Holy Martyr and Archdeacon Lawrence of Rome along with the Hieromartyr Sixtus, Pope of Rome and the Martyred Deacons Felicissimus, Agapitus, and Romanus

In August 258, under Emperor Valerian, Pope Sixtus II was arrested while celebrating in a Roman catacomb and beheaded with his deacons Felicissimus and Agapitus. His archdeacon Lawrence, who kept the church's goods and cared for the poor, followed a few days later. According to the old Roman tradition, when the prefect demanded the treasures of the Church, Lawrence brought the poor and the sick and said that these were its treasures; he was then roasted on a gridiron and, the story goes, told the executioners to turn him over. Romanus, a soldier said to have been converted by Lawrence, suffered with them. Lawrence became one of the most honoured martyrs of Rome.