Saint Lawrence Justinian

He no longer doubted that he was called to the religious state, where he was sure to find all the means necessary to attain the great end he proposed to himself. But he would not determine his course until he had first consulted God through humble prayer. He also sought the advice of Marino Querini, his maternal uncle. He was a holy and learned priest, who was a canon regula r of the congregation of Saint George, called 'of Alga,' because chanoine régulier de la congrégation de Saint-George, dite d'Alga Religious congregation in which Lawrence made his profession. the monastery was on a small island of that name, a mile from Venice. (The convent and church are today in the hands of a community of Reformed Carmelites.) This wise director, seeing that Justinian had a strong inclination for the religious state, advised him to first test his strength by accustoming himself little by little to the practice of austerities. He obeyed, and began to sleep at night either on pieces of wood or on the bare ground. Having one day represented to himself on one side the honors, riches, and pleasures of the world, and on the other, the rigors of poverty, fasts, vigils, and renunciation, he said to himself: 'My soul, are you courageous enough to despise these delights and to walk without interruption in the ways of penance and mortification?' Then, having paused for a few moments, he cast his eyes on a crucifix, and continued in this manner: 'You are my hope, O my God! In you are found consolation and strength.' From that moment, he was seen macerating his flesh through the austerities of penance, and giving himself with untiring ardor to all the exercises of religion. His mother and friends, fearing that he would ruin his health, sought to divert him from the design he had resolved to execute, and proposed an honorable establishment in the world. Not knowing how to avoid the snares that a false tenderness laid for him, he fled secretly and went to take the habit among the Canons Regular of the congregation of Saint George of Alga.

He found no austerities in the community that he had not already practiced, and his superiors were obliged to moderate the activity of his zeal in this regard. Despite his youth, he surpassed all the brothers in the rigor of his fasts and the length of his vigils. He never allowed himself any recreation that was not useful; he took severe disciplines; he did not warm himself, even in the greatest cold; he ate only to sustain his body and never drank outside of his meals. When it was suggested that he drink, under the pretext that the heat was excessive or that he was overwhelmed with fatigue, he was accustomed to make this reply: 'If we cannot endure thirst, how shall we be able to suffer the fire of purgatory?' This disposition to suffer produced in him an invincible patience in all trials. During his novitiate, a malady appeared on his neck for the healing of which it was necessary to use iron and fire. The moment of the operation having arrived, he reassured the spectators who were trembling in this way: 'Why do you fear? Do you think that I cannot receive the constancy I need from Him who knew not only how to console, but even to deliver from the flames the three children thrown into the furnace?' He suffered the operation without letting out a single sigh and pronouncing only the sacred name of Jesus. He later showed the same courage when a painful incision was made on him. 'Cut boldly,' he said to the surgeon who was trembling; 'your instrument does not approach the iron nails with which the martyrs were torn.'

He always arrived first at the public exercises and was the last to leave. Matins finished, he did not follow the brothers who went to rest, but remained in the church until Prime, which was said at sunrise. Nothing flattered him more than to be able to practice humility; the lowest tasks were those he chose by preference, and he always wore the worst clothes of the community. He obeyed as soon as the slightest sign manifested the will of the superior. In private conversations, he sacrificed his judgment to that of others, and sought in everything the last place, as much as he could do so without affectation. When he went begging in the streets, he sought every opportunity to attract the contempt and mockery of the people of the world. Having one day been in a place where he could not fail to be ridiculed, his companion pointed it out to him; but he replied with tranquility: 'Let us go boldly to beg for contempt. We have done nothing if we have renounced the world only in word; we must triumph over it today with our sacks and our crosses.' He knew that humiliations accepted and suffered with joy are the surest way to win a complete victory over oneself and to destroy that foundation of pride which is in us one of the principal obstacles to virtue. He also understood how advantageous it is not to be content with those that Providence sends and to add voluntary ones, provided, however, that one does so with prudence and avoids everything that might smack of affectation. In the course of his begging, he often presented himself at the house where he was born; but he did not enter: he remained in the street and asked for alms at the door. His mother never heard his voice without being moved. She could recommend to her servants to give him with prodigality, but he received only two loaves; after which, he wished peace to those who had assisted him, and withdrew as if he had been a stranger. The storehouse where the annual provision of the community was kept having been burned, he said to a brother who was lamenting: 'Why have we made a vow to live in poverty? God has granted us this grace so that we may feel it!' It was thus that he revealed his love for humiliations and sufferings, and that he practiced all the virtues that are their consequences and that constitute their principal merit.

