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Sts Lawrence and Stephen were venerated throughout Rome and the popes accorded them particular honour. Their martyrdoms were frescoed in the private papal chapel known as the Sancta Sanctorum (Holy of Holies) in the Lateran Palace, the official residence of the popes through the end of the Great Schism. The chapel was commissioned by Pope Nicholas III (reigned 1276-80). It preserved the miraculous, painted portrait of Christ, believed to have been completed by angels, and some of the most treasured relics from the Holy Land, including a coal from the fire that roasted Lawrence and drops of Stephen's blood.
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