St. Lawrence of Brindisi

Who they were

Lawrence of Brindisi had perhaps the greatest gift for languages the Church's pulpit has recorded: Italian, Latin, Greek, German, French, Spanish, Syriac, and Hebrew mastered so thoroughly that the rabbis of Rome, whom he engaged in respectful disputation, are reported to have marvelled at it. His sermons fill volumes in most of them.

He was minister general of the Capuchins, a papal diplomat, and the founder of houses across the empire, and he is the owner of the era's most cinematic scene. In 1601, serving as chaplain to the imperial army at Székesfehérvár against a much larger Ottoman force, the friar rode out before the troops carrying only a crucifix. The army took the field behind him, the day went their way, and Lawrence came through untouched. It is recounted as the sourced episode it is, and it belongs to the courage of one unarmed man rather than to any claim about whose faith God prefers. He died on a diplomatic mission undertaken for the oppressed people of Naples, on his sixtieth birthday, in Lisbon, and was named a Doctor of the Church in 1959.

Why people turn to St. Lawrence of Brindisi

Language learners, interpreters and translators, with St. Jerome. Military and hospital chaplains. Diplomats running errands on behalf of people with no leverage of their own, which is how he died.

How to ask their intercession

Before the language exam, the interpreting shift, the deployment, ask for his combination: many tongues and one message.