Grilled
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf shall be opened;
then the lame shall leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.
For waters shall break forth in the wilderness
and streams in the desert;
the burning sand shall become a pool
and the thirsty ground springs of water;
the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp;
the grass shall become reeds and rushes.
A highway shall be there,
and it shall be called the Holy Way;
the unclean shall not travel on it,
but it shall be for God’s people;
no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
A Reading from the Second Epistle to Timothy:
As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
The Martyrdom of St Lawrence, According to the Rev’d Alban Butler:
There are few martyrs in the church whose names are so famous as that of the glorious St Laurence, in whose praises the most illustrious among the Latin fathers have exerted their eloquence, and whose triumph, to use the words of St Maximus, the whole Church joins in a body to honor with universal joy and devotion.
The Emperor Valerian, through the persuasion of Macrian, in 257, published his bloody edicts against the Church, which he foolishly flattered himself he was able to destroy, not knowing it to be the work of the Almighty. That by cutting off the shepherds he might disperse the flocks, he commanded all bishops, priests, and deacons to be put to death without delay. The holy Pope St Xystus, the second of that name, was apprehended the year following.
As he was led to execution, his deacon, St Laurence, followed him weeping; and judging himself ill-treated, because he was not to die with him, said to him, “Father, where are you going without your son? Whither are you going, O holy priest, without your deacon?”
The holy pope, at the sight of his grief, was moved to tenderness and compassion, and comforting him, he answered, “I do not leave you, my son; but a greater trial and a more glorious victory are reserved for you who are stout and in the vigor of youth. You shall follow me in three days.”
Laurence was full of joy, hearing that he should be so soon called to God; he set out immediately to seek all the poor widows and orphans, and gave among them all the money which he had in his hands; he even sold the sacred vessels to increase the sum, employing it all in the like manner. The Church at Rome was then possessed of considerable riches. For, besides the necessary provision of its ministers, it maintained many widows and virgins, and fifteen hundred poor people, of whose names the bishop or his archdeacon kept the list; and it often sent large alms into distant countries.
It had likewise very rich ornaments and vessels for the celebration of the divine mysteries. The prefect of Rome was informed of these riches, and, imagining that the Christians had hid considerable treasures, he was extremely desirous to secure them; for he was no less a worshipper of gold and silver than of Jupiter and Mars. With this view he sent for St Laurence, to whose care these treasures were committed.
As soon as he appeared, he said to him, according to Prudentius: “I am informed that your priests offer in gold, that the sacred blood is received in silver cups, and that in your nocturnal sacrifices you have wax tapers fixed in golden candlesticks. Bring to light these concealed treasures; the prince has need of them for the maintenance of his forces.”
St Laurence replied, without showing any concern: “The Church is indeed rich; nor hath the emperor any treasure equal to what it possesses. I will show you a valuable part; but allow me a little time to set everything in order.” Laurence went all over the city, seeking out in every street the poor who were supported by the Church, and with whom no other was so well acquainted.
On the third day he gathered together a great number of them before the church, and placed them in rows: the decrepit, the blind, the lame, the maimed, the lepers; orphans, widows, and virgins; then he went to the prefect, invited him to come and see the treasure of the church, and conducted him to the place. The prefect, astonished to see such a number of poor wretches, who made a horrid sight, turned to the holy deacon with looks full of disorder and threatenings, and asked him what all this meant.
St Laurence answered: “Behold in these poor persons the treasures which I promised to show you; to which I will add pearls and precious stones—those widows and consecrated virgins, which are the Church’s crown, by which it is pleasing to Christ; it hath no other riches; make use then of them for the advantage of Rome.” The earthly-minded man was far from forming so noble an idea of an object, the sight of which offended his carnal eyes, and he cried out in a transport of rage:
“Do you thus mock me? Is it thus that the axes and the fasces, the sacred ensigns of the Roman power, are insulted? I know that you desire to die; this is your frenzy and vanity: but you shall not die immediately, as you imagine. I will protract your tortures, that your death may be the more bitter as it shall be slower. You shall die by inches.”
Then he caused a great gridiron to be made ready, and live coals almost extinguished to be thrown under it, that the martyr might be slowly burnt. Laurence was stripped, extended, and bound with chains, upon this iron bed over a slow fire, which broiled his flesh by little and little, piercing at length to his very bowels. His face appeared to the Christians newly baptized, to be surrounded with a beautiful extraordinary light, and his broiled body to exhale a sweet agreeable smell; but the unbelievers neither saw this light nor perceived this smell.
The martyr felt not the torments of the persecutor, says St Austin, so vehement was his desire of possessing Christ: and St Ambrose observes, that whilst his body broiled in the material flames, the fire of divine love, which was far more active within his breast, made him regardless of the pain: having the law of God before his eyes, he esteemed his torments to be a refreshment and a comfort.
Such was the tranquility and peace of mind which he enjoyed amidst his torments, that having suffered a long time, he turned to the judge, and said to him, with a cheerful and smiling countenance: “Let my body be now turned; one side is broiled enough.” When, by the prefect’s order, the executioner had turned him, he said: “It is dressed enough, you may eat.”
The prefect insulted him, but the martyr continued in earnest prayer, with sighs and tears imploring the divine mercy with his last breath for the conversion of the city of Rome. This he begged Christ speedily to accomplish. The saint having finished his prayer, and completed his holocaust, lifting up his eyes towards heaven, gave up the ghost.
Prudentius doubts not to ascribe to his prayer the entire conversion of Rome, and says God began to grant his request at the very time he put it up; for several senators who were present at his death were so powerfully moved by his tender and heroic fortitude and piety, that they became Christians upon the spot. These noblemen took up the martyr’s body on their shoulders, and gave it an honorable burial in the Veran field, near the road to Tiber, on the 10th of August in 258. His death, says Prudentius, was the death of idolatry in Rome.
In St Laurence we have a sensible demonstration how powerful the grace of Jesus Christ is, which is able to sweeten whatever is bitter and harsh to flesh and blood. If we had the resolution and fervor of the saints in the practice of devotion, we should find all seeming difficulties which discourage our pusillanimity to be mere shadows and phantoms.
A lively faith, like that of the martyrs, would make us, with them, contemn the honors and pleasures of the world, and measure the goods and evils of this life, and judge of them, not by nature, but by the light and principles of faith only; and did we sincerely love God, as they did, we should embrace his holy will with joy in all things, have no other desire, and find no happiness but in it.
This account has been abridged and adapted from Lives of
the Saints Vol. VIII by the Rev’d Alban Butler (1711-1773).
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