The homily which we call the seventy-sixth is presented with an inscription of this kind, 'On the nativity of St. Lawrence,' by three Vatican codices, that is, 1273 p. 84, 1177 p. 55, and Ottobonianus 106 p. 210; three Laurentian—39 Plut. XVII p. 171—as well as two of the library formerly of the seat of the metropolitan church of Florence, 172 and 174, each p. 246; the Reichenau XIX; the Regensburg of St. Emmeram p. 37; the Martinian; the Beneventan; and finally the Farfa marked B, whose title is: 'Sermon within the octave of St. Lawrence, sermon of blessed bishop Maximus'; and in every one of them we read that the author of it was Maximus, bishop of Turin. Alcuin clearly attests the same in the Homiliary p. 337, and with him the editors of the works of St. Maximus.
我們稱為第七十六篇的講道，帶有這樣的題名「在聖老楞佐誕辰」，見於三部梵蒂岡抄本，即1273號第84頁、1177號第55頁、以及奧托波尼安努斯106號第210頁；三部勞倫齊安本——39 Plut. XVII 第171頁——以及兩部曾屬佛羅倫斯總主教座堂圖書館的172與174號、各第246頁；賴興瑙 XIX 號；雷根斯堡聖埃默蘭本第37頁；瑪爾定本；貝內文托本；最後是標記 B 的法爾法本，其題名為「聖老楞佐八日慶期內的講道，蒙福的瑪西默主教的講道」；在其中每一部裡，我們都讀到它的作者是都靈主教瑪西默。阿爾昆在《講道集》第337頁明確證實同一點，與他一同的還有聖瑪西默著作的諸編者。
The yearly and ever-new festivity of the most blessed Lawrence, dearest brethren, continually kindles the Church of God into the joys of spiritual gladness, admonishing the whole body of believers that, as he, by the ardour of perfect devotion, did not yield to the raging fires, so let neither the fire of diverse tribulations nor the flame of worldly evils move us from the fellowship of Christ; as that teacher of heavenly mysteries and example of all virtue, the most glorious Paul, says: 'Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?' (Rom. 8).
And truly he can in no wise be bent by the perils of present persecutions who has once conceived, with steadfast faith and unshaken mind, the promises of Almighty God and the eternal rewards of the most bountiful Redeemer. For a feeble spirit and a limping faith cannot ascend that steep and lofty path of immortal goods. Therefore neither the torments of impending punishments nor the raging cruelty of the most savage persecutor could overcome the most valiant martyr; because his mind, kindled, glowed far more ardently with the beams of truth; whence neither could that bodily fire, ministered by the hands of mortals, shut out from his untiring breast the warmth infused by divinity. Of this most stalwart soldier of Christ that word must be believed to have been spoken,
which was foretold many thousands of years before through the prophet who says: 'And if thou pass through the fire, the flame shall not burn thee' (Isa. 43). For behold, blessed Lawrence passed through the fire, by which he did not shudder as one scorched, but shone as one illumined; he passed through a momentary and earthly fire, but escaped the flame of hell that burns for ever. What is more blessed than this man, who, by the dispensing grace of a merciful God, burned that he might not burn, and was consumed that he might not be scorched? For if he had been delivered to no fires and torments, there would indeed have been the security of freedom, but no glory of the contender would have stood forth;
for to this end does Christ instruct us in His Church by examples and doctrine: not that we should suffer nothing evil in the world, but that we should conquer the world by manifold suffering. That most illustrious patriarch and prophet David once sang, hemmed in by various tribulations, saying: 'My heart grew hot within me, and in my meditation a fire shall burn' (Ps. 38). It is manifest that this saying fits the venerable Lawrence also, whose heart grew hot with the greatness of soul of Christ within him, and, despising the tortures of his own body, exulting, mocked his most raging torturer, when his fires had been triumphed over:
truly in his meditation there blazed up an insuperable fire, which, kindled by hatred of perfidy and love of truth, either did not feel the flame set against him from without, or overcame it. Wherefore, dearly beloved, let us exult and rejoice in the Lord, not doubting both that the persecutor of the martyr shall endure, in place of the fires which he kindled, the burnings prepared for the impious, and that the most blessed martyr himself shall, in place of the flame which he bore, shine with the illumination of incorruptible light before Almighty God.