He was among the entire official leadership of the Church to be executed in August 258 as a result of the 'death to all leaders' decree of Emperor Valerian. That official leadership comprised the Bishop of Rome and all seven Deacons - seven being an historically significant number passed along by the Apostles.
By most accounts, Sixtus and 4 deacons accompanying him were put to death together on August 6th. The remaining three deacons, including Lawrence, died before dawn on the 11th. One of eight separate accounts of the Saints named indicates that four ecclesiastics were martyred on 10 August, 258 - with Lawrence and Romanus being buried in the Catacomb of Cyriaca on Tiburtina. (Romanus is not mentioned in any of the other accounts regarding Lawrence and needs looking into.)
Whether the Emperor's orders were executed in haste or methodically, it's apparent that this time, the assets of the growing Church were also wanted by the Empire. The unusual and extended persecution of Lawrence was intended to get him to 'give up' that treasure. (It also implied that the Empire had spies who told them Lawrence was the Treasurer. It unlikely that, given the need to even have a Treasurer, the Church would then announce it openly.)
It appears that the most significant treasure of the Church at this time were the hidden tombs under the Cemetery of Callistus where the 'holy' bodies of the Bishops and other martyrs were being buried. In fact, Lawrence himself may have just been involved in hiding the bodies of Sixtus and the others, along with the records and mobile treasure of the Church before he "allowed himself to be found" and arrested. It's also likely that immediately after those duties, the catacomb entryways were blocked-up and hidden in order to restrict access by the Empire. That apparently 'successful' strategy, probably the first instance of its application, probably enraged the authorities beyond reason, embarassing them into a torture more cruel than normally called for.
The next Pope-Saint-Martyr Dionysius, who served from 259 to 268, is said to have re-organized Calixtus. Maybe he had to do so to dig out the blocking fill - rediscovering its lost secrets in the process. Emperor Gallienus took power in 260 upon Valerian's capture in Persia and issued the initial "edict of toleration" toward Christians. This forces Dionysius to publicly nominate those ecclesiastical domiciles where Church activities had been taking place as the first of the so-called "titles". By 303, many of these former houses of wealthy Christians had become formal, 'publicly' identified Churches - making their subsequent, complete destruction that much easier.
Given the almost complete lack of records we have regarding Church activities in Rome between the years 260 and 308, and even most from 200 to 260, it's possible that Lawrence hid what records did exist up to his death in 258 so well that neither Pope Dionysius nor anyone else desiring to preserve them ever found them. They could have been found and destroyed in one of the frequent pillagings of Rome and its shrines occurring over the centuries. Had the records up to 259 been found, it seems likely they would have been copied and distributed to other Bishoprics around the Roman Empire in anticipation of another confiscation and destruction. Remember, it's not until 100 years later around 354, after four decades of formal recognition because of the Edict of Milan that the Church begins to reconstruct the "lost records" from verbal sources. Much of the re-digging and cleaning out of the catacombs may have been a fruitless search for the lost records. Not having found them, and being a good manager, Damasus converts that negative into the positive of a celebration of the faith and heroism of the 3rd century Christian martyrs by opening the catacombs to pilgrims from everywhere.
Lawrence's unique position as Treasurer meant that he couldn't welcome the glorious martyrdom with open arms like the others but had duties to fulfill, first. It also makes it unlikely that he either gave up the real location of the Treasury, mostly records, or dispersed it to the poor. It would have been almost impossible to differentiate between poor pagans, who would have ripped him to shreds, and poor Christians with whom later historians undoubtedly empathized. (There should have been written accounts of his actions passed among the prolific writers of the time that survived the destruction to come 50 years later. Oral evidence, some of which have evolved into really strange accounts, gathered by Saint-Pope-Historian Damasus (366-383) and others more than 100 years later can't be as credible as writings of the 3rd century that survive. The most appear to have come from .
It's likely that, to compensate for his 'self-perceived, shameful'
hiding in the face of glorious martydom, he cracked wise while being
tortured, thereby ensuring that his death would be as worthy as the
others preceding him. A possibility born out by:
"According to Catholic doctrine, the horrible event so moved those who
witnessed it that several Roman senators converted on the spot and
carried away Lawrence's body for burial. His death, in fact, is
credited with inspiring a wave of conversions in Rome that ultimately
turned the pagan city into the foundation of Catholicism. A church
was built over Lawrence's tomb that stands as one of the seven principal
basilicas of Rome."
This account makes more sense in light of the actions actually taken by others regarding St. Lawrence, his church and its site. It also makes obvious the reason he was chosen to be Treasurer in the first place. One need also remember that it's not long after this that the new governing centers of Milan in the west and Nicodemia in the east begin replacing Rome as the center of the Roman Empire - maybe because there were just too many Christians in Rome for the pagan rulers' tastes.
The varying accounts of St. Lawrence, especially regarding the nature of his death, along with his 'fiscal responsibility' as Treasurer of the Church, point to the central problem when 'writing' history:
There's some truth in most accounts of anything. The secret is to discover it from independently verifiable sources which themselves are based upon independently verifiable sources. Written evidence is always better than oral evidence. Evidence written in stone is always better than that written on paper. But none of it, regardless of source, is necessarily true. Even present day 'eyewitness' accounts can relate disparate interpretations of the same event. (Knowing the psychology, sociology, economy, politics and other intangible aspects of the time can help to guess at which account is more likely to be true, but it still don't make it so!)
