Wine saint’s day: Lawrence of Rome

Today is the feast day of St Lawrence of Rome, whose brutal death on the gridiron led to his patronage of all things gastronomic.

Tintoretto’s depiction of the martyrdom of Saint Lawrence

Born (it is thought) near Aragon in Spain, Lawrence went on to study in Zaragoza where he met the future pope, Sixtus II.

When Sixtus became pope in August 257AD he took Lawrence to Rome with him as an archdeacon.

Despite their growing numbers, Christians were still a persecuted people within the Roman Empire of the third century and by 258AD, Sixtus and Lawrence were caught up in a fresh pogrom ordered by Emperor Valerian.

With the order that all bishops, priests and deacons be immediately executed and their treasure confiscated by the Imperial treasury (here one sees an important motivation for the edict), the clergy went into hiding but were quickly rounded up.

Sixtus was caught and executed on 6 August along with several other priests while Lawrence was among the last captured and so ordered to gather up the treasure from churches such as St Ambrose. Asking for three days in which to complete the task he distributed the treasure to the poor and, it is said, sent the Holy Grail back to his hometown of Huesca.

At the end of three days he presented himself to the prefect of Rome with a band of the poor, sick and lame who he called the “true treasures of the Church.”

He was executed on 10 August 258AD on a gridiron – an excruciating way to die – although there is some speculation that a later account of his martyrdom omitted a “p” so that instead of “passus est”, “he suffered”, it was noted as “assus est”, “he was roasted” and that he may simply have been decapitated as was Sixtus.

He is venerated as a saint of Rome, Rotterdam, Birgu, Huesca and is the source of most places named Saint Lawrence and as such is popular in French-speaking Canada.

He is also a patron saint of the poor, students, chefs and roasters – the latter two because of his supposed martyrdom on a gridiron.

He is also said to have a connection to brewers because something like a gridiron can also be used to dry hops on or dry out malt. The brewers guild in Bamberg adopted him as a saint and apprentices were required to carry his image in processions and make donations to the local church that bore his name.