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Some historical layers in the customs of St. Lawrence's Day

1997; Estonian Literary Museum Scholarly Press; Volume: 03; Linguagem: Inglês

10.7592/fejf1997.03.laur

1406-0957

Mall Hiiemäe,

Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies

stone at an Estonian place of worship On 10 August 258 A.D. Deacon Laurentius, Spanish by birth, raised in Rome was tortured to death by the order of Emperor Valerianus for refusing to renounce his principles.As the legend goes, Laurentius was grilled live on an iron grid.Having been canonized a saint in the 4th century, he began to be worshipped as the patron saint of fire around the end of the 10th century, and his cult spread gradually all over Europe as far as Scandinavia (Wrede 1932/3: 924-932).In Kuusalu parish, northern Estonia the legend about the martyr's death of St. Lawrence must have been known widely.Collectors have heard it retold even after World War II.The following information was published in the early 20th century: Rajakivi ('boundary stone'), situated between the Kuusalu pastorate and village, 1/4 versts north of the church, on the right-hand side of the road.This is a rather big stone, with a boundary-marking cross on its top surface, but a pair of scissors are carved on its northern side and an iron grid (Rost) on the southern side.The scissors and grid are said to mean that St. Laurentius, to whom Kuusalu Church is consecrated, was a martyr of old, who was cut with scissors and then grilled and burnt on an iron grid.But besides it is also an old sacrificing stone with several little cup-marks hollowed into its top surface, where sacrificial grains were laid.(Jung 1910: 85-86) The incisions, resembling an iron grid and scissors, or fire tongs, are clearly visible on the stone even today.The grid on the stone is of the same proportions, more or less, than that depicted on icons as held by St. Lawrence, and it has a ring-shaped handle as well, only here the bars are perpendicular to the handle.If we now knew for sure the actual purpose of the carvings, it would certainly lead us closer to the guessing of the date of their origin.As we know, Kuusalu parish was established in 1220, which is very soon after the Danish conquest of the area in the winter of 1219.It is not unlikely that a Cistercian monastic estate was also founded there in the 13th century.Up to 1519 the local villages belonged to the Monastery of Ruma (Johansen 1933: 368-370).Consequently, the image reminiscent of fire tongs or scissors need not actually derive from the legend of St. Lawrence at all.Instead, it may depict, for example, two crosiers crossed, as the stone may well carry the emblem of the church, or the boundary mark of the Cistercian lands, like the one on the signet of the monastery in Gotland.Yet from the point of view of the present study the cup-marks are even more interesting as they make Lauritsakivi 'Laurits stone' or Rajakivi a blending example of Christian and pagan traditions.There are also reports of another, smaller stone with cup-marks, lying nearby, and of an eye-healing spring being situated just a few dozen meters off the spot (Hermann 1973: 347).Although in 1983 I could not find either the smaller stone or the spring, it is notable that mass gatherings at Kuusalu Church on St. Lawrence's Day have persisted right into the 20th century, which is rather untypical of the Lutheran Estonians.Thousands of people from near and far are reported to have come to church on that particular day and participate in the following celebrations (Tampere 1938: 3).According to several reports kept in the Folklore Archives, the rally would drain the nearby estates of labour just at the height of the