ON ST. LAZARUS, CONFESSOR, MONK, PRIEST, AND PAINTER, AT CONSTANTINOPLE
ABOUT THE YEAR OF CHRIST 870
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Lazarus, Confessor, monk, Priest and painter, at Constantinople (St.)
By J. B.
[1] The Emperor Theophilus (who, upon the death of his father Michael the Stammerer in the month of October of the year 829, assumed the reins of government and held them for twelve years and three months) burned with such a mortal hatred against sacred images that (as George Cedrenus, Under the Iconoclast Emperor Theophilus John Scylitzes, Curopalates, and others testify) those who venerated them -- bishops and their subjects, and especially monks, as well as those who painted them -- were cast into prisons meant for criminals, or driven out to mountains and caves, to perish of thirst and hunger. He had also decreed that monks should not be permitted to enter cities, but should be kept away by all means, so that they would nowhere dare to show themselves in the sight of men, not even in the countryside. It has always been characteristic of heretics and of those who incline toward pernicious novelties to hate monks, much was suffered by monks who are more tenacious of ancient piety than the common people. The same tyrant had determined to do away with all painters, and painters: unless they were willing, for the sake of preserving their lives, to spit upon images and to trample upon them as profane things cast upon the ground.
[2] Among others, Lazarus was seized, born of Chazana, having embraced the monastic life from his earliest age and then initiated into the Priesthood, St. Lazarus, a monk and also a painter (as many were in that age) as will be said below, and then (as Cedrenus says) celebrated for the art of painting. It appears that in that period quite a number of monks had learned the art of painting, because when the images of the Saints had been abolished by the decrees of the Emperors, others could not easily be found who would paint them even at the risk of their lives, or who would devote themselves to that art once the prospect of gain had been removed. Thus on February 11, in the Life of St. Theodora Augusta, we said that Methodius, a monk, was a painter, and by his art had instilled piety in Boris, King of the Bulgarians: who seems to us to be the same one whom the Church of Olomouc venerates on March 9 as the Apostle of the Moravians and Bulgarians together with St. Cyril.
[3] Theophilus the enemy of God (for thus Cedrenus calls the Emperor instead of Theophilus) first attempted to subdue Lazarus with flattering words. he is tempted with blandishments, But when he perceived that he could not be captured by flattery, turning to the violence so familiar to him, he so tortured him with torments then with dire torments, that it was thought he would by no means survive them; then, having dealt with him in that manner, he shut him in prison. When he learned that Lazarus, having recovered his strength, was again painting sacred images, he ordered red-hot iron plates to be applied to the palms of his hands. The fire therefore consumed the flesh until, his hands burned: his soul failing, the champion collapsed half-dead. But it was necessary by divine providence that he be preserved for posterity. Therefore, when the tyrant learned that he was at the point of death, released, he paints a miraculous image of St. John, he was released from custody at the request of the Empress and certain others whom she held in close confidence, and was hidden in the church of the Precursor which is called "of the Terrible" (phoberon); and thus, badly wounded as he was, he painted an image of the same Precursor, which was preserved for a very long time and healed diseases. And these things were accomplished at that time.
[4] After the death of the tyrant, however, when the true Faith was again shining forth, he set up with his own hands the image of Jesus Christ, God and man, which is in the Chalke. In Greek it reads: "he set up with his own hands the image in the Chalke." and after the death of the tyrant, of the Savior Gabius translates: "On the bronze column... he impressed the image with his own hands." Zonaras writes of this image as follows: "It is reported that after the death of the tyrant, he painted the image of the Savior in the Chalke and restored it as it is now seen, since the divine image which had formerly been there had long since been erased." Zonaras was living in the year 1118, or the 6,026th year of the World, as he says, to which he brought his Annals. The Chalke appears to have been a certain hall or public building, in the Chalke, a judicial hall: so called perhaps from its bronze doors, or bronze rostra or railings. The Emperor Constantine writes thus of his grandfather Basil: "In particular, the most splendid building of the so-called Chalke, once glorious and admirable, which through time and the negligence of its rulers, and perhaps also through some conflagrations, had deteriorated in many parts and had a roof in poor condition -- this he himself, with labor and frequent expenditures, cleaned, repaired, and established there new judicial benches, more august than the Areopagus and the Heliaea."
[5] The same Blessed Lazarus, says Cedrenus, when asked by the admirable Empress Theodora to forgive her husband and to obtain pardon for him from God, said: "God is not unjust, O Empress, he prays for the soul of Theophilus: so as to forget our love and the afflictions endured for His sake, and to set before them the hatred and immoderate fury of that man." We treated this matter more fully on February 11, in the Life of St. Theodora, section 7.
