St Laurence, whose feast day is 10th August, was an immensely popular saint in the medieval period and if you look carefully, pretty much every medieval church which still has stained glass has an image of him.
St Laurence on a medieval screen at Strensham.
He is readily recognisable by his gridiron, on which he was legendarily roasted. He was actually martyred along with St Sixtus and several companions over several days, but he is the most famous of the group, perhaps because of the gridiron which grips a horrified imagination.
Last summer I visited Ludlow, whose parish church has a small mountain of medieval stained glass, most of which I have shared with you since. I kept this one back until today as it features St Laurence.
The church is dedicated to St Laurence and so the east window features his life in detail. It was mostly remade 1828-1832 and much of the stonework rebuilt. The only unfortunate thing about the restoration is that we don’t know which bits of the glass are original and which copies, though it is believed that overall the window is largely as it was originally built.
It has 27 panels, with more than 300 figures, representing the life, miracles and martyrdom of St Laurence. It can be dated pretty accurately to 1445, the date of the rebuilding and the recorded date of neighbouring windows. In addition Thomas Spofford, Bishop of Hereford, who is depicted and whose arms appear in the lower tracery, retired in 1448. The fact that he appears to be blessing the construction in the central panel which seems to indicate strongly that the window was made during his episcopacy.
The upper tracery depicts the Trinity with 12 angels and archangels. The lower tracery appears to be dedications connected with the rebuilding of the Church. In the centre, pride of place goes to Thomas Spofford blessing the stone which bears his name, paired with his own personal saint St Anne teaching the Virgin Mary to read - the text on the scroll asks Anne to pray for him. On his right is an image of Christ in a pose normally associated with diptychs of the Coronation of the Virgin which was introduced in the Evans restoration and sits somewhat uncomfortably in this location. On the extreme right is St Laurence with his gridiron and on the left the Virgin Mary. This is extremely high up so apologies for the limited quality of the photo here.
The 27 main panels follow St Laurence’s story in ‘The Golden Legend’ fairly closely with an inscription in Latin in each panel to leave us in no doubt as to what it depicts.
Top row: 1. Laurence is introduced to Pope Sixtus II (whose feast day is a few days before him); 2. Laurence being ordained deacon; 3. Laurence receives the Emperor’s treasure.
4. Laurence distributes the treasure to the poor; 5. Laurence is taken prisoner; 6. Laurence is brought before the Emperor Decius.
the idols fall to bits in Laurence’s presence; 8. Laurence is imprisoned; 9. Laurence restores the sight of Lucillus. (apologies for the photo quality, slightly out of focus and by this point I had a cricked neck!)
Second row: 10. Laurence converts Hyppolitus the gaoler; 11. Laurence brings the poor to Decius; 12. Decius beats the poor in anger.
13. Laurence despises the instruments of torture; 14. Laurence is stoned; 15. Laurence is beaten with rods.
16. Laurence is beaten with clubs and trampled on; 17. Laurence is scourged with whips with lead knobs; 18. Laurence’s body is torn with hooks.
Third row: 19. Laurence is tortured with red-hot irons; 20. Laurence is roasted on a grid-iron; 21. Laurence about to be laid in his tomb.
22. the deacon breaks a chalice; 23. Laurence causes dead wood to sprout; 24. Laurence blesses bread and wine.
25; Laurence presents a church built in his memory; 26. Three pilgrims praying in a church (notice the rosary!); 27. Workmen building a church.
I don’t have the time to reproduce his story in detail, so do look him up online if you wish!
St Laurence in early 16th century glass at Llanasa.
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Have you seen my publication - my translation of Shepherd’s Prayer by St Aelred of Rievaulx? Available now via Amazon around the world, the isbn is: 979-8344184814.
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