CONCERNING SAINT LAURENTIUS
AMONG THE GREEKS.
CommentaryLaurentius, among the Greeks (S.)
G. H.
Most celebrated is the festivity of S. Laurentius the Martyr on the day X of August, equally among the Greeks as among the Latins; so that it does not seem a wonder that to various Saints of various nations the name of him was given in his honor. Twelve such are suggested in the Roman Martyrology and the general Catalogue of Ferrarius; to whom we set forth several others to be added in this our work, but on the present day one related in the Greek Manuscript Menaea, preserved with Petrus Franciscus Chiffletius, in which we grieve that only it is noted that S. Laurentius rested in peace. But that he rested from labors by a happy exchange, the distich subjoined to the name indicates:
There is a certain exchange with God for Laurentius, Who by labors received the far-from-labor of Eden.
Where Eden, that is, Paradise of a new composition is named by the adjective πορρωπόνη, as having all labor far off, the composition being made from πόρρω far, and πόνος labor: but you may render it in Latin thus:
There is a commerce between God and Laurentius, That the price of labor be where there is no labor.
And these things we suggest, that those who obtain more concerning the Acts of this man and of others like him, may set them forth or submit them to us to be edited.