3-098-288 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Burial of Saint Lawrence in the catacombs of Rome, 1862. Depiction of the burial of the Christian martyr Saint Lawrence, who was burned alive on a gridiron on August 10, 258 - four days after Pope Sixtus II had been executed for the same reasons. "And when it was the first twilight of the second of the Ides of August, Hippolytus , who through the miracles of blessed Lawrence had believed and received baptism, went with the priest Justin and collected the body and wrapped it in a linen cloth with perfumes and carried it to the house of the widow Cyriaca on the Via Tiburtina, where many priests and many persecuted Christians were gathered, and they buried it in a crypt that was in the garden of the house, after Justin offered the sacrifice of praise in which the widow Cyriaca, the Christian Flavia , and Hippolytus participated , and after shedding many tears over his holy body." (Acts of the Martyrs).