Lawrence of Rome, Archdeacon
August 10. Lawrence of Rome. In Rome, during the first half of the third century, the government was sold out to Roman so-called deities, and Christians were not to be tolerated. Often they were given the chance to “convert” and prove it by offering sacrifices to the so-called gods. And those who refused were arrested, confined, tortured, and executed.
Lawrence was one of the city’s seven deacons–men who cared for the buildings, their contents— who maintained the roofs, repaired the structures, and protected the art. Men who cared for the poor and ill among the congregation.
Lawrence took his duty to the buildings and the people seriously. A lot of the Church’s leaders had already been executed. Today’s story is about what happened when the Romans came for Lawrence. On this date in 258, Lawrence outwitted the Emperor of Rome.
Strategic generosity trumps going with the flow.
About 200 years after the Apostle Paul wrote a famous letter to the believers at Rome, when Lawrence served as deacon, the beheaded bodies of some of his fellow church leaders lay in undignified graves, and the whole congregation suffered terrible poverty and hunger.
One day in August, the Emperor sent a messenger to Lawrence and demanded he turn over all the treasures of the church. The Emperor intended to melt down crucifixes and sacred vessels like chalices and sell the gold. He would sell the paintings, too.
And brutal Roman soldiers stood ready to aggressively enforce this order.
So Lawrence immediately sought direction from Pope Sixtus II. Lawrence was not to turn over the Church’s treasures to the Roman government. Instead, he was to redistribute them to the congregation who needed them most.
Of course, this flew in the face of the Emperor’s order, but Lawrence promised he would find a way to carry out the plan. Within days of the emperor’s decree, while Sixtus was ministering in a city garden, Roman soldiers arrested him and executed him—to entertain the public. The other remaining deacons, Lawrence’s closest friends, were also hunted down and executed.
This left Lawrence alone, shocked and heartbroken, and now the senior ranking church official in all of Rome. As the Roman Church’s senior official, he was immediately called before the Roman throne to answer the Emperor’s demands to turn over all the assets of the Church. Presuming that his life would be the next to be required, Lawrence stood silently before the Emperor, as Valerian began to speak:
“You Christians say we are cruel to you, but that is not what I have in mind. I am told that your priests offer in gold, that the sacred blood is received in silver cups, that you have golden candlesticks at your evening services. Now, your doctrine says you must render to Caesar what is his. Yours is a Kingdom of words, but Rome is a physical Kingdom, in need of resources. Therefore, bring Rome the riches of the Church!”
“The church is indeed rich,” Lawrence said. “I will show you the most valuable part. But give me time to set everything in order and make an inventory.”
Emperor Valerian gave Lawrence three days to deliver the Church’s treasures in exchange for his life.
With a nod and a bow, Lawrence rushed from the court and feverishly set out to fulfill the vow he had made to Sixtus before his death.
Working tirelessly over the next few days, Lawrence liquidated a vast amount of the Church’s wealth—the paintings, the gold chalices, and the embroidered linens. He smuggled it into the hands of the poor, the outcast, and the sick. As he met secretly with the people of the parish, he commissioned lay leaders to take care of the poor after he was dead.
When it was time for Lawrence to present himself before Valerian, presumably to save his own life, he brought with him a crowd of peasants and outcasts, the blind, and the lame. The sound of shuffling feet and nervous chatter echoed off the marble floors of Rome’s highest court, and spectators anxiously waited, unable to imagine what would happen next.
Suddenly, the Roman Emperor and his entourage burst into the room. The crowd fell immediately silent. Valerian climbed the stairs and sat upon his throne.
“Deacon Lawrence!” shouted the Emperor. “Have you brought with you the riches which Rome rightfully demands? I’ll accept them as ransom for your life.”
“I have,” Lawrence humbly said, his warm voice reverberating on the cold, stone walls.
The courtroom fell silent again, as Valerian glared intently at Lawrence. “Very well then. Show me the riches!” The Emperor stood.
Lawrence looked lovingly across the ragged congregation he had brought with him, gestured toward them, and declared: “These are the treasures of the Church.”
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us” (2 Corinthians 4:7 NIV).
Is God calling you to be uncompromising about the riches of His Kingdom? Which ones? For yourself or for others? Strategic generosity trumps going with the flow.
Franciscan Media. “Saint Lawrence.” Accessed June 14, 2020. https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-lawrence/. Kiefer, James E. “Laurence, Deacon and Martyr.” Accessed June 14, 2020. http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/223.html. Miller, Jennifer Gregory. “St. Lawrence’s Universal Appeal.” The Liturgical Year. Posted August 10, 2019 from original in 2016. https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/st-lawrences-universal- appeal/?repos=6&subrepos=0&searchid= 2021048. St. Lawrence Church, Lawrenceburg, Indiana. “St. Lawrence of Rome.” Accessed June 14, 2020. https://www.stlawrencechurch.us/patron-saint.
Story read by: Daniel Carpenter Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter Audio production: Joel Carpenter Story written by: John Mandeville, https://www.johnmandeville.com/ Editor: Teresa Crumpton, https://authorspark.org/ Project Manager: Blake Mattocks Copyright © 2020, 365 Christian Men, LLC. All rights reserved.