Deacon Lawrence Shares the Church's Wealth with Emperor Valerian
Until about 300 A.D. and the coming of Constantine the treatment of the rapidly spreading Christian faith was always varying. Jacob's wages were frequently changing, so to speak. There were times of tolerance for the Christians, interspersed with times of brutal oppression. Persecutions both small and large were endured in those early centuries as Rome tried to decide if they should like or hate, fear or embrace this strange new faith with its 'new' soft and gentle God Jesus who said that the old Gods were actually no gods at all! Rome was large and in charge, and when an edict against Christians was issued, the empire largely obeyed. One day your community called you neighbor, then an edict from a faraway Emperor arrived and suddenly it was open season on you and your land and your belongings.
In 258 A.D. the Emperor Valerian agreed with those who said that Christians were "Odium Humani Generis".... that the Christian church had 'hatred for the human race'. Valerian issued an edict: the church leaders in Rome were to be captured and killed. The property and wealth of the church would be confiscated and brought to the emperor's treasury.
The Bishop of Rome (Pope) at that time was named Sixtus, and he had 7 deacons. Sixtus himself and six of the Christian deacons were quickly caught and summarily executed...beheaded. But the leader among the deacons, a man named Lawrence, remained at large for a time. He was the youngest deacon, only 32, but had been placed at the front by Sixtus who had known him for a good while from their earlier time working in Spain together.
Emperor Valerian was greedy for lucre as well as blood, and it seemed sensible to him to extend an olive branch of sorts to Lawrence, who was now the ranking church authority in Rome. Lawrence could remain alive if he would gather the wealth of the church and present it to the emperor. The emperor was willing to extend some mercy if the Christian church in Rome would honor him in this way.
Lawrence, to the pleasure of Valerian, asked for three days' time to gather the church's wealth. This was granted, and Valerian waited in anticipation for this great addition to his fortune.
Lawrence used this time to gather the poor, the lame, and the widowed from all parts of the city of Rome, and he gave away the assets of the Christian church to these desperately poor citizens. He gave away the silver, the gold, the valuable objects that were in possession of the church so that the poor, as Jesus had commanded, were cared for in a way that would truly help them to live out their days in the world with greater sufficiency.
After three days Lawrence came as agreed before Emperor Valerian, but with a very large crowd of them city's poor, widowed, and disabled. He addressed Valerian, telling the emperor that the crowd assembled before him, the wretchedly needy of Rome, were the true treasures of the church. Jesus had made it clear that such people as these were very precious souls. And so, the emperor was made to seem a fool in front of everyone for having believed that he would be gifted with considerable amounts of gold and silver on this day. And this simple deacon was showing unflinching disregard for the danger that came with displeasing the emperor.
Furious, the Emperor ordered Lawrence taken into custody. He then directed that a gridiron be brought out and a fire built beneath it until it was extremely hot, and he then had his soldiers place Lawrence upon the searing metal grating like a steak or a roast. Witnesses recounted that Lawrence bore up against the pain with great fortitude as the heat slowly killed him. He did not beg for mercy, nor did he apologize. According to witnesses he even joked with the watching guards that he was fully cooked on the one side, and that it was time to turn him over. He died before many watching eyes after a while, a death that no one envied. The emperor apparently was given no real satisfaction at all, and as for the wealth that had been given away.... there was just no effective way to reclaim it. It was in many hands and hidden in many places.
So great was the effect on the people of Rome who watched or heard about what Lawrence had done that it is reported that a great portion of the population of the city of Rome decided to become Christians in their own right at that time. And there can be no question, historically speaking, about the importance of the Christianization of the mighty Roman Empire. It killed the empire within about 200 years many historians say, in a sense, but not before Rome became very instrumental in allowing missionaries into many corners of the world as it was then known to exist.
Lawrence was dead in the flesh but became a huge inspiration too many. He is counted behind only Peter and Paul in spiritual stature in Rome it is said. And various geographical features of the world are even named after him, including the St. Lawrence River in the United States. It is one of the nation's great northeast rivers.
With only charity and a willingness to die for Jesus, if need be, Lawrence made a mark in Christian history that looks like it will stand the test of time. His gifts of the Holy Spirit? Faith, Courage, Charity, and Love? Those are not gifts to be made light of. They had a tremendous impact. Tremendous.