At Dappled Things today, I learned that the Perseid meteor shower has been "known for centuries as the burning Tears of St Lawrence". Fascinating!
I've always been impressed with the account of St Lawrence. He was roasted alive, you know. But before that, when commanded to turn over the treasures of the church to the Roman authorities, he presented the poor people of the parish. What a cool story. (More on St Lawrence here and here.)
Anyway, here's a bit from the Perseid History page at amsmeteors.org:
The earliest record of its activity appears in the Chinese annals, where it is said that in 36 AD "more than 100 meteors flew thither in the morning." Numerous references appear in Chinese, Japanese and Korean records throughout the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th centuries, but only sporadic references are found between the 12th and 19th centuries, inclusive. Nevertheless, August has long had a reputation for an abundance of meteors. The Perseids have been referred to as the "tears of St. Lawrence", since meteors seemed to be in abundance during the festival of that saint on August 10th, but credit for the discovery of the shower's annual appearance is given to Quételet (Brussels), who, in 1835, reported that there was a shower occurring in August that emanated from the constellation Perseus.
(Perseid History link spotted at Metafilter.)
Posted on August 10, 2004 12:07 PM. Filed under: religion.