the Escorial, in another by Andrea d'Assisi in the Pinacoteca of Perugia, in another by Alvise Vivarini in the Accademia of Venice, in another by Pinturicchio in the cathedral of Spello. Beyond the Alps, the depiction of the Saint is repeated in various wooden statues, preserved in museums and private collections in Frankfurt, Stuttgart, etc. Notable is the admirable painting by Matthias Grünewald in Frankfurt.

Alterthümer, II, pp. 285-86; H. Leclercq, s. v. in DACL, VIII, II, coll. 1926-29.

Eugenio Battisti

IV. IN FOLKLORE

The Saint enjoys a vast and lively popular cult, both in Italy and abroad. In relation to the attributes of his martyrdom, he is invoked against fires and burns: in Sicily they even apply a popular print with the image of the Saint to the burned part. He is therefore also the protector of firefighters, charcoal burners, cooks, roasters and pastry cooks. On the morning of his feast, either before dawn or at the stroke of noon, the people seek, digging in suitable ground (fields, gardens, woods, secluded roads), the so-called "coals of St. L.", to which various therapeutic virtues are attributed, especially against burns and lumbago, but also against witchcraft, the evil eye and storms. Reduced to powder and mixed with wine, these coals are swallowed to cure quartan fever. They are placed under children's beds and made into little charms. Since the date of his feast (Aug. 10) falls in the period of the star shower, shooting stars are called "tears of St. L.", since it is believed that heaven weeps for the death of the Saint, or even that they are the tears shed by the Saint while he was being roasted on the gridiron.

In popular meteorology it is held that summer reaches its greatest heat by the day of St. L., but then soon declines, whence the proverb: "St. Anthony of the great cold - St. L. of the great heat - neither one lasts long." On that day forecasts are also drawn for the weather to come in autumn: if it is fair, autumn will be fair too and the year will be good for honey and for wine; if it is foul, field mice will abound and do serious damage.

Since the feast falls in a period when the great labors of the fields are over and the peasants have by then gathered the fruits of the harvest, in many cities and towns a great fair and festival is held on that day. At Udine the largest annual fair is held, with spectacles, races, tombola; and it is believed that by St. L. walnuts and hazelnuts ripen. Fairs and festivals also take place at Cervia (Romagna), at Veglia (Istria) and in Champagne, where at Soulaine, near Bar-sur-Aube, the aubade is held, corresponding to our "albate" or morning songs. St. L. is the protector of the cities of Alba, Chiavenna, Fano, Genoa, Ancona, Viterbo and of many cities of central and northern Europe.

The events of the Saint have also inspired short poems and popular songs: two cantari in sestinas, one on his birth and childhood, the other on his passion and death, contained in the Ambrosian ms. c. 35 sup., have been published by De Bartholomaeis (v. bibl.). A narrative song in epic hendecasyllables still lives in Romagna and Tuscany. - See pl. CVI.

Fedele-De Fabritiis), Napoli 1908; P. Wrede, Laurentius (bl.), in Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens, V, Berlino e Lipsia 1932-33, coll. 924-32; A. Van Gennep, Manuel de folklore français contemporain, III, Parigi 1937, p. 486; U. Cianciolo, Contributo allo studio dei cantari sacri, in Archivum Romanicum, 22 (1938), fasc. II-III, p. 49 dell'estratto; V. Ostermann, La vita in Friuli, II, 2ª ed., Udine 1940, p. 456.

Paolo Toschi