As soon as he had renounced the world, he accustomed himself so much to mastering his tongue that he never said anything to justify or excuse himself. Having been one day accused in the chapter of having transgressed a point of the rule, he kept silent, despite the falsity of the accusation. It should also be noted that he was then superior; he left his place; then, having taken a few steps with his eyes lowered, he knelt down, asked pardon of the brothers, and prayed that a penance be imposed upon him. The accuser was so confused that he went to throw himself at the feet of the Saint, declaring that he was innocent, and loudly condemned himself. Lawrence feared dissipation so much that from the day of his entry into the monastery until the day of his death, he entered his paternal home only to assist his mother in her final moments.

Some time after his retirement, he was exposed to a harsh trial on the part of one of his former friends who occupied one of the first places in the republic and who had recently arrived from the Orient. This man imagined that he would succeed in making him change his design, and he resolved to employ all possible means to succeed. He therefore took the road to the monastery of Saint George, accompanied by a troupe of musicians, and he was permitted to enter because of his dignity. When he caught sight of Lawrence, he was extremely struck by his modesty and gravity; and the astonishment he felt made him keep silent for some time. Having finally forced himself, he said to him everything that friendship could inspire of the most tender to engage him to enter into his views. As these means did not succeed for him, he had recourse to reproaches and invectives, which had no more success. When he had finished speaking, the Saint gave a discourse so touching on death and the vanities of the world that his friend, touched by a lively compunction, was beside himself. He came to the point that, having broken without delay all the ties that held him in the world, he resolved to embrace the state for which he had had only contempt. He took the habit at Saint George, made his novitiate with a fervor that did not falter in the following years, became the object of the admiration and edification of the whole city, and finally died the death of the just.

Saint Lawrence was raised to the priesthood, of which he was so worthy by his virtues. The spirit of prayer and compunction with which he was endowed to such a high degree, and the knowledge he possessed of spiritual things and the interior ways of piety, enabled him to work with great fruit for the sanctification of souls. The tears that escaped him during his exercises, and especially during the celebration of Mass, made a vivid impression on those present and awakened their faith; he was also favored with various raptures.

Having been elected against his will as General of his Order, he governed it with admirable wisdom. He reformed its discipline to such a point that he was thereafter regarded as its founder. In his discourses, both public and private, he spoke of virtue with such unction that all hearts were softened. He revived the lukewarm, filled the presumptuous with a salutary fear, inspired confidence in the faint-hearted, and led them all to fervor. His ordinary maxim was that a religious should tremble at the name of the slightest transgression. He received few subjects into his Order, and he tested for a long time those he judged worthy of admission. He based this on the fact that the perfection and duties of the religious state are for few people, and that it is not always in great numbers that one finds the fervor and spirit essential to religion. It is easy to understand that, having adopted such principles, he scrupulously examined all applicants. The first thing he demanded of his disciples was profound humility; he taught them that this virtue not only purifies the soul of all pride, but that it also inspires true courage by teaching it to place its trust only in God. He compared it to a river that is low and calm in summer, but high and deep in winter. "Humility," he said, following the same comparison, "keeps silence and does not rise in prosperity, while in adversity it is high, magnanimous, filled with joy and invincible courage. There is nothing," he continued, "where men are more exposed to being mistaken; few know what this virtue is; it is possessed only by those to whom God has given it by infusion as a reward for their redoubled efforts and the spirit of prayer that was in them. The humility that is acquired by repeated acts is only a preparation for this one, although necessary and indispensable; thus it is always blind and imperfect. Infused humility enlightens the soul in all its views; it makes it see clearly all its miseries and gives it the feeling of them; it communicates to it that true science which consists in knowing that God alone is everything and that we are nothing." During wars and other public calamities, he exhorted the magistrates and senators to be well penetrated by their own lowliness, because this disposition was the most apt to draw upon them the gaze of divine mercy.

