The story is, of course, well enough known. St. Lawrence was commanded by the imperial Roman authorities to cede the treasures of the Church -- the care and distribution of which were part of St. Lawrence's diaconal role in the city of Rome. Lawrence was given three days to gather them and he used that time to instead quickly distribute as much of it as he could to the city's poor; when the fateful third day came, he proceeded to present to the Roman prefect with the "true treasures" of the Church: the sick and the poor and the virgins. Suffice it to say, this didn't go over well with the Prefect and Lawrence was ultimately condemned to death.
Ever since then, St. Lawrence has been a staple of popular piety amongst the Christian faithful and particularly within Rome and Italy more generally, as evidenced by the numerous churches we can find dedicated to San Lorenzo. One such example is the parish church of San Lorenzo in Abbadia Lariana located in Como.
The parish in question has a beautiful set of eighteenth century vestments dedicated to St. Lawrence, their patron saint, and while vestments for the feast day of St. Lawrence would properly be red of course, it would be a shame to not share this set of vestments, particularly on this day when we find ourselves meditating upon the life and example of St. Lawrence.
The vestments in question are dated to the second half of the 1700's and follow a fairly typical Italian model for the period, featuring various vegetal designs in beautiful pastel colours that have been embroidered over the entire surface, but it is the cope specifically that features an image of St. Lawrence.
As for the rest of the set, it comes without specific reference to St. Lawrence, but here it is for the record:
A set like this would have likely seen use on the Mass celebrating the anniversary of the dedication of the church -- which was of course dedicated to the patronage of St. Lawrence -- as well as other important liturgical times calling for white, such as Easter for example.
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