27. Aptly, The Patron Saint of Comedians Cracked Jokes During His Execution
Saint Lawrence’s mentor and patron, Pope Sixtus II, was arrested and sentenced to be executed. A weeping Lawrence followed him to the execution site, crying “father, where are you going without your deacon?” Sixtus replied, “I am not leaving you, my son – in three days you shall follow me“. Rather than feel terrified by such an ominous prediction, Lawrence was cheered by the condemned man’s prophecy. He returned to the church and emptied its coffers to distribute the contents to the poor. He also began selling what Church assets he could in order to give even more to the needy.
A Roman prefect, believing that the Church had a fortune stashed away, ordered Lawrence to bring him the Church’s treasure. Promising to do so in three days, Lawrence gathered Rome’s poor and sick. Returning on the appointed day, he told the prefect that they were the Church’s treasure. The prefect was not impressed and ordered Lawrence executed. To prolong his agony, he ordered Lawrence secured to an iron grill and placed over a slow fire. Lawrence, burning with religious zeal, seemed impervious to pain. He even joked at some point: “turn me over, I think I am done on this side“.
