EN
According to Latin dedication on the rear part of pedestal, the statue of St Lawrence was commisioned by Jan Joseph Spork in 1729. The sandstone statue depicts St Lawrence holding his typical atributes - a gridiron in one hand and a palm twig in the other one. At the front part of the pedestal there is a Latin prayer with hidden Latin chronogram (1729):
"DIvVs LaVrentIVs PatronVs
NOSTER AB IGNE teMporaLI
et aeterno NOS ConserVet".
The prayer invokes St Lawrence to protect the city against a fire (flame) - both the eternal and the real one too. Interesting is that in Bohemia frequently used patron against the fire was St Florian. It looks that in these times statues of St Florian "were in shortage".
St. Lawrence Biography
Lawrence of Rome (c. 225 – 258) was one of the seven deacons of ancient Rome who were martyred during the persecution of Valerian in 258.
Martyrdom
By tradition, Lawrence was sentenced at San Lorenzo in Miranda, martyred at San Lorenzo in Panisperna, and buried in the Via Tiburtina in the Catacomb of Cyriaca by Hippolytus and Justinus, a presbyter. Tradition holds that Lawrence was burned or "grilled" to death, hence his association with the gridiron. Tradition also holds that Lawrence joked about their cooking him enough to eat while he was burning on the gridiron, hence his patronage of cooks and chefs, stating something along the lines of, "turn me over ... I'm done on this side". One of the early sources for the martyrdom of Saint Lawrence was the description by Aurelius Prudentius Clemens in his Peristephanon, Hymn II. However, one longstanding scholarly theory holds that the story of the gridiron arose from a scribe's mistranscription of passus est ("he suffered," that is, was martyred) as assus est ("he was roasted").
Constantine I is said to have built a small oratory in honour of the martyr, which was a station on the itineraries of the graves of the Roman martyrs by the seventh century. Pope Damasus I rebuilt or repaired the church, now known as San Lorenzo fuori le Mura, while the minor basilica of San Lorenzo in Panisperna was built over the place of his martyrdom. The gridiron of the martyrdom was placed Pope Paschal II in the church of San Lorenzo in Lucina.
Biography of the Patron Saint cited from (
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CZ
Barokní socha sv. Vavrince je umístena nedaleko kostelíku Zvestování Panny Marie, v ulici Pokorného. Vzprímená klecící socha pískovcová na oblácku, s vysokým pískovcovým podstavcem, v jehož první cásti je ješte šroub k lampe. Na oblácku hlavicka andílka. Svatý Vavrinec se pravou rukou opírá o rošt – atribut cihláru a v levé ruce drží palmovou snítku – atribut svetcu. Hlavu má mírne zvrácenou k nebesum.
Latinský nápis na prední strane v kartuši: „Svatý Vavrinec, ochránce náš od ohne, ochranuj nás od ohne castého i vecného“. Latinský nápis vyrytý v zadní strane soklu „Tato socha byla postavena nákladem Jana Josefa hrabete Šporka – 1729–1802“. Typika svetcovy tváre, stejne jako charakter provedení i koncepce sochy ukazují jednoznacne do okruhu braunovské následnosti. Jde o vysoce hodnotné vrcholne barokní umelecké dílo. Socha byla postavena hned po velkém požáru v r. 1729. Asi nebyla k dostání socha pravého ochránce proti požáru sv. Floriána a tak posloužila k tomuto úcelu socha sv. Vavrince, patrona cihláru.