The Tears of St Lawrence
The August meteors named after a martyred saint.
Key facts
- People and tradition
- Catholic Europe, especially Italy and Spain
- Region
- Europe
- When
- Medieval to modern
The story
Lawrence of Rome was a deacon put to death in the year 258, during a persecution of Christians. Tradition says he was burned on a gridiron. His feast day is 10 August.
In Italy and other Catholic countries, the bright meteors that fill the sky around that date came to be called le lacrime di San Lorenzo, the Tears of St Lawrence: sparks from his fire, or tears shed for him, falling every year on his day. On the night of San Lorenzo, people in Italy still go out to watch the sky and make wishes on the falling stars.
What science says
These are the Perseids, the best known annual meteor shower in the northern hemisphere. Every August, Earth passes through a stream of dust left behind by Comet 109P/Swift–Tuttle, and the particles hit the atmosphere at about 59 km per second. The peak comes around 12 to 13 August, a couple of nights after St Lawrence's day; the dates have shifted slightly over the centuries as the calendar and the comet's dust stream have changed.
Did you know?
The Perseids are named after the constellation Perseus, from which they appear to come.
Comet Swift–Tuttle, the source of the dust, is about 26 km across and returns every 133 years.