Saint Laurence of Dublin

The ceremony completed, the prince was carried back to the king his father, who loved him with as much tenderness, and who had him raised with as much care as if he had been his eldest, although he was the last of several children. He was only ten years old when, as if he had been born into the world only to reconcile kings and bring peace to his homeland, he was given as a hostage to one of the most powerful and formidable princes of the island, named Dermith, with whom his father had had a dispute, and who would only make peace on the condition that the young Prince Laurence be placed in his hands as a guarantee of his father's good faith. He was inhumanely treated in that foreign land. Dermith, far from giving him a place at his table, as his rank and propriety demanded, relegated him, bound like a criminal, to the most desolate place in his kingdom, where, for two years, he suffered hunger, nakedness, the violence of the cold and the north wind, and so many other hardships that his health was soon reduced to the most wretched state. His father, informed of everything, had twelve gentlemen who were subjects of Dermith arrested and sent word to him that, if he did not return his son to him as soon as possible, he would put them all to the sword. This caused Dermith to send Laurence to the Bishop of Gl endalough to return évêque de Glendenoch Place of formation and abbey led by Laurence. him to his father while retrieving the twelve lords.

This prelate, who was a good man, seeing the little prince, felt no less pity for the fact that he had been neglected in his instruction during his captivity than for the state of languor to which his sufferings had reduced him. He took care of his health, and, at the same time, he charged his chaplain to recall to his memory the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and all the other points of his catechism. God blessed this solicitude. Laurence was healed in a very short time, and he so savored the Christian truths that this fervent ecclesiastic taught him, that when the king, his father, came to Glendalough to fetch him, he declared to him that he wished to enter the Church and remain with the bishop who had begun to give him such salutary instructions. King Maurice agreed to his son's proposal all the more willingly as he wished for one of his children to consecrate himself to the service of the altars; he therefore left him at Glendalough, under the discipline of the bishop and under the protection of Saint Coemgen , the ancient saint Coëmgen Founder of Glendalough. founder and patron of that cathedral church.

The young Laurence made great progress at this school, both in human letters, which he learned in a short time, and in the exercise of virtue. All his desires were turned toward heaven, and he looked upon the grandeurs of the earth only with extreme contempt. Devotion was his only delight. He found in prayer the peace and consolations that the world cannot give. At twenty, he lost his dear master, the Bishop of Glendalough; but far from diminishing any of his fervor, he showed even more modesty, more gravity, more recollection, more detachment from earthly things, and more affection for the exercises of the spiritual life. This caused an abbey in the same city, which had always been held since Saint Kevin, its founder, by persons of very illustrious birth, to become vacant; the clergy and the people, to whom it belonged to appoint, cast their eyes upon such a religious prince to raise him to this high prelacy. He resisted this election for some time; but, recognizing the will of God through the extraordinary eagerness of the electors, he was finally obliged to submit to the orders of divine Providence.

It was in this office that he showed he was truly the father of the poor and the provider for the whole country; for a great famine having occurred in the province, he used all his income, which was very abundant, to give bread to those who were hungry, to clothe those who were naked, to procure remedies for the sick, and to relieve all kinds of unfortunate people. There were great lords who, having set themselves up as tyrants and having gathered around them troops of bandits, committed many acts of violence against his vassals and farmers; but the Saint, without taking up arms against them, and without any other help than the prayers he addressed to God, accompanied by penances and tears, caused them to fall into the hands of the king's officers; so that they were all punished and the land was finally purged of these public enemies. After four years of sterility and scarcity, abundance having returned to the kingdom, Saint Laurence did not become any richer, and continued to make the same use of his income; he used everything that was not necessary for the subsistence of his house to relieve the ordinary poor, to repair churches that were ruined or threatened to fall into ruin, to build new ones, to found hospitals, and to increase divine service in all the dependencies of his abbey.

