Feast of Saint Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr
Today the church recalls the life and death of St. Lawrence, deacon and martyr. Deacons played a crucial role in the early church with their service that was both liturgical and administrative. Lawrence gained a reputation for his care for the poor, and his witness to the faith helped grow the Christian community in the city of Rome. This growth was perceived as a challenge to emperor Valerian, who led a purge against the church which included killing the deacons of the city of Rome in 258. Although some historians identify the rise of Christianity as the cause of the demise of civic virtue, such as Edward Gibbon in his famous History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776), most historians today identify Christianity and its virtues like care of the poor as one of the ways in which Rome survived the mid-third century economic crisis. Lawrence’s care for the poor, which took the expense of this service off the accounts of the state, served as an important example that was copied for centuries by Christians, with powerful effects. The development of the middle class in the United States, for example, was made possible in part by the sacrifices of so many religious women who moved immigrants from illiteracy to competency and fuller participation in their new home. Today’s feast recalls that men and women of faith make good citizens and can sacrifice their time and energy for the welfare of the state by promoting the welfare of its citizenry.