FEAST OF SAINT LAWRENCE, DEACON AND MARTYR ~ FEAST DAY- AUGUST 10TH:Today, we celebrate the Feast of Saint Lawrence, Deacon, and Martyr. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and Saint Lawrence on this feast day, we humbly pray for our children and children all over the world, we particularly pray for schoolchildren and students who are beginning a new school year, we pray for their safety and well-being, for wisdom and understanding. We also pray for all teachers and other workers. May God keep them all safe and well. We pray for all Deacons and Seminarians, for our Holy Father, the Clergy, for vocations to the priesthood and religious life, for the Church, for persecuted christians, for the conversion of sinners, and Christians all over the world. We also pray for the sick and dying, especially those who are suffering from cancers and other terminal diseases. And we continue to pray for the poor and needy, for peace, love, and unity in our families and our world.🙏

SAINT LAWRENCE, DEACON, AND MARTYR: St. Lawrence, also known as St. Lawrence of Rome (d. 258 A.D.) was likely a Spaniard by birth who lived in Rome while Christianity was outlawed under pain of death. He was born on December 13, 225 AD, and died on August 10, 258 AD at the age of 32. In 257, when St. Sixtus became Pope, and he ordained St. Lawrence deacon, though still young, was appointed by Pope St. Sixtus II was archdeacon and chief over the seven deacons of Rome and held the sacred duty of tending to the Church’s wealth and distributing alms to the poor. After Pope St. Sixtus II was martyred by beheading, along with the six other deacons, in the persecution of the Christians that the Roman Emperor Valerian ordered in 258, St. Lawrence was left as the highest-ranking clergy in Rome. He was the last of the seven deacons of Rome to die for his faith in Christ. This great saint literally gave up everything, including his very life, so as to say “Yes” to God.  As a deacon in the Cathedral Church in Rome, he was entrusted with the task of distributing alms to the indigent people in need. In August of the year 258, the Emperor issued an edict stating that all clergy were to be put to death. After the pope was killed, they came for St. Lawrence and, before killing him, asked him to turn over all the riches of the Church. He asked for three days to gather those treasures, and during those three days, he distributed all he could to the poor.

Then, on the third day, on August 10th he presented himself before the prefect and brought with him not the material wealth of the Church but the true wealth. He brought the poor, crippled, blind and suffering and declared that the Church was truly rich and that the people with him were the Church’s true treasures. The prefect, in anger, sentenced Lawrence to death by fire, to which Lawrence freely submitted. St. Lawrence was ordered to be burned alive on a gridiron. He was bound to the metal grate and slowly roasted to death over hot coals. During his torture St.  Lawrence famously mocked his torturers by saying, “I am done on this side, turn me over.” St. Lawrence rejoiced in his gruesome martyrdom and to his last breath the holy deacon prayed for the conversion of the city of Rome, that the faith of Christ might thence spread throughout the world. Several senators, who had witnessed his execution, were converted to Christianity and gave decent burial to his body. From that time idolatry began to decline in Rome. His martyrdom occurred on August 10th in the year 258.

Before his death St. Lawrence remarked: “At last I am finished; you may now take from me and eat!” He then turned to God in prayer saying: “I thank You, O Lord; that I am permitted to enter Your portals.”

“Just as Christ laid down his life for us, so we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.’ My brethren, Lawrence understood this and, understanding, he acted on it. In his life he loved Christ; in his death he followed in his footsteps.”
 – St. Augustine, in a sermon on the feast of Saint Lawrence

St. Lawrence is venerated as one of the patrons of Rome, along with Sts. Peter and Paul. He’s the Patron Saint of Deacons; Seminarians; schoolchildren; students; the poor; cooks; firefighters; workers; librarians; archives; archivists; armories; armourers; brewers; butchers; Ceylon; comedians; comediennes; comics; confectioners; cutlers; fire; glaziers; laundry workers; libraries; lumbago; paupers; restauranteurs; Rome; Sri Lanka; stained glass workers; tanners; vine growers; vintners; wine makers and the poor. His feast day is August 10th.

Saint Lawrence’s Quote: “Sheltered under the name of Jesus Christ, I do not fear these pains, for they do not last long.”

PRAYER: O God, giver of that ardor of love for you by which Saint Lawrence was outstandingly faithful in service and glorious in martyrdom, grant that we may love what he loved and put into practice what he taught. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever… Amen 🙏