From the time he received the priesthood until his death, he never failed to celebrate Mass every day, unless he was prevented by illness. He said on this subject that one has very little love for Jesus Christ when one does not try to unite oneself to Him as often as one can. He frequently inculcated this maxim, that there would be as much folly in aspiring to chastity while leading a soft, idle, and sensual life as there would be in wanting to extinguish a fire by throwing oil on it. He never ceased to remind the rich of the obligation they have to give alms if they wish to be saved. One did not find studied thoughts in his discourses; but there reigned in them an unction against which one could not defend oneself.

Pope Eugene IV, who knew the eminent virtue of Lawrence, appointed him bi shop of Venice i évêque de Venise Final location of the transfer of relics in 1200. n 1433. The Saint used every possible means to avoid accepting this dignity; he even urged those of his Order to write to the Pope, to beg him to leave him in his solitude: but all was in vain; he had to obey. He took possession of his Church with such simplicity and so secretly that his own friends did not know of it until the ceremony was over. He spent the entire following night in prayer before an altar, to draw down upon himself the graces of heaven; he did the same the night preceding his consecration. He was admirable for his sincere piety toward God, for the ardor of his zeal for the glory of the Lord, and for his extraordinary charity toward the poor. He did not diminish any of the austerities he had practiced in the cloister. His assiduity in prayer earned him truly heavenly lights, that invincible firmness, and that indefatigable activity of which his entire conduct bore the imprint; he knew how to pacify the internal dissensions that agitated the State, and to govern his diocese in the stormiest of times with as much ease as he would have governed a monastery. His manner of living reflected his love for simplicity and poverty: and when it was represented to him that he owed something to his birth, to the dignity of his see, and to the republic, he replied that virtue was the only ornament of the episcopal character, and that a bishop should have no other family than the poor of his diocese. His household was composed of only five people; he ate on earthenware dishes; he had for a bed only a straw mattress covered with rags, and had only a poor cassock for clothing. His severity toward himself, joined to a great depth of affability and gentleness toward others, made him universally respected. He acquired such an ascendancy over all minds and hearts that he easily succeeded in reforming various abuses that had crept into the clergy and especially among the laity. His flock loved and respected him, and there was no one who did not submit with docility to all his ordinances. If the execution of his pious designs experienced some difficulties at first, he knew how to triumph over them by his gentleness and patience.

His zeal against the theaters stirred up some enemies against him. One of them, who was powerful, rose up with much indecency against a mandate he had issued in this regard; he portrayed the holy bishop as a man who wanted to bring the rigidity of the cloister into the world, as a meticulous monk agitated by vain scruples, and he made every effort to stir up the people against him. Another time, Justinian was insulted publicly in the streets and called a hypocrite. He listened to the insults heaped upon him without changing his expression and without losing any of his tranquility. He was no less indifferent to the praises and applause given to him: one noticed in him no movement of sadness or of any passion whatsoever; he enjoyed an equanimity of soul that nothing was capable of altering.

