• A soldier saint
• Beheaded in Palestine for his faith - this is the only historical fact in his life
• Personification of Christian chivalry
• Allegedly slayed the dragon that was terrorizing the citizens of Silene in Libya and polluting the air with its breath

• Patron Saint of England, but also of Germany, Portugal and Greece
• Patron saint of armorers, butchers, saddlers and boy scouts
• Invoked against skin diseases!

1.  St Lawrence, Martyr; died 10 August, 258.
     Feast Day 10th August 

• Most celebrated Roman martyr
• One of the seven deacons of Rome
• Beheaded during the Valerian persecution following the death of Pope Sixtus II.
• Legend, however, says he was burned alive on a grid, thus his emblem is a gridiron
• Lawrence has been one of the most venerated martyrs of the Roman Church since the fourth century.
• It is known that he was buried in the cemetery of Cyriaca 'in agro Verano' on the Via Tiburtina. 
• This is the spot where Constantine built the first chapel on the site of what is now the church of St. Lawrence-outside-the-Walls.
• Patron saint of cooks, brewers, confectioners, cutlers, armorers and schoolboys as well as washerwomen and glaziers!

2.  St Lawrence of Canterbury
    ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY.
    Feast: February 2

• He was one of those who accompanied St. Augustine into this island, about the year 597, and was his immediate successor in the see of Canterbury, in 608, in which he sat eleven years. 
• When Eadbald, son and successor to the holy king Ethelbert, not only refused to follow his father's example in embracing Christianity, but gave into idolatry, and incestuously took to his bed his father's widow
• Lawrence, despairing of reclaiming him, thought of nothing but retiring to France, as some others had already done. 
• But in a dream, he was severely scourged by St. Peter on the eve of his intended departure
• This did not only prevent his going, but had such an effect upon the King, when he was shown the marks of the stripes he had received, that the King became a thorough convert and  propagated Christianity in his dominions. 
• St. Laurence did not long survive this happy change, dying in the year 619.
• See Bede, Hist. b. 2, c. 4, 6, 7.[1] Malmesb. 1. 1, Pontif. Angl.