St. Lawrence

Lawrence served the Roman Church as one of its seven deacons, caring for its goods and especially for the poor. When Valerian's persecution reached Rome in 258, Pope St. Sixtus II was arrested and put to death. Christian tradition remembers Lawrence grieving as the pope was led away and being told that he would follow within a few days. He did follow: the Roman deacon gave his life for Christ soon after his bishop.

The beloved account of Lawrence presenting the poor as the Church's true treasures expresses the charity at the heart of his diaconal office. The traditional story continues with his suffering on a gridiron and the courage with which he met death. This life treats some details with care, but the secure witness is already powerful: Lawrence was a Roman deacon and martyr under Valerian, devotion at his grave on the Via Tiburtina is ancient, a great basilica rose there, and his name entered the Roman Canon of the Mass. His feast joins martyrdom to mercy. The man responsible for the Church's material treasure showed that its deepest treasure was Christ in His poor.