The four Latin ? lives? of St Laurence O? Toole (with ancillary material) were critically edited for a doctoral thesis by Maurice Roche in 1981. Sadly Dr Roche died in an accident in 2003. The thesis went ? missing? but photographs of it were made available to Mary Kelly and from these Charles Doherty and Mary produced this book. Contact was made with Dr Roche? s relatives who were happy to see his work in print. It was a two volume thesis (now reduced to one). The first consisted of chapters on the life and career of Laurence and invaluable analyses of each of the ? lives? revealing the relationships among them and highlighting the very diverse approaches of the hagiographers to their material. The second contains the critical editions of the ? lives? . For the first time we have a complete dossier of the hagiography of the saint. Critical editions of documents concerning the canonisation and translation followed the ? lives? . Finally, draft translations of the two most important ? lives? (found by his relatives) are appended. The thesis is of fundamental importance for scholars working in twelfth- and thirteenth-century Irish, English and European history.