幾乎所有我們據以證明前篇講道屬聖瑪西默的手抄本，也顯示這一篇亦為同一人所作。在梵蒂岡圖書館，我們審閱了四部手稿，即1273號第（頁）、隨後1269號第85頁、1277號第54頁、梵蒂岡奧托波尼安努斯106號第209頁，均載聖瑪西默之名。在佛羅倫斯的勞倫齊安圖書館，我們所知抄本間的一致也不遜色，其中有：抄本39 Plut. XVII 第170頁背面、抄本II Plut. XXXIII 左半部第444頁、曾屬小兄弟會聖十字修院的172與474號、皆第154頁、曾屬佛羅倫斯總主教座堂圖書館，近來被增入勞倫齊安手稿中。兩部卡西諾抄本呈現相似的題名，即109號第235頁與 CXI 號第105頁，還有安博羅削 C 本。
Almost all the manuscript codices by which we have proved the foregoing homily to be St. Maximus's show that this one too was written by the same. In the Vatican library we have examined four manuscripts, that is, no. 1273 p. [ ], to which 1269 p. 85, 1277 p. 54, Vatican Ottob. 106 p. 209, bearing the name of St. Maximus. Nor has a lesser agreement of codices become known to us at Florence in the Laurentian, of which are: codex 39 Plut. XVII p. 170 verso, codex II Plut. XXXIII of the left part p. 444, formerly of the Minorite Convent of Holy Cross 172 and 474, both p. 154, once of the library of the seat of the metropolitan church of Florence, which have recently been added to the Laurentian manuscripts. A like inscription is presented by two Cassinese codices, namely 109 p. 235, and CXI p. 105, the Ambrosian C.
98號、瓦利切拉7號第9頁、賴興瑙 XV 號、瑪爾定本「論聖老楞佐誕辰講道第一篇」、耶路撒冷聖十字 XII 號第100頁背面、雷根斯堡聖埃默蘭本第37頁，最後是極古老的韋爾切利82號，題名為「在聖老楞佐誕辰之日」。沒有比這許多手抄本的一致更輝煌的憑證了；因此我們略去逐一列舉諸編者，只補充一點：巴勒里尼兄弟提醒說，這篇被列入大聖良講道舊集中的講道，當歸還給瑪西默。弟兄們，正如我們從先祖並非含糊的記述所學到的，當可敬的西斯篤擔任宗座的司祭之職、羅馬因總執事老楞佐至聖的職事而興盛之時，
98, the Vallicellan 7 p. 9, the Reichenau XV, the Martinian 'Homily I on the nativity of St. Lawrence,' the Holy Cross in Jerusalem XII p. 100 verso, the Regensburg of St. Emmeram p. 37, and finally the most ancient Vercelli 82 with the title: 'On the birthday of St. Lawrence.' Nothing more splendid can be adduced than the consensus of so many manuscripts; wherefore we omit to enumerate the editors, and add this one thing only: that the Ballerini advised that this homily, numbered among the old collections of the sermons of St. Leo, is to be restored to Maximus. As we have learned, dearest brethren, from no uncertain account of our fathers, when the venerable Xystus discharged the priesthood of the Apostolic See, and Rome flourished in the most holy ministry of the archdeacon Lawrence,
the Church, with the devil's envy burning, grew red hot with the flame of a most harsh persecution against the name and faith of Christ; and, so that the insatiate rage of the deadly beast might more perniciously mangle the Lord's flock, the enemy, the ever-watchful contriver of harm, first strives to snatch away the guardianship of the shepherd. And therefore the heathen fury attacks Xystus, the highest priest of the Lord before all others, so that the bloody persecutor might invade the members of the Church—the head being cut off, so mighty a one—as though the safeguard of heavenly protection were removed. But that great Xystus, who had been present as a shepherd on earth to the sheep committed to him by God, was present as a patron from heaven. Then St.
the pagan hand seeks out Lawrence, as though now bereft of the solace of his pontiff, to undergo his sufferings; whom Xystus armed against all the evils of the raging world by the prediction of a prophetic word. For when this same Lawrence bewailed his father's passion, as a most dutiful son, with inconsolable grief, Xystus, taught by the foreknowledge of the Holy Spirit, knowing things to come, said to him: 'Lay aside, my son, all sorrow over my death; for my absence shall not long grieve you: after three days you shall follow me.'
The devout mind, having received this answer, and receiving from the excellent prelate and martyr of Christ the undoubted truth, cares for nothing more above all things than that the greed of the persecutor—which grieved the Church over the death of the saints—should not have joy over the spoil of the Church. The most prudent man found how he might more sharply torment his own torturer.
Therefore all the wealth of the Church, and all the sacred vessels of the ministry, lest a sacrilegious gaze should defile them, he distributed by a pious disbursement, having summoned the crowds of the poor, so that the future martyr might be enriched alike in the heavenly recompense, and by the wages of his blood, and by the reward of so great a liberality; not doubting that he would keep both faith in his Christ within himself, and the ecclesiastical riches within the poor. On account of which he is at once dragged to the tribunal of the impious—a man innocent in simplicity, most valiant in virtue; bringing indeed nothing else to the judge than the steadfastness of a living mind and the purity of an unharmed conscience, offering to God a devoted soul, and handing over a most chaste body to the persecutor for punishment, keeping that gospel word:
'Fear not those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul' (Matt. 10). And so a savage torment is devised against Lawrence, so that he who was not moved by the fear of death might be broken by the bitterness of the punishment; but the greatness of the penalties could not conquer him whom the multitude of his virtues strengthened. Therefore a gridiron kindled with fire is prepared, which might weary the soul of the triumphant martyr and burn up his body. But the crowd of persecutors, ignorant of the truth and blinded by diabolical darkness, did not see that this burning of the limbs was the eternal purgation of a faithful soul; and that the body, which the present life would abandon to the consuming flames, would pass over, through a condemned death, to the incorruption of living.
Truly incomparable is the mystery of this saving faith, by which through torments blessedness is sought, and in flames refreshment is prepared, as the patriarch David says, speaking in the words of the martyrs: 'We have passed through fire and water, and Thou hast brought us out into refreshment' (Ps. 65). Blessed Lawrence was passing through fire and water, when on this side the deadly flame of the world scorched him, and on that side the vital wave of the heavenly stream flooded over him. He was passing through fire and water, when the clemency of the divine fountain tempered the raging fire. Lawrence was burning, therefore, but that fire was conquering of which the Saviour says: 'I am come to send fire upon the earth, and what will I but that it be kindled?' (Luke 12). O new and marvellous thing!
of one and the same man, both the body was burned by the flames, and the mind, set alight, glowed with the heat of a burning faith; even as the evangelical men spoke to one another, saying: 'Was not our heart burning within us on the way?' (Luke 24). Where, then, the heart burns, the limbs do not feel the flame; where the fire of Christ works, the fire of the devil must needs be conquered; and where the Spirit of God is fervent, the flame of mortals grows cold. And hence it is, dearly beloved, that the whole world everywhere today celebrates the triumph of blessed Lawrence with harmonious devotion; hence it is that a gladder Rome marvels at his inseparable faith, who, kindled by the beams of the eternal Sun, patiently endured the fire of the age, and confidently escaped it.