St Lawrence Receiving the Treasures of the Church

In the summer of 258 the emperor Valerian ordered that the bishops, priests and deacons of the Church be put to death. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, wrote at the time that the bishop of Rome, Sixtus, had been executed in a cemetery on the 6th of August. His deacon Lawrence followed him a few days later. Later tradition filled the days between the two deaths with a story. Before he was taken, Sixtus handed Lawrence the treasure of the Roman church, so that it would reach the poor before the emperor's officers could seize it.

Fra Angelico paints that handover. Sixtus, with three attendants, gives a purse to Lawrence, who kneels before him in a deacon's robe. Outside, two soldiers are knocking at the door. The pope has the features of Nicholas V, who had this chapel painted.

On the same wall, right beside it, comes the next step of the story, Lawrence handing the money out to the poor.