The Treasures of the Church
In early August 258 the emperor Valerian issued an edict ordering the immediate execution of all bishops, priests, and deacons. Pope Sixtus II was arrested and put to death on August 6, along with the deacons Felicissimus and Agapitus; tradition relates that Laurence protested being separated from his bishop, declaring that he should accompany him.
When the Roman prefect demanded that Laurence hand over the wealth of the Church, he asked — according to St. Ambrose — for three days, during which he distributed the Church's funds among the poor. Brought before the prefect, he presented the city's indigent, crippled, blind, and suffering, declaring, in the tradition's words, 'Here are the treasures of the Church' — naming the poor and afflicted as its true jewels.
The synaxarion records his refusal to sacrifice to idols. By tradition he was sentenced and imprisoned before his execution, and is said to have baptized fellow prisoners while held; one account names a prison guard, the tribune Kallinikos, who witnessed his healings and converted to Christianity.
Martyrdom and the Gridiron
By the traditional account, Laurence was martyred on August 10, 258, stretched out over a burning gridiron with hot coals beneath it; the synaxarion verses describe him as 'thoroughly baked over the bed of coals.' Legend relates that he kept his resolve to the end, saying he was done on one side and asking to be turned over.
The historian Patrick J. Healy has argued that the gridiron account may rest on a transcription error, in which the words passus est ('was martyred') became assus est ('was roasted'). His original Acts were already lost by the time of St. Augustine.
Tradition holds that his relics were given proper burial by St. Hippolytus, who was himself executed for the act — tied to wild horses and dragged to death.
Relics & Shrines
Laurence was buried at San Lorenzo fuori le Mura, in the Catacomb of Cyriaca on the Via Tiburtina. Roman sites associated with his passion include San Lorenzo in Miranda (where he was sentenced), San Lorenzo in Fonte (his imprisonment), and San Lorenzo in Panisperna (the place of martyrdom).
Pope Paschal II placed a relic of the gridiron in the church of San Lorenzo in Lucina. At the Church of St. Mary Assumed in Amaseno, an ampulla reported to contain his blood is said to liquefy each year on his feast day.
Veneration and Legacy
Laurence is venerated in the Eastern Orthodox tradition as well as in the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion. As a pre-schism Western saint he is commemorated by the Orthodox Church on August 10.
He is counted among the principal patrons of Rome — by tradition the third after the Apostles Peter and Paul — and is also regarded as patron of librarians, archivists, miners, cooks, and those who work with fire. In iconography he is typically depicted holding his gridiron.
