Today is the day for reading Prudentius's great 'hymn in honor of the passion of the most blessed martyr Lawrence'.
Antiqua fanorum parens,
iam Roma Christo dedita,
Laurentio victrix duce
ritum triumphas barbarum.
reges superbos viceras
populosque frenis presseras,
nunc monstruosis idolis
inponis imperii iugum.
haec sola derat gloria
urbis togatae insignibus,
feritate capta gentium
domaret ut spurcum Iovem,
non turbulentis viribus
Cossi, Camilli aut Caesaris,
sed martyris Laurentii
non incruento proelio.
armata pugnavit fides,
proprii cruoris prodiga;
nam morte mortem diruit,
ac semet inpendit sibi.
And on it flows, for another four hundred or more lines of iambic dimeter, this carmen, the second in his Liber Peristephanon, 'Crowns of Martyrdom'.
The Peristephanon also includes poems in honor of Saints Cyprian, Cassian, Peter and Paul, Hippolytus, Agnes, and Vincent, and (added later by Prudentius, who was born and lived most of his life in Spain) of Saints Emeterius and Chelidonius, Eulalia of Merida, the eighteen Martyrs of Saragossa, Fructuosus of Tarragona, and Quirinus of Siscia (in what is now Croatia).
Will look about for an English version; I've been reading at the online Loeb Classical Library myself, but it is quite time consuming to copy text from there (they are, I suppose understandably, protective of their copyrights and their annual user fees).
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