Meccanica Celeste delle Perseidi e la tradizione delle Lacrime di san Lorenzo

The Perseids are also called "Tears of St. Lawrence", because their peak date (August 12/13) is near the feast of St. Laurence (August, 10). The aim of this paper is to verify the possibility to have had the peak on August, 10 on 258 AD, year of the martyrdom of St. Lawrence. According to celestial mechanics the orbit of the parent comet Swift-Tuttle is stable, while the Earth apsides rotated and the aphelion changed from 24 June at that epoch to 4 July now. The distance from the Sun on August 10 increased since 258 AD, so the Earth now can cross the Perseids' meteoroids tube 2 or 3 days later than 258 AD.