Who was Saint Lawrence and why was the river named for him?
Lawrence (more properly Lorenzo), according to a fuzzy blend of Roman Catholic history and myth, was a 3rd-century Spanish monk who, when asked to turn over to local secular authorities the riches of the Church, produced the poor, sick and elderly, for which he was martyred on a gridiron (thus the name of our yearbook). He was later beatified, and August 10 was declared his feast day, that being the day on which it was thought he was killed. On that date in 1535, the French explorer Jacques Cartier sailed into the mouth of an immense river whose native name he probably neither knew nor, in all likelihood, cared about and renamed it in honor of the Saint. He would have named it the same thing if he’d “discovered” it on July 21; that’s St. Lawrence of Brindisi’s day (our saint was from Huesca). But Laurentians everywhere should be grateful he avoided February 23, feast day of St. Polycarp.
