Lazarus of Bethany

Life events

1. Born

   Lazarus lived in Bethany, a village near Jerusalem, and was a follower of Jesus identified in the Gospel of John as the brother of Mary and Martha.

2. Other

   Lazarus fell ill and died at Bethany. Jesus, arriving four days after his entombment, commanded him to emerge from the tomb still wrapped in his grave-cloths — an event the Gospel of John presents as the climactic seventh sign and the immediate occasion for the Sanhedrin's decision to put Jesus on trial.

3. Other

   Six days before the Passover on which Jesus was crucified, Lazarus attended a supper at Bethany served by his sister Martha. The chief priests considered having Lazarus put to death because his presence was drawing many people to believe in Jesus.

4. Exiled

   According to Eastern Orthodox tradition, Lazarus was forced to flee Judea after rumoured plots on his life following the Resurrection of Christ.

5. Consecrated

   Per Eastern Orthodox tradition, Lazarus was appointed by Barnabas and Paul the Apostle as the first bishop of Kition (present-day Larnaca, Cyprus), where he served for thirty years until his death.

6. Died

   In the Eastern tradition, Lazarus died peacefully in Kition (Cyprus) and was buried there for the second and final time. In the Western Provençal tradition, he became the first bishop of Marseille and was martyred by beheading under the Domitian persecution in a cave beneath the prison of Saint-Lazare.

7. Translated — 898

   In 890, a tomb at Larnaca was found bearing the inscription 'Lazarus the friend of Christ.' Emperor Leo VI of Byzantium transferred Lazarus's remains to Constantinople in 898; the translation is commemorated by the Eastern Orthodox Church on 17 October. In recompense, Leo erected the Church of St. Lazarus over the tomb in Larnaca, where a marble sarcophagus remains visible today.

Relationships

Documented claims

• Eastern Orthodox liturgical tradition titles Lazarus 'the Four-Days Dead' (Четвородневни Лазар), emphasizing that his entombment for four full days — beyond the three days after which the soul was believed to depart the body — made his resurrection the most dramatic of Jesus's miracles. (likely)
• According to tradition recorded in Eastern and Western sources, Lazarus never smiled during the thirty years after his resurrection, troubled by what he had witnessed of unredeemed souls in Hades. The sole exception came when he saw a thief stealing a pot, and said with a faint smile: 'the clay steals the clay.' (legendary)
• Eastern Orthodox tradition holds that Lazarus received his bishop's omophorion — the liturgical vestment signifying episcopal authority — from the Virgin Mary, who had woven it herself, reinforcing the apostolic legitimacy of the See of Kition and its claims to autocephaly (granted at the Third Ecumenical Council in 431). (legendary)
• The Eastern Orthodox Church observes Lazarus Saturday — the day before Palm Sunday — as a feast that stands outside both Great Lent and Holy Week, singing resurrectional hymns ordinarily reserved for Sundays and replacing the Trisagion with the Baptismal Hymn. (certain)
• In June 2012, the Church of Cyprus transferred part of Lazarus's relics to a delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church led by Patriarch Kirill; the relics were subsequently placed at the Zachatievsky Monastery in Moscow for veneration. (likely)