This faithfulness in the administration of a lesser prelacy caused Our Lord to choose him for a greater one. The new bishop of Glendalough having died, everyone immediately cast their eyes upon this excellent abbot to make him his successor. He possessed all the qualities one could wish for in a prince of the Church: knowledge, virtue, experience, authority, zeal, courage, and eloquence. However, he could never be persuaded to accept this new dignity, and his resistance was stronger than all the entreaties of the diocesans; he did not, however, avoid the honor of the episcopate: for, shortly thereafter, the archiepiscopal see of Dublin havi ng become vacant, he was chose siège archiépiscopal de Dublin Archiepiscopal see of the saint and besieged city. n to fill it, and it was shown to him so clearly that he could not oppose this choice without resisting the will of God, that he was obliged to consent to his ordination.

After his consecration, the ceremony of which was performed by Gelasius, Primate of Ireland, in the presence of several bishops and amidst the acclamations of all the people, he began the exercise of his office with his own person, by making himself a perfect model of holiness, so that, supporting his words with his own actions, he might effectively lead souls to the perfection of Christianity. To mortify his body and subject it to the empire of reason and grace, he armed himself with such a harsh hair shirt that it reached from his shoulders to his feet, and tightened it so much that the bristles of the horsehair entered his flesh like needle points; and, as the vermin he allowed to breed there through mortification bit him continually, there was not a moment he was without suffering. He led the canons of his church to become regular and to embrace the constitutions of those of the Abbey of Arrouai se: which he had c abbaye d'Arrouaise Order under which Bertrand united his canons. onfirmed by a papal bull; he himself wished to profess this institute, so as not to demand anything of others for which he did not provide the example in his own person. He was in the choir with them, he ate in the same refectory, he practiced the same exercises, as much of prayer and silence as of fasting and discipline; he even lowered himself to the least functions of the community, and he never considered himself happier than when he had the opportunity to render service to the last of the brothers. His fervor led him to even exceed the mortifications of the other religious. He often remained in the choir after Matins until daybreak, to converse familiarly with God at the foot of a miraculous crucifix that was in his church; and, when the day began to appear, he went to the cemetery to pray there over the graves of the dead. He never ate meat from the time he became a regular canon; he fasted every Friday on bread and water, and often he took no food at all on that day. Three times a day he exposed his delicate body to harsh flagellations that drew blood from him in abundance. His custom was also to dip his bread in lye, so as to be able to say, with the King-Prophet, that he ate his bread with ashes. The little expense he incurred for himself giving him the means to assist the poor, he had thirty or forty, and sometimes even sixty, eat at his table every day: he also received pilgrims with kindness and performed an infinity of other alms in his cathedral city and throughout his diocese.

When he was elected Archbishop of Dublin, he left his abbey of Glendalough, not wishing to keep two benefices together. King Dermot, seeing it vacant, provided it to a cleric who was not worthy of it, without regard for the right of the clergy and the people to whom this nomination had always belonged; but this cleric did not enjoy it for long; and, by this means, the legitimate electors gave it to Thomas, nephew of our Saint, who was a wise, learned young man endowed with many virtues. This was the reason that the blessed Prelate, to whom this nephew was extremely dear, not out of consideration of kinship, but for his singular piety, often went to Glendalough to have the consolation of conversing with him. There was, three miles from the city, a cave hollowed out in the rock, which Saint Kevin had once practiced for himself to live in solitude. Our Saint also retired there every year, and he spent forty days there in almost continuous prayers and tears: during all this time, he saw no one but his nephew, who informed him of the pressing affairs of his diocese and who awaited his answers: he took no other food than bread, vegetables, and water. But, while his body fasted, his soul was sated with the delights of eternity, and he received from above such abundant lights that he seemed to be an angel of heaven rather than a man of this world. Thus, he never left this grotto with his heart fully filled with the fire of charity and his face like that of Moses, all shining with light; and then he preached with such zeal against the disorders that reigned in his province, that one had to be in the final state of hardness to resist the force of his words.

