August 10, 2005
Laurence
Laurence, the Deacon, was a third-century martyr apparently careless about his spelling and whom I remember today mostly because I use a calendar that takes note of such things and says to. The persecution that got him on August 10, 258, was aimed primarily at clergy and laity of the upper classes, the kind who in our time generally go scot-free.
Valerian, his emperor at the time, was enviously nervous over the church’s mounting wealth in real estate and other treasures. So he rounded up Pope Sixtus the Second and seven of his deacons and summarily dispatched them. Somehow, that first sweep overlooked Laurence who apparently was thought maybe to have some useful information about the begrudged resources.
When the authorities caught up with him and demanded the account numbers, Laurence, in reply, assembled the sick and the poor to whom he had distributed the Church’s funds. Then he presented them to the inquisitors and said, “These are the treasures of the Church.”
We need the saints if for no other reason than to remind us to stop goofing off.