The relic of the blood of St. Lawrence deacon and martyr
The ampoule of the blood of Saint Lawrence is preserved in the Collegiata di S.Maria in the town of Amaseno in the Italian region of Lazio. The relic consists of a mass of blood, fat, ash and a piece of skin (50 grams). This blood, which throughout the course of the year normally remains congealed, on the annual recurrence of the martyrdom of St Lawrence, on the 10th of August, and sometimes even outside this date, liquifies, assuming a bright red colour, clearly distinguishing itself from the other elements in the ampoule.
Among the research done to determine the substance of the ampoule we find that of Dr. Clinio Silvestri (1849 - 1900), who spent over thirty years studying this. He published his analysis and findings in “Monograph of the Reliquary of S. Lorenzo in Amaseno”, where he noted his observations during the liquification process and confirmed the ampoule’s contents authenticity.
This is an extract from Dr. Silvestri’s publication: “... The blood mass, first blackish and shapeless, begins to melt and takes on an aspect of thick natural blood. At the bottom of the ampoule there is a light deposit of ash, mixed with small pieces of coal. Above this deposit one observes the liquid mass of natural blood loaded with red corpuscles, as if it has been extracted from an artery and above that a liquid transparent blood serum ... A floating piece of leather floats in this liquid, partly curled slightly and roasted and partly free .... On the vitreous inner walls of the ampoule ... there is a noticeable amount of human fat, connected... by cellular tissue ... in a state of semi-icing, as if the fat went through the action of fire and hot iron”.
The oldest catalogues known in the history of Christianity always list the relic expressly as that of Saint Lawrence. There are even more ancient documents, deeds and inventories, which mention the relic of this martyr.
The descriptions that are found in them, however, use different terminologies. In documents prior to 1600, the relic is simply called “de pinguedine”, that is the fat of the martyr Saint Lawrence without any further details. Later the ampoule began to be described as “cum sanguine et pinguedine“, “containing blood and fat”; or even “sanguinis cum carbonibus et adipe et pelle”...“Blood with charcoals and fat and skin”.
Since the first documents were written in advance of the phenomenon of liquefaction, they describe the relic as it occurs in the solid or congealed state.
However, in the documents noted after the liquifaction, the relic is described in the phase of melting, when the blood, with its bright red colour, takes prominence on all the other elements contained in the ampoule.
No doubt this unique relic, takes on a different aspect while changing its state of physical aggregation from solid to liquid.
Nontheless this gives rise to an important question. So far all the documents mentioned in this article, including those prior to 1600, state that the relic contained in the ampoule is of St Lawrence the martyr. But how does this reconcile with what Paolo Aringhi (1600 – 1676) wrote in his Memoria of the Martyr, that St Lawrence was unknown to the inhabitants of the area ?
The answer lies in his quote: “Not knowing to which Martyr the blood stored in the ampoule belonged to, to celebrate his feast with due honour, while the Martyr is hidden from the eyes of the researchers, there we are, on the feast of St. Lawrence ... the blood begins to melt and since then it has not stopped repeating itself every year”.
Without this prodigy, the citizens and the clergy of Amaseno would have had to research ancient inventories about the tradition that the blood was that of Saint Lawrence. Probably even then, they would never have come to possess the authentic letters stating the authenticity of this relic. Nevertheless no proof is as clear an answer on its authenticity as the phenomenon of liquifaction renewed each year on the 10th of August.
So, if the relics are not authentic, how can we explain that every year and often even during other times of the year, the divine omnipotence derives from the laws of nature, to become the guarantor of a lie?
The scholar Dr Enry Bon, rightly wrote: “It is well understandable and worthy of divine solicitude, that God should make up for the lacunae of our archives and the deficiencies of our erudition through prodigies that give authenticity to the blood of our martyrs” (Medicine and Religion, page 237).
As to the origin of this famous relic in Amaseno, the historian Silvestri writes: “There is no certain information on the discovery of the precious blood of St Lawrence; but it is tradition that it had been collected by some villagers, belonging to the militias of the emperor Valeriano, during the time of the martyrdom and brought to Amaseno, as occurred for the blood of other martyrs, collected and stored in glass ampoules, found in the various catacombs”.
The first document, which reveals the existence of the relic of the blood of Saint Lawrence in Amaseno is the Act of the consecration of the Collegiate Church of Santa Maria (8th September 1177).
This relic was brought for the first time to our islands on the 24th of July 2014 and was put on display in the Vittoriosa parish church and St Lawrence parish church in Gozo.
Fr. Hermann Duncan is a Carmelite Friar at the Caremlite Priory in Balluta.