His first visitation of his diocese produced incredible fruits. He founded fifteen monasteries and a large number of churches; he reformed all the abuses that had been introduced regarding the celebration of the divine office and the administration of the sacraments. He established such beautiful order in his cathedral that it became the model for all of Christendom; he founded new prebends there, so that it might be served with more decency and dignity. He erected ten parishes in Venice, and there were then thirty in that city, instead of the twenty that were there before. One saw every day an innumerable multitude of people in his palace: some came to seek consolation in their sorrows, or help in their miseries; others came to consult the Saint in their doubts. His door was never closed to the poor. He preferred to distribute bread and clothing, to avoid the misuse of money, which is only too common, even among the indigent; or if he gave any, it was always in small quantities. Pious ladies carried his alms to the bashful poor or to those who had suffered considerable losses. In the charities he performed, he had regard neither for flesh nor blood. Someone having come to find him on behalf of Leonard his brother, he sent him away, saying: "Return to the one who sent you, and I charge you to tell him that he is in a position to assist you himself." No one ever carried the contempt for money further than he did. He entrusted the care of his temporal affairs to a faithful steward, and he was accustomed to say on this subject: "It is unworthy of a pastor of souls to employ a considerable part of a time that is so precious in entering into the small details that have money as their object."

The Popes showed Lawrence much veneration. Eugene IV having summoned him to come see him in Bologna, the Holy Father received him with great marks of distinction and called him "the ornament of the episcopate." Nicholas V, who had the same sentiments for him, sought every occasion to give him effective proofs of his esteem. Finally, he found one at the death of Dominic Michelli, patriarch of Grado, which occurred in 1451. He transferred the patriarc Nicolas V Friend of Albergati, whose election to the pontificate he predicted. hal dignity to the see of Venice. The senate of that city, always jealous of its liberty, raised great difficulties; it feared that its rights and privileges might be harmed in some circumstances. Whi patriarche de Grado Former patriarchal see whose dignity was transferred to Venice. le this affair was being debated with much vivacity, Lawrence went to the place whe re the senate was assem Le sénat de cette ville Political body of the Republic of Venice involved in its patriarchal appointments. bled and declared there that he would rather leave a position for which he was not fit and which he had occupied for eighteen years against his will, than to aggravate, by the addition of a new dignity, the burden he had so much trouble bearing. The speech he made on this occasion showed on his part such a great depth of charity and humility that the doge himself could not restrain his tears; he went so far as to beg Lawrence not to think of his resignation, and to conform to the decree of the Pope, the execution of which would be useful to the Church and honorable to their country. The senators applauded the doge, and the ceremony of the installation of the new patriarch took place to the great satisfaction of the whole city.

Lawrence looked upon himself as a man who had contracted a new obligation to work with ardor for the increase of the reign of Jesus Christ and for the sanctification of the souls entrusted to his care. One saw then in the most sensible manner what a Saint can do in high places. Lawrence found time to sanctify himself and to be of service to his neighbor. He never made anyone wait through his own fault; he left everything to give audience to those who wished to speak to him, without distinction of poor or rich. He received all the persons who presented themselves with such gentleness and charity, consoled them in such a touching manner, and appeared so perfectly free from all passion, that one did not imagine he had participated in original corruption. Everyone looked upon him as an angel descended to earth. His counsels were always proportioned to the state of the persons who addressed themselves to him. Justice was so universally rendered to his virtue, his wisdom, and his lights, that one no longer wished to re-examine in Rome the cases he had decided, and that in the case of appeal, the sentences he had rendered were always confirmed there. Full of contempt for himself, he was indifferent to the idea that one might form of his person. If someone praised him, he took the occasion to humble himself more before God and before men. He hid his good works as much as it was possible for him. When those tears escaped him that had their source in divine love or in the vivacity of his compunction, he accused himself of weakness and of an excessive sensitivity of soul. He was entirely dead to himself. A servant having one day presented him with vinegar at the table instead of wine and water, he drank it without saying anything. Everything, even his library, announced in him the love of poverty.

the republic was agitated in his time by violent shocks, and threatened with the greatest dangers. A holy hermit, who for more than thirty years had served God with fervor on the island of Corfu, asserted that he had known in a supernatural manner that the State had been saved by the prayers of the holy bishop. The nephew of Lawrence, who wrote his life in a pure and elegant style, reports, as an eyewitness, that he was favored with the gift of miracles and that of prophecy.

