Every July 21, the impressive San Lorenzo de Brindis, Doctor of the Church, is celebrated, who led important battles of the Christians against the Turks and was unharmed by the bullets that fell on his body. What was his “bulletproof vest”? Here we tell you.
According to Catholic Encyclopedia, the Capuchin friar Saint Lawrence (1559-1619) was born in Brindis (Italy) and died in Lisbon (Portugal). He was fluent in several languages and “it was said that he knew the entire original text of the Bible.”
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At one point in his life he became a chaplain in the imperial navy. By then, the Turks had taken over much of Hungary and sought to subjugate Christian Europe to the Muslim world.
The invaders had an army of 80 thousand men, while the Westerners only had about 18 thousand.
According to him Franciscan Saints, about saints and blesseds of this spirituality, San Lorenzo was received in the military camp with hisses and contempt from some of the soldiers. But the friar was not discouraged, but began to give speeches to motivate the troops.
In the book Saint Lawrence of Brindis, fighter against the Turksby the Augustinian Recollect priest Ángel Peña, numerous testimonies are collected from the people who were on the battlefield and from others who lived at the time.
It is said that the saint only wore his habit, carried a wooden cross in his hand during the fight and blessed everyone. Likewise, he rode a horse without knowing how to ride. He encouraged them by shouting: “Gentlemen, go ahead, go ahead, this is my place, victory, victory.”
The Turks rushed to kill the priest but could not defeat him. A Capuchin priest, Father Ángel de Monte Herculano, said that “in the war, many enemy arrows and bullets did not hurt him and fell to the ground and some touched his clothes and did not harm him.”
Likewise, the Capuchin priest Gaspar de Gasparotti assured that he had heard from Father John the Baptist of Mantua, a companion of the saint in Hungary, that “with the sign of the cross, Father Lorenzo made the Turkish artillery bullets return so that the bullets, instead of going against the Christians, returned against them or fell around the Christians without harming anyone.
Felipe Bevilacqua, an officer in the imperial troops, stated that the Turks placed 14 artillery pieces to fire on his squad.
When the enemies lit the fuses to launch the projectiles, San Lorenzo responded with the sign of the cross. The bullets reached the group, but none of them died.
Furthermore, in the Franciscan Saints the testimony of Jerónimo Dentico, imperial war advisor, is recorded, who indicated that the victory should be attributed to the prayers of good people “and to those of this good father, servant of God who is with us, as this entire army already says, including the most important heretics.”
In the end, the Christians won. The Turks fled and days later sought revenge, but were again defeated. The Catholic Encyclopedia highlights that “the general and the entire army attributed to Lorenzo the honor of this double victory.”
Saint Lawrence, one day indicated that “truly God our Lord had worked such wonderful things that they could be compared with the wonders told in Scripture.”
Abel Camasca
Journalist graduated from the Communication Sciences degree at the University of Lima. He has been part of the ACI Prensa journalistic team since 2014. Between 2016 and 2022 he was in charge of the production of the television program EWTN Noticias and Más que Noticias, a World Catholic Radio program. He often writes articles about the lives of saints.