In 1447-51 Fra Angelico painted a fresco cycle on the lives of St. Lawrence and St. Stephen in the Niccoline Chapel in the Vatican. Here are five of the St. Lawrence panels in the cycle:
Pope Sixtus hands a chalice to Lawrence as part of the latter's consecration as a deacon. Even today it is the deacon "assists the priest celebrant in distributing Communion, especially as minister of the Precious Blood."1 (Source: this page at Wikimedia Commons.)
Pope Sixtus later entrusts the Church's treasure to Lawrence. In the version reported in the Golden Legend Sixtus had received an enormous treasure, far more than could be contained in the bag seen here, from a deposed Roman emperor named Philip. The usurper Decius wanted that treasure and had the pope arrested in hopes of forcing him to hand it over. But Sixtus managed to get the treasure into Lawrence's hands in time. (Source: this page at Wikimedia Commons.)
Lawrence distributes the Church's wealth to the poor of Rome.
(Source: this page at Wikimedia Commons.)
Lawrence is brought before Decius, who has him whipped and imprisoned. In the fresco Decius holds his sceptre in one hand and with the other points to the whips. Lawrence does not deign to look down at them.
(Source: this page at Wikimedia Commons.)
Finally, after a spell in prison St. Lawrence is burned to death on a gridiron. The horror of the event is deepened by the contrasting calmness of the watchers and the colorless relief images in the wall.
In the lower left of the fresco Lawrence ministers to one of the men he converted while in prison. (Source: this page at Wikimedia Commons.)
1 "The Deacon at Mass," Prayer and Worship. Online: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, http://www.usccb.org/prayer-and-worship/the-mass/the-deacon-at-mass.cfm retrieved 2019-09-22.