He was seventy-four years old when he composed his final work, entitled *The Deg rees of Perfection*. He les Degrés de perfection The last work composed by the saint before his death. had barely finished it when he was seized by a violent fever. Seeing his servants busy preparing a bed for him, he said to them, quite troubled: "What are you trying to do? You are wasting your time. My Lord died stretched out on a cross. Do you not remember that Saint Martin said in his agony that a Christian must die on ashes and haircloth?" He insisted that they lay him on straw. While his friends wept around him, he cried out in raptures of joy: "Behold the Bridegroom: let us go out to meet him"; then, lifting his eyes to heaven, he added: "Lord Jesus, I am coming to you." At other times, he gave himself over to the sentiments of that holy fear inspired by the thought of the judgments of God. When someone told him one day that he should be filled with joy since he was going to receive the crown, he became troubled and replied: "The crown is for courageous soldiers, and not for cowards such as I." His poverty was so great that he had nothing to dispose of. He did, however, make his will, and it was only to exhort all men to virtue, and to order that he be buried as a simple religious in the convent of Saint George. But, after his death, the senate would not permit this last clause to be executed. During the two days that preceded his death, the various bodies of the city came to receive his blessing. The entrance to his room was opened to the poor as well as the rich, and he gave very touching instructions to all. Marcel, one of his beloved disciples, weeping bitterly, he consoled, saying to him: "I am going to precede you: but you will follow me soon. We shall be reunited this coming Easter." The prediction was verified by the event. Having closed his eyes, he expired peacefully on January 8, 1455, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. He had been a bishop for twenty-two years, and a patriarch for four. He was not buried until March 17, because of a dispute that arose regarding the place of his burial.

He is often depicted with a cross in his hand, to mark not only his high dignity, but also the memory of the self-denial he professed from his earliest youth. — Sometimes the city of Venice is painted near him, from which he diverts the lightning that Our Lord is preparing to launch. This is because his prayers saved this city more than once when it was threatened by the scourges of heaven.

[APPENDIX: CULT AND RELICS. — HIS WRITINGS.]

The holiness of Saint Lawrence having been attested by several miracles after his death, Pope Sixtus IV began to have the procedures for his canonization carried out, which were continued by Popes Leo X and Adrian VI. Finally, Pope Clement VII issued the decree of his beatification in 1524, with permission to celebrate his feast and public office in all the churches of the Republic of Venice.

Long before, altars had begun to be erected in his name in Venice, his statues placed in churches, chapels built for him, and he was invoked; he was already regarded as the protector, or the patron saint of the city and of the entire lordship, after Saint Mark.

In 1597, Cardinal Lawrence Priolo, Patriarch of Venice, was preparing to perform the solemn translation of his relics, by virtue of a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, dated February 1, when the death of the patriarch caused its execution to be suspended.

Pope Clement VIII granted, by an apostolic brief, indulgences to those who would visit the churches of the Canons Regular of the Congregation of Saint George in Alga, throughout Italy, on the day of the feast of Saint Lawrence Justinian.

His cult was introduced in Sicily, and especially in Palermo, which placed him among its patron saints, because it was spared from the plague in 1626 through his intercession. This public devotion was authorized by a decree of the Congregation of Rites on February 26, 1628.

Saint Lawrence was canonized on November 1, 1690, by Pope Alexander VIII. His feast, elevated to a semi-double in the Roman office, was moved to September 5 by order of the Holy See and the Congregation of Rites.

His relics are preserved in Venice in the cathedral church of Saint Peter of the Castle, and placed under the high altar.

Saint Lawrence Justinian left us a large number of treatises and sermons, collected in a large folio volume, printed in Brescia in 1560, and in Venice in 1755. The best edition we have is the one that appeared in Venice in 1751, 2 vols. in-fol. One finds there vast erudition, profound wisdom, and much vehemence, strength, and nobility in the style.

Acta Sanctorum; Godescard, and Esprit des Saints, by the Abbé Grimes.