St. Laura?

I lead a Bible study for high-schoolers at one of the churches I go to, and have for the last three years. I have two girls (twin sisters) whome I've been able to spend a lot of time with. They're seniors this year and will be off to college soon. And while I'll probably not be able to see as much of them as I do now, I know that we'll be friends throughout our lives.

Anyway, right now we're working on a thirty day Spiritual discipline experiment. For the next thirty days, we're going to consciously keep track of the things were thankful for, and pray about it every day. We've created a blog to record our thoughs and progress, which can be found here. I'm kind of excited about it - it'll be more like the journaling I used to do.

On a whim the other day, I decided to see if there had ever been a St. Laura. Here's what I found:

Laura of Córdova, Abbess

Born in Córdova, Spain; died 864. Saint Laura was a 9th-century Spanish martyr. In her widowhood Laura became a nun at Cuteclara, then its abbess. She was incenerated by Moorish conquerors who threw her into a boiling cauldron of molten lead.

Hmmm... kind of over the top as far as deaths go. I mean, they could have just knifed her or something, but they took the time to actually melt lead. Kind of makes you wonder why... I mean were they trying to make some sort of political point? Was she a famous symbol of something they were against? Perhaps she just looked at them the wrong way, they felt the need to bust a cap - Midievel Moor style? Maybe they just thought she'd make a pretty statue.

It does leave me with no excuse for not finding anything to be thankful for in a given day, though. No matter what happens, at least I didn't get tossed into a vat of hot, liquid lead. :)