It was during one of his retreats that he received a revelation of the future capture and sacking of Dublin, his metropolitan city, because of the enormous crimes committed there despite his constant remonstrances and exhortations. He warned the inhabitants of this in his sermons, with all the vehemence that his zeal and charity inspired in him; but as they did not listen to the voice of their Pastor and did not have recourse to the remedy of penance, they soon experienced the truth of his prediction. Dublin was taken by King Dermot, of whom we have already spoken, and having been abandoned to the insolence and avarice of the soldiers, it was pillaged and burned with all the cruelty one might have feared from the most barbaric idolaters. Saint Laurence showed his courage and love for his people on this occasion. He did not leave during the siege, he did not save himself at the time of the capture; but he remained always with his flock to assist at the death of those who were mortally wounded, to dress the wounds of the sick, to prevent prisoners from being killed or taken into captivity, to save a portion of the vanquished, to succor those whom such a strange catastrophe had reduced to the deepest misery, and to work, after the retreat of the enemies, to rebuild the ruins of this unfortunate city. He obtained above all from the victors the restitution of the church ornaments and books they had taken from the sacred places, and, by this means, he caused the divine offices and the celebration of the holy Mysteries to continue, which, without this wise precaution, would necessarily have been interrupted.

His admirable charity, which could never be exhausted, led him to undertake various journeys, principally to England, whether for the good of his particular diocese, or for that of the kingdom of Leinster or all of Ireland. In one of his journeys, a foolish man, hearing everyone say that the Archbishop of Dublin was a Saint, got it into his head that by making him a martyr, he would be doing a good deed and rendering a great service to God and the Church. One day, therefore, as the Saint, vested in his pontifical robes, was ascending to the altar to celebrate the holy Mysteries in the church of the Holy Trinity, where the tomb of Saint Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury and martyr, was located, t saint Thomas, archevêque de Cantorbéry English martyr at whose tomb Lawrence was struck. he madman dealt him a great blow to the head with a lever, which caused him to fall to the ground half-dead and almost senseless. The whole place immediately resounded with the cries and weeping of those present. The religious of this house, who had received him among them with extreme joy, deeming themselves blessed to be able to possess such a holy man for some time, hastened around him to assist him. The holy bishop, having returned to himself, asked for water, blessed it with the sign of the cross, and recited the Lord's Prayer over it; then he prayed that it be used to wash his wound; and no sooner had this been done than he was perfectly healed; so that he celebrated Mass pontifically, as if nothing had happened to him. However, the mark of the wound remained with him all his life; and one can still see on the skull of his head that there was a large fracture that should have caused his death. The King condemned this sacrilegious man to be hanged; but the Saint interceded for him and obtained his pardon.

He received other extraordinary assistance from heaven several times, particularly through the intercession of Our Lady, to whom he bore a singular devotion, and who, for her part, had for him the affection and tenderness of a mother. Wishing one day to cross back from the principality of Wales to Ireland, he could not set sail because of a cruel storm by which the sea was agitated. But the Blessed Virgin appeared to a good hermit who lived in a nearby church and declared to him that this storm was only to stop the Archbishop of Dublin and oblige him to perform the dedication of this church, which was built in her name, because she wanted it to be consecrated by his ministry. Indeed, as soon as he had finished the ceremony, the storm abated and in a moment he was carried back to his country. Moreover, his blessing gave such virtue to this sacred place that an infinity of miracles have occurred there since. At other times, on the same journey, the ship in which he and his companions were traveling was near to shipwreck, and he delivered them from it by his prayers and by the invocation of his most powerful Advocate. He also performed a host of other miracles; for he restored the mind to the insane, cast out demons from the bodies of the possessed, healed the sick abandoned by physicians, restored sight to the blind, and raised the dead.

