Today we celebrate the memorial of St Lawrence (or Laurence or Lorenzo) and to honour it we have chosen the antiphon of Lauds which accompanies the canticle of the Benedictus, In craticula. Lawrence, deacon of Pope Sixtus II, was condemned to death on 10 August 258. His deposition on the Via Tiburtina is attested by the Depositio Martyrum of 354, and the feast of St Lawrence has been part of the Roman saints' calendar from the beginning. The popularity of the deacon who, according to his Passio, was burned alive on a gridiron after distributing the Church's goods to the poor, spread rapidly: according to St Leo the Great, Rome became "as famous thanks to Lawrence as Jerusalem had been glorified by Stephen".
After the beheading of Pope Sixtus II, Lawrence was arrested in turn, and the prefect of Rome, Cornelius Secularis, ordered him to hand over the treasures of the church to the emperor. He asked for time to make an inventory. He was given three days. Lawrence immediately set about distributing among the priests and the poor the few riches entrusted to him by Pope Sixtus II.
On the third day, Lawrence presented himself with all the poor of the Church of Rome, the crippled, the blind, the lame and the sick. “Here," he said, "are the treasures of the Church; by our life and our celebrations we gather great riches in heaven. To these I add pearls and precious stones, virgins and widows consecrated to God".
Furious, the emperor ordered St Lawrence to be tortured with red-hot knives and whips. But nothing would make him weaken. He was then stripped of his clothes and laid naked on a bed in the shape of a grill, under which embers were placed. When asked to offer a sacrifice to the pagan gods, he refused and proclaimed, "I offer myself to God as a sacrifice because a spirit repentant of its sins is received by God with tenderness." The executioners continued to activate the fire under St Lawrence. To increase the pain, they turned him around with pitchforks. Lawrence said he felt nothing. With his faith and fortitude, he overcame the ferocity of the fire. Addressing the emperor, he is said to have said, not without humour, "Here, you wretch, this part is cooked, turn it over and eat it".
In Spain, the royal site of San Lorenzo del Escorial, a large architectural complex (monastery, palace, royal mausoleum and library) built during the reign of Philip II, has a plan, with its square courtyards arranged in the shape of a chessboard, reminiscent of the shape of a grill.
The antiphon chosen takes up the words of the deacon Lawrence, in the first person, as an offering of his unshakeable faith and a testimony to the strength of his martyrdom. The purity of his faith is highlighted by the fire that burns in the grate, a fire that makes clear the infinite goodness of his heart, et non est inventa in me iniquitas....
As for its melody, composed in mode 1, D-A, it does not go beyond the octave. The F acquires a certain importance, in constant dialogue with the fundamental D and the dominant A. The piece begins in the low register, in craticula (the grill) to gradually rise towards the treble, reaching the A, raising the tone of what Lawrence proclaims, I did not deny (you). And in ignem applicatus we reach the paroxysm of the expression of his testimony in the B flat, sublime ornamentation in the treble, heart-rending cry of Lawrence's faith, and the virga strata that appears in the final syllable of these two words amplifying even more the expressive force of the martyrdom by fire. After this, the melody returns to the fundamental of the mode, en te Christum confessus sum, enhancing the solidity of Lawrence's profession of faith. In the second part, the magnitude of the trial is again manifested by three verbs underlined by the melody: in a movement of thirds the purity of his heart is highlighted, probasti cor; visitasti is also beautifully drawn by the melody and finally igne me examinasti, culminating the trial from which Lawrence emerges victorious. The piece concludes with the final verdict: no evil was found in me, the melody again settles on the D, et non est inventa, melodic echo of te Christum confessus sum, to underline in the final cadenza the absence of evil in Lawrence, thus closing this chant, a profession of faith.