Saint Lazarus of Bethany or Lazarus of the Four Days was a believer in Jesus, whom Jesus raised from the dead, recorded in the Gospel of John.

The Miracle of Lazarus

In the Gospel of John Lazarus, also called Lazarus of Bethany or Lazarus of the Four Days was a man who lived in the town of Bethany. The sisters are immediately identified: "Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and dried his feet with her hair; it was her brother Lazarus who was ill." So the sisters sent word to Jesus that the one he loved was ill. Jesus tarried where he was, and when he arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days, and Martha reproached him. When Jesus assured her that Lazarus would rise, she took his meaning for the resurrection on Judgment Day, to which he replied, "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die". In the presence of a crowd of Jewish mourners, Jesus had the stone rolled away from the tomb and bade Lazarus to come out, and so he did, still wrapped in his grave-cloths. Jesus then called for his followers (friends and family alike) to remove the grave-cloths. The narrator claims many other Jews were convinced of Jesus' divinity after visiting Lazarus. Six days before the passover on which Jesus was crucified, Jesus returned from the city of Ephraism to Bethany and Lazarus attended a supper that Martha, his sister, served . Jesus and Lazarus together attracted the attention of many Jews and the chief priests consulted about putting Lazarus to death . The chief priests were associated with the Sadducees. Lazarus was a living testimony against the Sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead .

The miracle of the raising of Lazuris, the longest coherent narrative in John aside from the Passion, is the climax of John's "signs". It explains the crowds seeking Jesus on Palm Sunday, and leads directly to the decision of Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin to kill Jesus. The narrative includes the famous phrase Jesus wept in some translations.

The developed Lazarus legend

Saint Lazarus was combined with Lazarus and Dives in Romanesque iconography carved on portals in Burgundy and Provence.

Bishop of Kittim

According to Christian tradition compiled in the 13th century Golden Legend, Lazarus was the brother of Martha and Mary Magdalene, a Pharisee, but because of the rumoured plots fled for his life to Cyprus. There he later became the first bishop of Larnaka/Kittim, appointed directly by Paul and Barnabas, and lived another thirty years. Further establishing the apostolic nature of Lazarus' appointment was the story that the bishop's pallium was presented to Lazarus by the Virgin Mary, who had woven it herself. Such apostolic connections were central to the claims to autocephaly made by the bishops of Kittim—subject to the patriarch of Jerusalem—during the period 325–413. The church of Kittim was declared (or confirmed) self-governing in 413.

Stories say that he would always include something sweet in every meal. That was when he observed someone stealing a clay pot, causing him to smile and say with a laugh, "clay stealing clay".

The Golden Legend records the grand lifestyle imagined for Lazarus and his sisters in the 14th century:

Mary Magdalene had her surname of Magdalo, a castle, and was born of right noble lineage and parents, which were descended of the lineage of kings. And her father was named Cyrus, and her mother Eucharis. She with her brother Lazarus, and her sister Martha, possessed the castle of Magdalo, which is two miles from Nazareth, and Bethany, the castle which is nigh to Jerusalem, and also a great part of Jerusalem, which, all these things they departed among them. In such wise that Mary had the castle Magdalo, whereof she had her name Magdalene. And Lazarus had the part of the city of Jerusalem, and Martha had to her part Bethany. And when Mary gave herself to all delights of the body, and Lazarus entended all to knighthood, Martha, which was wise, governed nobly her brother's part and also her sister's, and also her own, and administered to knights, and her servants, and to poor men, such necessities as they needed. Nevertheless, after the ascension of our Lord, they sold all these things. (Legenda Aurea, Book iv, "Of Mary Magdalene")

Bishop of Marseille

In the West, an alternative medieval tradition sent Mary, Martha, and Lazarus to Gaul after the Crucifixion. Provençal tradition, in particular, held Lazarus as the first bishop of Marseille, while Martha purportedly went on to tame a terrible beast in nearby Tarascon. Pilgrims visited their tombs at the abbey of Vézelay in Burgundy. In the Abbey of the Trinity at Vendôme, a phylactery was said to contain a tear shed by Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus. The cathedral of Autun, not far away, is dedicated to Lazarus as Saint Lazare.

Tombs of Lazarus

The first reputed tomb of Lazarus at Bethany continues to be a place of pilgrimage to this day.

Lazarus's tomb in Cyprus is the site of the Byzantine church, Agios Lazaros, and was the most notable feature of ancient Kittim (now Larnaka), where according to tradition he served as bishop and was buried after his (second) death. In 890 A.D. his tomb was found bearing the inscription "Lazarus the friend of Christ". The marble sarcophagus can be seen inside the church under the Holy of Holies. His relics were transferred from Cyprus to Constantinople in 898. The transfer was apostrophized by Arethas, bishop of Caesarea, and is commemorated by the Orthodox Church each year on October 17. However, on November 2, 1972, human remains in a marble sarcophagus under the altar were discovered during renovation works in the church at Larnaka, and were identified as part of the saint's relics.

The relics were later stolen from Constantinople by the Crusaders and were transferred to France in 1204 as part of the booty of war from the Fourth Crusade.