In the year 11 79, Pope Alexander pape Alexandre III Pope who proceeded with the canonization of Bertrand in Toulouse. III having convened a General Council in Rome, in the church of Saint John Lateran, for the common affairs of the Church, our holy Prelate found himself obliged to go there to obey the orders of the Sovereign Pontiff and to contribute his part to the aid of all Christendom. He was received there by His Holiness with a thousand testimonies of esteem and respect, and he acquired much glory there through the wise counsel he gave and through his entirely holy conduct, which served as a light and a model to the other Prelates who composed this venerable assembly. When he was on the point of leaving, the Pope created him his legate throughout all of Ireland, so that, by his prudence and his zeal, he might reform the abuses that had crept in there and make Christianity flourish there again, whose brilliance and beauty were miserably disfigured there by the vices of the country, which have always been extreme. Saint Laurence did not let this talent that the father of the family had entrusted to him be buried. He visited the whole island and spared nothing to restore ecclesiastical discipline there. For this, he made very wise regulations and renewed those that the other legates, his predecessors, had made; he applied himself above all to the sanctification of the ministers of the Church, knowing well that the entire reformation of the people of God depends upon that.

During his legation, Ireland was afflicted by a great famine which provided him with new opportunities to manifest his mercy. He gave alms every day to five hundred poor people who came to implore his help, besides about three hundred to whom he sent food, clothing, and all other things necessary for life: which lasted for three years. Several women, who found themselves unable to feed their children, took to exposing them before the door of his episcopal palace, or in other places where he was to pass, knowing well that he would not fail to give them the help that their poverty demanded. The number of these children did not discourage him; he received them with a pastoral charity and a mother's tenderness, in honor of the childhood and poverty of Jesus Christ. He became their foster father, he distributed them in various places of his archbishopric, and recommended to his bailiffs and his other officers to take particular care of them and to have them well raised. There were nearly two hundred of them, without counting those he had fed in his palace. When they were older, he had a wooden cross given to each of them as a mark that they belonged to the Church: which meant that, when they went about the country, everyone gave them alms liberally.

As the holy archbishop was nearing the end of his days, a great dispute arose between Henry I I, King of England, under Henri II, roi d'Angleterre King of England who brought Hugh to found Witham. whose reign Saint Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury, had endured martyrdom, and Derohog, King of Ireland. This zealous Pastor, to try to reconcile them, went to England with one of his nephews, a very handsome young nobleman, whom he wished to give as a hostage to the Englishman if he could agree with him on the articles of peace. His negotiation did not succeed, and Henry, far from having regard for his remonstrances, treated him very uncivilly and even refused him permission to return to Ireland, going so far as to forbid any port from letting him embark. The Saint, during this persecution, withdrew to the monastery of Abingdon; but, seeing that this prince, who had crossed into Normandy, was taking too long to return, he resolved to go there himself, in the hope of gaining in that country, upon the king's mind, what he had not been able to gain in England. He therefore embarked at London and landed at Wissant, between Calais and Boulogne.

As soon as he was in France, he felt himself seized by a fever that caused him great weakness; but, his charity overcoming his ailment, he did not fail to continue his journey to the town of Eu, which separate s Picardy ville d'Eu Norman town where the saint died and where his relics rest. from Normandy. When he was on the mountain overlooking this town, he inquired which church he saw in the middle; he was told that it was dedicated to Our Lady and that it belonged to the Canons Regular of Saint Augustine, of the Congregation of Saint-Victor of Paris. He showed great joy at this, and, already having premonitions of his death, he said with a prophetic spirit: "This is the place of my rest forever; I will dwell here, for I have chosen it." He then went to offer his prayers in this temple; and, not wishing to be a burden to anyone, he went to lie down in the neighboring inn, which is believed to be the one that now has a swan for a sign. As soon as he was in bed, he sent to ask the abbot of this religious house, who was named Osbert, to come see him, and, having confessed to him, he begged him to administer the holy Viaticum, which he received with marvelous devotion.

