It seems fitting for the feast of St. Lawrence to relate an anecdote from the life of Cardinal Newman, who died as of tomorrow some 106 years ago, aged 89.

Cardinal Newman during his Anglican days wrote a Tract for the Times entitled On the Roman Breviary as Embodying the Substance of the Devotional Services of the Church Catholic which included his own translation of First Vespers and Matins from the office for St. Lawrence, albeit without the psalms. This was written during a period when Newman was discovering the Roman Breviary, a feature of Catholicism which greatly appealed to a man of devotion and learning. In fact his conversion was in part due to his attachment to the breviary, and it would provide him with great joy and consolation until his last months, when failing sight required him to substitute the Rosary for the Office.