The Tears of St Lawrence
Every August, around the feast of St Lawrence, the night sky fills with shooting stars. Italians call them the saint's tears.
What was reported
St Lawrence was a deacon of the early Church in Rome, martyred in the year 258, and his feast day is 10 August. Around that date each year, shooting stars streak across the sky, sometimes dozens an hour.
In Italy and elsewhere, they're called le lacrime di San Lorenzo, the tears of St Lawrence, said to be the tears he wept, or the sparks of his martyrdom, falling from heaven. People go out on the night of San Lorenzo to watch them and make wishes.
Explanations offered
They're the Perseid meteor shower, which happens every year when the Earth passes through a trail of dust left by the comet Swift–Tuttle. The specks burn up as they hit the upper atmosphere at about 60 kilometres a second.
- When
- Every August
- Where
- Rome, Lazio, Italy
- Witnesses
- Anyone watching the sky on summer nights
- Status
- Explained
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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