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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Today (10. August) is the feast of: Lawrence, deacon of Rome (358, supposedly). L. is a martyr of the Via Tiburtina, recorded for this day in the _Depositio Martyrum_ of 354. Genuine acta concerning him, if they ever existed, were already unavailable to Augustine and to Maximus of Turin. Whereas his legendary acta found their fullest expression in the _Passio Polycronii_ (BHL 4753; earliest version, late fifth-cent.?), their basic elements were known to Ambrose and Prudentius as well as to the aforementioned Augustine and Maximus. The part about being tortured on a grill is inconsistent with other information about executions during the Valerianic persecution and for that reason is generally viewed as invention; much of the remainder (e.g. the prophetic encounter with Sixtus II just before his martyrdom and the sale of the church's treasure and the distribution of the profits to the poor) seems at least partly the product of imaginative elaboration. After Peter and Paul, L. had the most important cult of any Roman martyr. An early _memoria_ at his burial location was followed by basilicas erected above ground by the emperor Constantine and below ground by pope Pelagius II. The site is now occupied by today's San Lorenzo fuori le Mura (a.k.a. San Lorenzo in Verano). Some views, etc. follow. History and guide (Italian-langage): http://www.santamelania.it/approf/luogiub/lugcap7.htm#_Toc514781613 Brief history of the church (English-language): http://web.tiscali.it/romaonlineguide/Pages/eng/rcristiana/sCH2y5.htm Exterior views: http://www.mmdtkw.org/GARecrSP02.html http://tinyurl.com/a6kmo An exterior view of the basilica shortly after the bombing in 1943: http://www.gospark.it/img/articles/19203.JPG Exterior and interior views (multiple): http://www.italycyberguide.com/Geography/cities/rome2000/F41.htm http://rubens.anu.edu.au/popolo/midjpg/alphabetical/index15.html Exterior view plus details: http://members.tripod.com/romeartlover/Vasi46sl.html#Today Interior views: http://fujiso.hp.infoseek.co.jp/hrm2hp/prm507.jpg http://tinyurl.com/bjm7n http://www.romecity.it/sanlorenzofuorilemura06s.jpg Interior view (arch mosaic): http://www.hp.uab.edu/image_archive/ulj/mosaic07.jpg The stone on which L.'s body was laid after its removal from the grill is in this church: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Saint_Lawrence_stone.jpg Whereas the grill itself (and who could doubt this?) is in Rome's San Lorenzo in Lucina: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:San_lorenzo%27s_grill.jpg *** L. is prominently featured in the mosaics of the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia at Ravenna (earlier fifth-century): http://tinyurl.com/kbven http://www.pbase.com/jboard/image/48845668 detail (sans grill): http://tinyurl.com/g9u75 *** The collegiate church of the BVM at Amaseno (FR) in southern Lazio, a twelfth-century structure with later additions http://www.amasenoonline.com/smaria.htm , has a blood relic of L. that is said to liquefy every year on this day: http://www.nemesi.net/reliq1.jpg An Italian-language account with a rather different photograph of the relic is here: http://www.amasenoonline.com/reliquia.htm That page also has views of, and an excerpt from, the church's foundation document of 1177 (or from a later copy?), whose listing of its relics includes one of L.'s fat. As there are no reports of the liquefaction prior to the seventeenth century (also the date of the present reliquary), the suspicion has been voiced that the present relic may be an early modern substitution. See the following scientific account by Luigi Garlasecchi, the leading investigator today of such blood relics: http://www.cicap.org/en_artic/at101015.htm Another proposed explanation (by Marcello Guidotti; Italian-language) is here: http://www.nemesi.net/reliquie.htm For those who can't get enough, there's a whole gallery of photographs of the relic here: http://www.amasenoonline.com/indexrelic.htm Best, John Dillon ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html