The approach of death did not prevent him from thinking about the subject of his journey, wishing to procure peace in his death, just as he had procured it at his birth. For this purpose, he sent David, his nephew's tutor, to Rouen, to the King of England, to renew the requests he had already made to him. He was more fortunate through this envoy than he had been himself, and God gave him more success in the helplessness and weakness that his illness placed him in than he had had when full health left him the strength to speak and act vigorously. David returned after four days with full assurance of an accommodation: which caused such joy to our blessed Prelate that, unable to express it with his words, he had this ecclesiastic rest his head on his breast for a time, in recognition of such a happy negotiation.

However, his illness increasing more and more, he sent a second time to beg the abbot to come see him with his religious, and, before receiving the sacrament of Extreme Unction from his hands, he asked to be aggregated into his Congregation, as he was already a canon regular. He easily obtained what he asked for, the religious considering themselves very honored to have such a great and holy Prelate in their Company. When he was spoken to about making his will, according to custom, he replied that God knew he did not have a single crown left, and that thus it was impossible for him to make a will. Indeed, he had given everything to the poor, and his charity had stripped him so bare that he was no longer in a position to give more. Thus, he imitated at his death the great Saint Augustine, who had also refused to make his will, just as he had been during his life a faithful observer of his Rule. Finally, after having employed his last moments in repeating continually these words: "Have pity on me, my God, have pity on me, because my soul puts all its hope in you," he rendered his spirit to Our Lord, on November 14 of the year 1181.

The night he died, an inhabitant of Dublin, named Innocent, saw in a dream the high altar of the cathedral fall to the ground and break into pieces. He went the very next morning to see if his vision was true, and, having found this high altar intact, he judged that this imaginary fall signified the actual death of this holy archbishop. The same night, a great fire appeared over the church of Our Lady in the town of Eu, which, rising into the sky, was taken as a happy omen that the soul of our Saint had gone to enjoy without delay the delights of beatitude.

## CULT AND RELICS.

The body of Saint Laurence was buried in the church of Notre-Dame in the town of Eu, in the middle of the choir, in the presence of Cardinal Alexis, legate of the Holy See in Scotland, and God honored his relics with several great miracles.

Five or six years later, while rebuilding this church, his body was found entirely intact and exhaling a very pleasant odor, and it is even said that there was still blood in his veins. This discovery, and the extraordinary assistance that many sick people received through his intercession, were the reason his precious remains were transferred to a small vault before the altar of Saint-Léger, and that subsequently the decree of his canonization was pursued, which was performed in the year 1226, on pape Honoré III Pope who canonized Saint Hugh. December 11, by Pope Honorius III. The following year, a new translation was made into a rich shrine which was exposed to the veneration of the faithful. The first translation was made on April 14, and the second on May 18.

One cannot count the wonders that were performed during either of these translations, nor those that have been performed since in the church where his relics rest, and everywhere else where his protection is implored: such as the dead raised to life, illustrious persons preserved from shipwreck, fires extinguished, incurable diseases suddenly healed, rains obtained from heaven or stopped when they were too abundant, the possessed delivered, lepers and epileptics restored to perfect health, and an infinity of other aid granted to all kinds of unfortunate people.

The shrine that contains the body of Saint Laurence was kept in the abbey of Notre-Dame d'Eu and was placed above the high altar. It is now in the parish church, and his head has been placed in a silver reliquary. Some small portions of his relics have been given to other churches. This abbey, where the bodies of several counts of Eu, of Ponthieu, etc., as well as those of several princes of the House of Bourbon rest, is presently divided into two vast churches, one of which serves as a parish and bears the name of Saint-Laurent, who is the principal patron of the town. Three feasts are celebrated there every year in his honor: one in the month of November, another in the month of August, and the third in the month of May. At some distance from the town is a chapel built on the spot where the clergy and the magistrates went to greet him when they had learned of his arrival. The town of Eu is filled with monuments that attest to its veneration for Saint Laurence, and one no longer sees any of Henry II, who often honored it with his presence.

We have used, to compose this biography, the History of the Saint, by the Rev. Fr. Jean Guignon, Franciscan; that written by a canon of Eu, and reported in Borins; and the additions made by the compilers of Godeveard.