On August 10, Italians celebrate San Lorenzo (Lawrence), patron of cooks, brewers, vintners, butchers, and bakers whose involvement in the then-considered heretical, anti-establishment early Christian religion led to his martyrdom.

It was on this day in year 258 AD that Roman officials sentenced Lorenzo to death, as punishment for his refusal to hand over various goods and treasures he oversaw as a church deacon (he distributed them to the poor instead). According to Christian lore, Lorenzo was placed on a gridiron to “cook” over hot coals, a tale that accounts for the saint’s now-legendary final words: “I’m well-done on this side. Turn me over!”

Not surprisingly, historians today dispute the factual accuracy of Lorenzo’s fantastical final hours; yet associations between the saint and his “death by grilling” remain strong. He is patron saint of barbecues and barbecuing, for instance, and cooks are known to invoke his protection in the kitchen, where burns by heat or fire are a very real threat. Italian kitchens commonly feature small Lorenzo statues, plaques, or holy cards. 

In Tuscany, San Lorenzo feasting usually means enjoying a traditional bistecca fiorentina (or other grilled meat). In this context, the role of the grill is central as the symbolic link to Lorenzo’s martyrdom on the gridiron.  Not everyone practices this fanciful (and perhaps gruesome!) manner of ritualistically recalling the death of the saint, however. In other parts of Italy, such as Naples and Bologna, the custom for some is to abstain from meat out of respect for the martyr, and thus at some San Lorenzo events, thick watermelon “steaks” are grilled in place of beefsteaks. 

Interestingly, both these foodstuffs fit neatly into the August calendar of customs: meat, especially a choice cut like the t-bone, was a rarity in the medieval and early modern peasant diet, and instead would appear on tables only during those significant cyclical festivities like Christmastide, Easter, or, as in this case, harvest time. In this sense, grilling up a decadent piece of meat to honor San Lorenzo, whose feast day coincides with the summer harvest and its attendant rituals of abundance, is fitting. At the same time, watermelons, too, are wonderfully abundant and refreshing in late-summer Italy. 

The summer grain harvest in Europe is a period whose feasting customs derive from pre-Christian August festivals such as Lammas, Lughnasadh, and Feriae Augusti. Rooted in the agrarian work cycle as well—August being both a time of reaping and a transitional period of shifting to other types of agricultural work after a festive “break”—holidays like San Lorenzo and Ferragosto / Feast of the Assumption (August 15) find expression in the popularity of bread, pasta, and other grain products. For example, Florentine bakers commemorate the saint by handing out plates of pasta con sugo and lasagna in Piazza San Lorenzo, a charitable act started centuries ago by their predecessors, members of l’Arte dei Fornai, or bakers guild, who chose Lorenzo as their patron. And almost everywhere in Italy, grilled bruschetta (or fettunta) will be part of the meal.

image: Larsson, Carl. “Harvesting the Rye” (1919).