Lawrence
Saint Lawrence is the patron of cooks because of the manner of his martyrdom: he was roasted alive on a gridiron, and tradition has him jesting through the flames, “Turn me over, I am done on this side” — that same dark humor in the face of agony made him the patron of comedians as well. As a deacon of Rome charged with the Church’s goods, who presented the poor and sick as the Church’s “true treasures,” he is the model patron of deacons and, because that charge included the Church’s books and archives, of librarians. The gridiron likewise makes him an intercessor against fire and burns, and a protector invoked by firefighters; he is also venerated as a patron of Rome.
Saint Lawrence was one of the seven deacons of Rome under Pope Sixtus II, martyred in 258 AD during the persecution of Emperor Valerian. When ordered to hand over the Church’s treasures, he gathered the poor, the sick, and the disabled, presenting them as “the true treasures of the Church.” He was martyred on a gridiron and is said to have told his executioners, “Turn me over, I am done on this side.”
