medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> Today (10. August) is the feast day of:
>
> Lawrence of Rome (d. 258)
... so annoyed them ... that he was then
> slowly roasted on a gridiron.
>
The commemoration in about mid-August of St. Lawrence's martyrdom by
grilling lent a spiritually poetic light to one of the marvels of the summer
night sky.
The northern hemisphere is treated, from about 10 August to 15 August, to
nightly meteor showers emanating from the constellation Perseus: these are
the Perseid meteor showers, which were scientifically detailed in the
1830s-1840s.
Shortly after astronomers, chiefly Edward Herrick, of Yale, announced their
"discovery" of the meteor showers, they learned that "the superstitious
peasants" of Northern Europe were long aware of this same phenomenon, which
they associated with the fiery tears of Saint Lawrence, raining down from
heaven on the anniversary of his death.
An interesting and detailed telling of this story can be found at:
http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/meteors/article_124_1.asp .
Best,
J Michael Walker
~~~~~~~~~~~~
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