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A TRIBUTE TO ST LAWRENCE OF BRINDISI 311 and defend them 2°. He is hailed as "one of the greatest apostles who, in the period of the Counterreformation, worked generously, with heroic dedication, for the resur– gence offaith and Christian life among the populations ofltaly and Germany" 21 • On the level of diffusion and popularity Lawrence's Mariale seems to have outstripped his other works 22 • It has had various translations and editions and has been studied more than the others 2 3. In the Mariale Lawrence not only presents the Church's Mariological tradition but also makes his own original contribution to Mariology. After expatiating on St Bernard's interpretation of the scriptural verse "A woman clothed with the sun... and upon her head a crown of twelve stars" (Rev 12,1), Lawrence adds: "May I be pardoned now if, in my simplicity, I differ from his explanation and give another interpretation of this crown". And true to his word, he advances his own textual reading and thereby reconfirms his genius for communica– ting spiritual truths 24 • The translator clearly forewarns the reader when he says that he has "left intact statements that would not correspond to 'scientific' knowledge today relative to as– tronomy, etc." 25 • In the same way some ofLawrence's observations on women just si– gnifies that he was a child ofhis time. Basing himselfon the etymological meaning of "woman" (ischah in Hebrew; see Gen 2,23) as "fire': Lawrence says; "Every woman is a fire. A woman knows no middle ground. She is either a fire oflove and heavenly desires or a fire of fleshly desires". He then says that "God, the author of nature, has conferred greater beauty on the masculine sex than the feminine". As was charac– teristic of most popular preachers of the day, women are faulted for not accepting 20 See Lawrence ofBrindisi, Opera omnia, Bk I, 236-237; Bk II, 284-85; Bk III, 16-17, 24; Bk VII, 307. 21 Arturo M. da Carmignano di Brenta, San Lorenzo da Brindisi. I, 263 22 Lawrence's own devotion to Mary must have certainly given a more personal touch and fervour to his Marian discourses. Arturo M. da Carmignano di Brenta, San Lorenzo da Brindisi, I, 143, 170-173; III, 442-472, refers to Lawrence's profound conviction that he owed his religious vocation to the special intervention ofthe Heavenly Mother. Before his profession he took the vow to fast on every Saturday in honour ofthe Madonna. He is also qualified as "the Apostle ofMary". 23 It is in place here to refer to three of these works that appeared over the past seven decades: Jerome de Paris, La doctrine mariale de saint Laurent de Brindes: etude theologi,que, Rome-Paris 1933; J.L. Haas, The theologi,calsignificance of some biblicalsymbols in the Mariale of St Lawrence of Brindisi, Roma 1994; Lorenzo de Brindis (San, Doctor Apost6lico), Marial Maria de Nazaret, "Virgen de la Plenitud''. Traducci6n del Latin por A. Guzma Sancho yBernardino de Armellada. Introducci6n, notas e revision por Bernardino de Armellada (Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 645), Madrid 2004. 24 Lawrence ofBrindisi, Opera omnia, Bk I, 61-65. 25 V. Wagner, Foreword, in Lawrence ofBrindisi, Opera omnia, Bk I, 10.