Lawrence Martyr

ON SAINT LAWRENCE MARTYR,

PRIEST OF NOVARA IN CISALPINE GAUL.

Century IV.

Laurentius Martyr, Priest of Novara in Italy (Saint)

Saint Lawrence is venerated at Novara, a city of Cisalpine Gaul, with a feast and Double Office. Thus the Proper of the Saints of that Church, He is venerated at Novara with feast and Double Office, printed in the year 1636, referring his Birthday to April 30, and his Translation to June 20 under the same solemnity: concerning which Charles the Bishop of Novara in the Novaria Sacra has more abundantly: "It is celebrated," he says, "in those first times with a sacred and public Office, the memory of Blessed Laurentius and the boys together, on the day of their Martyrdom reported: whose Office, when the written things, together with those which had been recited in the church in honor of Saints Gaudentius and Agabius the Bishops, and of Saints Julius and Julianus the Confessors, had been set aside from the constitution of the supreme Pontiff Pius V concerning the Breviary; we, when in the Jubilee year 1600 we were at Rome, by the authority of Pope Clement VIII took care to have restored. restored by Clement VIII, For from the ancient tables of the Church of Novara we wrote their history, to be read distinctly in the sacred office; and we selected other things which were more fit for being pronounced and sung in the Church about these holy men; and recognized by Baronius and Bellarmine, which indeed by the command of the Pontiff, Caesar Baronius and Robert Bellarmine, Cardinals, the most religious Princes of Catholic letters in this century, recognized and approved."

[2] Saint Lawrence flourished in the 4th century, as is clear from those things which we said on January 22 about Saint Gaudentius; he flourished in the 4th century, who at first his disciple, then his helper in propagating the faith, then his successor, and was the first Bishop of the Church of Novara for 20 years, having died about the year of the Lord 418; in whose Life, written by an anonymous author, illustrious mention is made of his holy master. Nothing certain can be pronounced concerning his homeland; the Acts only report that he came to Novara from the western parts, or Spanish by origin, in which are both Gaul and Spain; nay, more closely and directly, the Ligustic shores, where a most cultivated Christianity flourished, so that there is no need, without some other urgent cause, to seek a homeland for the Saint outside of Italy. Bivarius in his Commentary on the year 312 upon the Chronicon of Dexter presumes that many Priests clung to Hosius on his way to Rome: of whom Tamayo judged this Saint Lawrence to have been one, because he holds it persuasive that he was born at Córdoba, from I know not whose "Aulus Halus," who is said to have lived in the year 1532, by an Epigram: which, even if it bore the name of a true author, of whom we rightly waver, would yet be of no authority to persuade a matter unknown to all antiquity: but it is astonishing that an "ancient, very ancient, and written in Gothic letters" codex is called of an author so recent, as the note of the affixed year shows.

[3] The Acts are held from the Acts of Saint Gaudentius, with words almost the same in substance, referred to in the Lessons of the proper Office: "Proceeding thence Gaudentius, not many days having passed, coming to Novara he converts the gentiles, he withdrew to Novara, and there found Lawrence the Priest, who long before had come from the western parts for Christ's name; who, clothed with fervor of faith, against the malignant perfidy of the gentiles, as a standard-bearer and warrior among hostile murmurs fought through the midst of the lines, and indeed girded with faith, had built with his own hands not far from the city a sacred font, in which baptism is continually celebrated in the name of the holy Trinity. He did not cease to insinuate to the gentiles the God perfect in Trinity, whom he knew; and preferring His judgment and mercy, gradually to associate with God the souls which he was taking from the devil by his preaching: and it was done in a wondrous manner, that to the unarmed

man the armed people could in no way resist. by preaching and miracles: God even deigned to exercise through him such great powers, that he won the hearts of the rebels no less by miracles than by preachings. But when one day, according to custom, he had consecrated to the Lord an innumerable crowd of little ones reborn by the grace of baptism, and was going boldly amid the unspeakable ranks of the worshipers of the mausoleum, by the impious, together with the multitude of the little ones then baptized, crowned with martyrdom, he ended his present life, but in heaven with the Angels triumphs as victor, having obtained eternal life: he is killed by the pagans, whose venerable body hitherto and to the present day with many daily signs and miracles of healings in the city of Novara shines. But thanks to you, Lord Jesus, who have permitted the darts of the attacking enemy to be the testing of your faithful, not wounds; and bestow such a reward through labor on yours, that none of yours may the enemy rejoice to have been unwarlike. Therefore, while this observance of the received office tends to the deeds of the peculiar Patron, it does not pursue many things which through that same most blessed Martyr Lawrence were done: yet let it suffice that we were not forgetful of him; for in such causes it is more fitting to believe faithfully than human relation can demonstrate. Therefore Blessed Gaudentius, when he had come to the athlete Lawrence himself, was most gratefully received by him: to whom adhering step by step and obeying his divine admonitions, made a juridical emulator, and most fully instructed in the norm of the holy Trinity, with equal collegiality for a long time fed the royal flock."

