Mother Mary Maddalena wrote of St. Sixtus in her Memoirs: A fierce persecution had broken out against the Christians under the Emperor Valerian. ... The Holy Pontiff, Sixtus II was seized, and, upon refusing to sacrifice to Mars, was condemned to death. As he was being dragged away, the holy deacon, St. Lawrence, ran to meet him, and cried out with grief : "Father, whither goest thou without thy son ? Holy Priest, why doest thou depart without thy deacon ?" Sixtus answered : “I am not leaving thee, my son. There awaits thee, for Christ's sake, a sterner combat than mine. Yet three days and thou shalt follow me, the deacon behind the priest.” [The tyrant in charge of Lawrence’s execution]… after having subjected him to a number of appalling tortures, finally ordered him to be taken to the imperial gardens on the Viminal Hill and there to be roasted upon a large gridiron over a slow fire. Thus the glorious martyr rendered his beautiful soul to God, August 10, 258. His sacred remains were deposited in the catacombs of S. Cyriacus outside the city walls; and, when about sixty years later peace was restored to the church, by the conversion of the Emperor Constantine, one of the first solicitudes of Pope S. Silvester was to render the place of the martyrdom of St. Lawrence memorable by the erection of a magnificent Church upon the very ruins of the palace of the Emperor Valerian... A Monastery of Benedictine Monks was soon constructed in connection with the Church. The Benedictines inhabited the place until the thirteenth century. When they left, it was given to the daughters of S. Clare. The monastery in Rome that Mother Maddalena joined was built on the site of the martyrdom of the deacon, St. Lawrence. The monastery is called San Lorenzo in Panisperna.