The Story of St. Lawrence,
Deacon and Martyr
at Rome, 258

As a newly formed Area Parish in our Anglican Diocese of Ottawa, we’ve chosen to adopt St. Lawrence as our namesake - not only because the name evokes the magnificent river we live and worship along, but because it calls to mind the faithful daring of our love for one another exemplified in Lawrence’s story.

Below is an excerpt on Lawrence from Stephen Reynolds For All The Saints, a publication of the Anglican Church of Canada, that celebrates the lives of ordinary people transformed by the Risen Jesus alive in them.

May we too, like Lawrence, serve the Spirit of God, loving as Christ loves us, and bearing the truth of God’s riches in one another.

Today we honour Laurence [sic], a deacon of the Roman church who was martyred in the middle of the third century. As a deacon, he assisted the bishop at the eucharist by reading the gospel and administering the cup. Laurence also had charge over the wealth of his church, to see that it was used for the relief of the poor and needy.

On August 6th in the year 258, during renewed persecution of the Church, he was arrested with his bishop and several other deacons. Later that same day, all of them were beheaded, except Laurence. The magistrate knew that Laurence kept his church’s money and ordered him to hand it over. The deacon asked for three days’ grace, and on August 10th he came to the magistrate and led him our into the courtyard. The yard was filled with beggars, widows, lepers, cripples and the mentally ill. “Here,” Laurence said, “this is the Church’s wealth!” Enraged by such daring, the magistrate had him executed at once.

Early in the fifth century, Augustine of Hippo summarized the meaning of his example in this way: “Laurence ministered the blood of Christ to the faithful, and for the sake of Christ’s name he poured out his own.”

You’re invited to pray with us as we strive to live into Lawrence’s daring faith:

Kindle in your Church, O God,
the Spirit whom blessed Lawrence served,
that we may love what he loved
and hasten to follow
the example of his faithful daring;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.