Liturgical references

Lazarus is honored as a saint by those Christian churches which keep the commemoration of saints, although on different days, according to local traditions.

In Christian funerals the idea of the deceased being raised by the Lord as Lazarus was raised is often expressed in prayer.

Eastern Orthodoxy

In the Eastern Orthodox Church as well as the Byzantine Catholic Church, the day before Palm Sunday is celebrated as Lazarus Saturday. This day, together with Palm Sunday, hold a unique position in the church year, as days of joy and triumph between the penitence of Great Lent and the mourning of Holy Week. During the preceding week, the hymns in the Lenten Triodion track the sickness and then the death of Lazarus, and Christ's journey from beyond Jordan to Bethany. The scripture readings and hymns for Lazarus Saturday focus on the resurrection of Lazarus as a foreshadowing of the Resurrection of Christ, and a promise of the General Resurrection. The Gospel narrative is interpreted in the hymns as illustrating the two natures of Christ: his humanity in asking, "Where have ye laid him?", and his divinity by commanding Lazarus to come forth from the dead. Many of the Resurectional hymns of the normal Sunday service, which are omitted on Palm Sunday, are chanted on Lazaurs Saturday. During the Divine Liturgy, the Baptismal Hymn, "As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ", is sung in place of the Trisagion.

Although the forty days of Great Lent end on the day before Lazarus Saturday, the day is still observed as a fast; however, it is somewhat mitigated. In Russia, it is traditional to eat caviar on Lazarus Saturday.

Roman Catholicism

In the Roman Catholic Church Saint Lazarus' memorial is on June 21. In Cuba a major festival is dedicated to San Lázaro, but on December 17.

In the section In paradisum, which often appears embedded in the Requiem, the deceased is wished to Paradise with Lazarus, who once was poor; the text reminds us how often Saint Lazarus was conflated with the beggar Lazarus of Luke.

Order of Saint Lazarus

The Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem is a religious/military order, purportedly dating back to the First Crusade. The Order is run by two distinct channels of authority, referred to as the Malta Obedience and the Paris Obedience.

Lutheranism

He is commemorated in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church on July 29 together with Mary and Martha.

Synchrestic Religions

The Cuban San Lázaro is synchronised with Babalu Ayé in Santería. Lazarus is also a representation of Omulu/Abaluaye in Brazilian Umbanda.

In modern culture

Well-known as an established tale, Lazarus has appeared countless times in music, writing and art. A few example citations of the tale:

• Among the painted depictions of Lazarus is the work Lazarus Breaking His Fast by Walter Sickert, which hangs in the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh and "Gare Saint-Lazare" by Claude Monet, after a train station in Paris by the same name.
• The bands The Boo Radleys, Chimaira, Fozzy, moe., Placebo, and Porcupine Tree have each composed a song titled "Lazarus".
• Other songs that refer to Lazarus include "Our Friend Lazarus Sleeps" by I Am Ghost, "Sleepwalk Capsules" by At the Drive-In, "Dig Lazarus Dig!!!" By Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, "Ali in the Jungle" by The Hours, "Lazarus Man" by Terry Callier, "Long Snake Moan" by PJ Harvey, "Lazarus (In The Wilderness) by Funeral for a Friend, "Death March" by Jedi Mind Tricks, "The Lazarus Heart" by Sting and "Ghost" by Clutch.
• Dave Swarbrick has also recently formed a band called Lazarus with Maartin Allcock and Kevin Dempsey.
• Lazarus is mentioned in several notable works of literature, including Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T. S. Eliot, A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr., Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, A Separate Peace by John Knowles, The Famished Road by Ben Okri, "Lazarus" by Porcupine Tree, Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy, and "Lazarus" by Leonid Andreyev.
• Several novels of Robert A. Heinlein involve Lazarus Long, a name taken by Woodrow Wilson Smith, a character who lives over 2000 years.
• T.S. Eliot's speaker in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock compares himself to Lazarus.
• Sylvia Plath wrote a poem called "Lady Lazarus".
• On film, the name "Lazarus" is used in the movies Casper, Black Snake Moan and Slam.
• In computer software, Lazarus is referenced by the 1995 computer game Diablo, the DiskDoctor utility in the Commodore Amiga Old File System, and the video games Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, and BioShock.
• On television, "Lazarus" appears in The X-Files ("Lazarus"), Stargate SG-1 ("Cold Lazarus"), Doctor Who ("The Lazarus Experiment"), Mutant X, Supernatural ("Lazarus Rising"), and Star Trek episodes "The Alternative Factor" and "Requiem for Methuselah".
• In the Batman comic books, villain Ra's al Ghul regenerates his body in a Lazarus pit.
• Dennis Potter's tv serial Cold Lazarus shows the re-animation of a 20th century writer's brain in the 24th century.
• In WWE wrestling the Undertaker is referred to as Lazarus by Paul Bearer during a feud between the two.
• In Vampire the Dark Ages Lazarus is a Methuselah of the Cappadocian clan of vampires and may also appear in Vampire: the Masquerade as the Capuchin.

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