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Saint Lawrence was one of the seven deacons of Rome, a group set up in the early Christian church to assist and support the apostles in their administrative and charitable work. The duties of the deacons, who had their own liturgical tunic (the dalmatic), included celebrating the rites, distributing the Eucharist, performing charitable works and administering the assets in the Roman diocese.
Born in Spain , Lawrence continued and completed his studies in Saragozza. He then went to Rome, where Pope Sixtus II appointed him archdeacon, the first of the seven deacons serving the church at the time. In 257 the emperor Valerian issued an edict commanding that all bishops, priests and deacons should be put to death. According to the tradition recorded in the Passio Polychronii, Saint Lawrence was roasted alive on a gridiron because he refused to hand over the treasure of the community of Sixtus II, who had already been martyred.
Constantine then had a church built on the site of his burial, which was later rebuilt as the present church of San Lorenzo al Verano.
The saint’s feast day is on 10 August.
Saint Lawrence is portrayed as a young deacon wearing the dalmatic, bearing the palm of martyrdom in his hand and with the gridiron on which he was burnt. Lawrence should not be confused with Saint Stephen, also a deacon and hence wearing the same vestment, who instead has stones as his attribute, sometimes even shown upon his head as a symbol of his death by stoning.
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