Lazarus

Lazarus of Bethany, known in Christian tradition as Saint Lazarus, is principally attested in the Gospel according to John. He resided in the village of Bethany near Jerusalem together with his sisters Mary and Martha, and the family enjoyed a close friendship with Jesus of Nazareth. When Lazarus became seriously ill, the sisters sent a message to Jesus, who was then staying beyond the Jordan. Jesus delayed his departure for two days. Upon arriving in Bethany he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. After speaking with Martha and Mary, Jesus went to the tomb, ordered the stone to be taken away, prayed, and cried with a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come out.' The dead man emerged, still bound in burial cloths. The evangelist presents this sign as the immediate occasion for the Sanhedrin's decision to put Jesus to death, and notes that the chief priests also planned to kill Lazarus because many were believing in Jesus on account of him. Lazarus appears once more in the Gospel, reclining at table during a supper given for Jesus at Bethany six days before the Passover.

No other first-century source, Christian or otherwise, mentions Lazarus. The Synoptic Gospels are silent about him, although Luke 10 describes Jesus visiting the home of Martha and Mary, an episode often understood to concern the same household. Consequently, historians possess no verifiable information concerning Lazarus's parentage, the year of his birth, his trade, whether he married, or the circumstances of his eventual death. The events narrated by John are customarily dated to the early first century, within the final period of Jesus's public activity.

Later ecclesiastical tradition supplied extensive biographies that cannot be confirmed from early evidence. Eastern Orthodox sources, drawing on a legend that gained currency by the medieval period, relate that Lazarus left Judea during the persecution that followed the martyrdom of Stephen, was cast ashore on Cyprus, and was consecrated bishop of Kition (Larnaca) by the apostles Paul and Barnabas. He is said to have shepherded that community for approximately thirty years and to have died there a second time. A sarcophagus discovered in Larnaca in 890 was identified as his, and the present Church of Saint Lazarus was erected over the site; portions of the relics were later taken to Constantinople. A Western medieval legend, given classic form in the thirteenth-century Golden Legend, asserts that Lazarus, Mary, and Martha were placed in a rudderless boat that miraculously reached the coast of Provence. Lazarus then evangelized the region, became the first bishop of Marseille, and suffered martyrdom under the emperor Domitian. Relics claimed to be his were enshrined at Marseille and later at Autun. Contemporary scholarship treats both cycles of legend as hagiographic expansions rather than historical reportage.

Lazarus has been honored as a saint from early times in both East and West. The Byzantine rite observes the Saturday before Palm Sunday as Lazarus Saturday, a joyful commemoration of the raising that anticipates the resurrection of Christ. The Roman Martyrology formerly listed him on 17 December; the present General Roman Calendar commemorates him on 29 July together with Martha and Mary of Bethany. Local cults developed around the purported tombs in Larnaca and Marseille. Because of the Gospel miracle he is associated with themes of death, burial, and the hope of resurrection; popular devotion has sometimes conflated him with the poor man named Lazarus in Jesus's parable in Luke 16, who became a traditional patron of lepers and the destitute. Formal, universally recognized patronages attached exclusively to Lazarus of Bethany remain limited.