In the case of Lorenzo, Ben Ciriacks believes:
- he was tortured to death in a most cruel manner involving heat;
- he cracked wise as part of his normal personality and while dying;
- he was exceptionally courageous, responsible and likeable;
- he did not give away that which it was his primary responsibility to keep safe and preserve for the future leadership of the Church;
- the treasure of the Church of the time consisted of written accounts of the lives of the Bishop/Leader-Saint-Martyrs to date, the rites of the Church and copies of correspondence and other important documents; ?the Gospels?; oral accounts of same, secret burial locations and names of administrators too secret to put in writing; houses, land, cemeteries and other real estate donated by Christian families either persecuted to extinction or coming to the plate with donations in recognition of the heroic martyrdom of their 'official' and 'public' leaders; gold, coins, arts works and any other valuables that could be used to hire required services that weren't being accomplished by 'common people' coming to the plate with their own form of donations. (It makes no sense what-so-ever that these courageous individuals in the middle of the 3rd century were even the slighest bit concerned with material wealth except as it could be used to further their cause.)
- the Roman Empire, including Emperor Valerian, coming with their own completely different and totally opposite mindset, believed that the Treasury of the Church probably comprised mostly gold, jewels and other highly fungible assets which could further their personal ambitions;
- given the secrecy necessarily incumbant in same, it's unlikely that anyone other than the leadership of the Church being martyred in cyclic fashion was aware of the true nature of the Treasury of the Church;
- his fiscal duties brought him into intimate contact with the wealthy Christians of the day, who most likely appreciated his gregarious, wise-cracking nature and respected him later for his courageous death;
- he probably referred to the poor people of Rome as the real treasure of the Church while being tortured; (once arrested, the authorities were unlikely to allow any freedom of movement);
- he goaded his torturers while they attempted to extract information - but probably in a 'passive-resistant' fashion - enraging them even more;
- his torture was probably witnessed by other wealthy Christians in order to get one of them to give up the location. Fortunately, only Lawrence and the person on whose property it was hidden knew it;
- the subsequent notoriety of his death, especially regarding the impact it had upon the Christian Community, influenced the way the Empire handled high profile Christians from then on.
His relationship to the family history comes in a couple ways. Firstly, and probably most legitimately, because he was buried in the catacomb of Cyriaca under her cemetery of the same name, aka . It's now more popularly known as the Cimitero di S. Lorenzo on the Via Tiburtina west of Vatican City on the opposite side of Rome outside the Aurelian wall built in 270 A.D. The Verano Cemetery is "to the left of the monumental entrance" (Testini book) of the major basilica dedicated to St. Laurence built by Pope-Saint Sixtus III (432-440). It, the little oratory built by Emperor Constantine the Great in the 4th century and the modifications by Pope Pelagius II (579-90) are sometimes referred to as St. Lawrence-outside-the-Walls.
[ More recently, in the Testini book, which has an Introduction written by the Secretary of the Papal Commission for Sacred Archaeology, it's also referred to as Ciriaca. ]
| Secondly, "As treasurer, he had taken all the Church's valuables to the house of a widower, Cyriacus. At that time, he healed Cyriacus of terrible pains in the head by the touch of his hand, and restored the sight ..." (1/07/10 Russian source) This account implies that said Cyriacus was around later to relate these events, but that account, document or other proof has yet to be discovered. [ Such proof may really refer to the widow Cyriaca and her house and may involve the accounts written by St. Ado of Vienne. St. Ado may have been a relative of Cyriaca !?and us?! ] |
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The Chandlery book is the only source for the legend regarding Cyriaca and Laurence - indicating, quite logically, that Laurence was the Almoner for the extremely wealthy widow. [ !?If she was so wealthy, there should be more in the historical record regarding her - especially regarding the creation of the cemetery named for her and still referred to as such in the 21st century?! ]
The same account mentions the name of the prison warden, Hippolytus, who helped safeguard Laurence's body. It indicates that, who, with his nurse Concordia and nineteen others of his household, was put to death for the Faith." [ Historians consider this all a fabrication based upon the coincidence of the Cemetary of Bishop-Saint-Theologian Hippolytus, who died 23 years earlier in 235, being immediately adjacent to that of Cyriaca. ]
The Depositio Martyrum has IV idus
aug.--Ipoliti in Tiburtina et Pontiani in Callisti., but that refers
to the Bishops having died together in exile from Rome. The epitaph
placed in the Cemetery of Hippolytus by Pope Damasus is to said
Bishop. Given that all local Roman Church records were destroyed in
303, the only proof of this account must exist in correspondence relating
these events that was preserved outside of Rome. Oral accounts are
highly suspect, since they would require conversations held with individuals
100 years later who undoubtedly weren't alive in 258.
[
has (?or is?) the source for the Hippolytus ?legend? ]
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