[4] from his sepulchre a salutary liquid flows, Ferrarius in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy is the author that from the body of Saint Lawrence a certain sacred liquid flows, and in the faith of which matter he asserts the following epigram inscribed on his sepulchre:

Do you behold this marble of the tomb hollowed out in the usual way? It is solid within, nor is any crack open. Whence can the earth send up hidden streams? This liquor flows from the bones placed there. If you doubt, lift the sweating relics from the middle of the sepulchre, You will say: Where is the salutary wave?

Charles the Bishop suggests the following things about the church in which he was placed: "Because the Saint was cast into a well, the church of Saint Lawrence is wont to be called 'at the well.' It is read that the blessed Father was killed with his sons in the white field; but placed in the well in the field called of barley: where churches were built to him which place I think to have been where afterwards a basilica was built under his name: that the place of the well is in that basilica is credible, although no one can demonstrate it. Near it, which was indeed notable, there was a monastery of Monks, diminished, when the incomes, under the title of commendation to be received, were conferred on Clerics as a benefice; but gradually destroyed, especially when, for the sake of fortifying the city, the church with the buildings was pulled down. and afterwards destroyed In that monastery Saint Bernard of Aosta, he of whom we spoke in the description of the diocese, while passing through here, being received as a guest ended his day, and was buried in that church."

[5] A chapel is substituted and for this a new temple Further, as the same Bishop Charles continues, "Near the ruins of the basilica of Saint Lawrence now only a chapel is left; but instead of it the Franciscans of stricter discipline, called Capuchins, are building another church of the same name on the opposite side of the city, at no small expense, Ferdinand Farnese, Bishop of Parma, supplying them; who, using the benefice of commendation there, receives the fruits of the church; whose first stone we duly laid on August 16 in the year 1602, and with all the clergy and people, with the sacred ceremony being celebrated with us, we strove to renew the memory of the most holy Father and Martyr, and to increase his cult. The relics of Saint Lawrence and the boys there have been preserved with religious veneration, not however with that miracle which some of those, who have received things lightly reported, have committed to memory: until together with those of Saint Bernard and others, while that church was being destroyed, they were translated to the Cathedral in the year 1552. his relics are translated to Novara in the year 1552 When there for a long time they were held as translated, we, having them first carefully recognized, duly placed them under the high altar, in the year 1595 … but concerning those relics placed in the primary altar of the Cathedral basilica, tables have been drawn up, confirmed by the faith of Michael Michaeli our notary, which as a monument of these and of the others will be inserted in these writings."

[6] and in the year 1595 they are elevated "In the name of the Lord. In the year from His Nativity 1595, on the 15th day of the month of December, the Most Reverend Lord Charles a Basilica-Petri, by the grace of God and of the Holy Apostolic See, Bishop of Novara, Count of Riparia &c. when before he had visited the relics of the Saints, placed under the high altar of the church of Saint Mary the Cathedral of Novara, once translated from the destroyed church of Saint Lawrence outside the walls, and had recognized them (as appears from the instrument received through Alphonsus Mutius for referring to the Episcopal Chancellor on the day after the Kalends of November in the same year) and had determined that they should be placed fittingly under a stone altar to be consecrated, and duly established, on the said day, at the first hour of the night, with many canons and other clerics accompanying, he came to the greater church: and there when he had prayed for a little while on bent knees, the place in which the wooden cases containing the sacred relics were kept having been opened, he ordered those, covered with a silken cloth, to be carried into the sacristy by four canons, clad in surplices and copes, with a stole placed around the neck, with many lighted tapers; and the Most Reverend Bishop himself following, with the right Reverend D. Jo. Paul Cacius, Archdeacon, and Ardicinus a Porta, Provost of the Cathedral Church of Novara, assisting, clad in an amice, stole, and cope of red color, and miter, duly blessed three leaden cases: of which two larger and similar to each other were pointed in the form of a sepulchre; the third indeed smaller, but distinguished into four compartments. Then the antiphon Gaudent in caelis, etc. was recited, with verse and prayer for asking the suffrages of the Saints. Then he drew out the bones of the whole body from the pointed wooden case with his own hands, with the relics of other saints and placed them in the larger leaden one, a silken cloth of white color having been placed beneath. Likewise other bones of another body in the same manner he transferred from another wooden to another leaden case, and wrapped them with a silk cloth of white color. Which bones, although thus placed in the said two wooden cases, and once found at the high altar of the said church of Saint Lawrence, yet whose relics they were, was not known. Then in the compartment of the third leaden case he placed a few older bones, which had been in a pewter vessel, and were considered the bones of Saint Lawrence and the boys, and wrapped them with red silk. In another compartment of the same case, and with a similar cloth, he placed a few others, which had been found in a little wooden case corrupted by age, and were held to be of the same Martyr and the boys … but the fragments and dust existing from the cases and from the handling of the bones, he placed in an earthenware urn. In the individual cases, and in the urn, and in the compartments he placed parchment notes, enclosed in little vessels of iron plate, in which is written what was contained in each place, and whence it was received. At last, the covers having been joined with the cases themselves by welding, a festal sign of the bells having been given, he ordered the cases to be transferred from the sacristy into the church with the same array; while the clergy sang hymns and antiphons suited to the matter; and after the prayers about these Saints had been recited, he ordered them to be placed in the marble chest, the two larger at the heads of the chest, the third with the urn placed transversely in the middle; but all above iron rods fixed to the bottom of the chest, &c."