martyrdom · 258 · Rome
Lawrence was one of the seven deacons of Rome, which in the third century meant he administered the church's money and its relief of the poor — some fifteen hundred people were on the Roman rolls. Valerian's second edict in 258 ordered bishops, presbyters and deacons executed outright; Sixtus II was taken in the cemetery of Callistus and Lawrence followed four days later. The story that he was told to produce the treasure and produced the poor is told by Ambrose within a hundred and thirty years, and it is the reason he became one of the most venerated martyrs in the west — one of the very few with his own vigil, and named in the canon of the mass. The gridiron is the part worth flagging. Prudentius and Ambrose both have it, so it was believed at Rome by 400; but the other deacons of 258 were beheaded, which was the law, and modern scholars have suggested the whole tradition may rest on a copying slip in an early account — passus est, he suffered, becoming assus est, he was roasted. This dataset records the tradition and the doubt together, which is what the evidence ladder is for.
The prefect demands the treasure of the church. What does the deacon bring?
The poor. And then, in the story, he is roasted on a gridiron and jokes about it.