[6] Afterwards the Blessed Lazarus came to Rome in the time of Pope Benedict III, who, having succeeded Leo IV who died on July 17 of the year 855, himself passed away on February 16 of the year 858. Concerning Lazarus, Anastasius the Librarian writes thus in his account of Benedict: He is sent to Rome by the Emperor Michael III "In his time, Michael, son of the Emperor Theophilus, Emperor of the city of Constantinople, out of love for the Apostles, sent to the Blessed Peter the Apostle a gift through the hand of Lazarus, a monk and exceedingly learned in the art of painting, by race a Khazar -- that is, with precious gifts: a Gospel book of the purest gold with various precious stones; likewise a chalice of gold, surrounded by stones, adorned with a pendant net of white precious gems of wondrous beauty; and two veils of purple cloth with a Cross of purple cloth and a border likewise of gold-woven cloth; and small coverings for the same chalice, as is the custom of the Greeks. Likewise also a vestment of pure imperial purple for the high altar, adorned on every side with figures and latticework and roses of gold-woven cloth of great beauty; and also one veil of cross-patterned silk, with a Cross of gold-woven cloth and letters of Greek gold." Baronius in volume 10, at the year 856, number 6, recites these things with slightly varying words from another manuscript; and he who is here said to be a Khazar by race, Baronius calls "of the race of the Khazars." Mention is frequently made of the Khazars and Khazaria in Cedrenus; and specifically when he treats of Heraclius and Chosroes, he writes that the eastern Turks are called Khazars. Certain more obscure words of Anastasius are explained by others, he was a Khazar by nationality, that is, a Turk, such as Gerard Jan Vossius in his books On the Faults of Language, who interprets "lista" as fringe; "holoverum" or "oloverum" as purple cloth; "chrysoclavum" as gold-studded, or gold-clasped; and "velum de stauraci" or "stauracinum" as that in which vine tendrils or clusters are woven.
[7] What has been related thus far concerning Lazarus is briefly summarized in the Greek Menaea at November 17, in these words: "On the same day, the memory of the holy Confessor Lazarus the painter."
"You, O Christ, Lazarus now no longer paints, But sees you living, not in perceptible colors."
"He entered the monastic life from his very childhood, a monk from childhood, and was taught the science of painting; and to the austerity and continence of his life he added a singular zeal of mercy toward the poor. Whence he was also adorned with the degree of the Priesthood. then a Priest: From which time, girded against all heresies, he endured such great afflictions, not only from the Eutychians, Nestorians, he combats other heretics: and Dioscurians, but also from the impious Iconoclasts, that they cannot be expressed in any words. He was also sent to Old Rome to defend the faith of the paternal and Apostolic doctrines; he goes to Rome again: and returning with great glory, he went again to Rome for a similar cause, but was seized by illness in the middle of the journey and died. His venerable body was brought back to Constantinople he dies on the way. and buried in the temple of St. Evander."
[8] The same things are found in the Lives of the Saints by Maximus, Bishop of Cythera. The same are in the Menologion of Sirletus, except concerning the last Roman journey (which he perhaps undertook either in the cause of St. Ignatius or in the time of the Emperor Basil) and the return of the body to Constantinople. As for what is said both in the Menaea and in the Menologion -- that he came to Rome to fight for the paternal and Apostolic doctrines (unless this is perhaps a gloss by some more recent Greek) -- it seems to be understood thus: why was he sent to Rome? that he came in the Emperor's name to offer obedience to the new Pontiff and to pronounce anathema against the antipope Anastasius; or that he was sent when, his mother having been removed, Michael began to administer supreme power alone, lest perhaps a sinister suspicion should arise in Rome that he was attempting to overturn the doctrines of the Faith after his father's example; or that, as soon as it was heard that the Emperors Lothar and Louis, deceived by the false report of wicked men, wished to support the party of Anastasius, Lazarus was then dispatched to Rome on the advice of St. Theodora and St. Ignatius the Patriarch, so that he might declare that, should they cause any disturbance, the Emperor of the East would stand by the legitimate Pontiff.
[9] The Greeks celebrate the memory of St. Lazarus, as we have already said, on November 17, on which day Ferrari also in his general Catalogue of the Saints thus commemorates him: his feast day November 17 and February 23. "At Constantinople, St. Lazarus the painter, who suffered much on account of the sacred images." But Baronius inscribed his name in the Roman Martyrology at February 23, with this eulogy added: "At Constantinople, St. Lazarus, monk: who, because he painted sacred images, was tortured with dire punishments at the command of the Iconoclast Emperor Theophilus, and his hands were burned with red-hot iron; but healed by the power of God, he restored by painting the sacred images that had been effaced, and at length rested in peace."
[10] In his Notes he adds the following: "The Greeks observe his feast on October 17, when his body was translated from the city of Citium to Constantinople, as is attested in the said Menologion on that day." his Translation is not commemorated on October 17. The words of the Menologion are: "On the same day, the bringing back of the precious relics of the holy and just Lazarus, which relics the most celebrated and most faithful Emperor Leo, moved by divine zeal, had translated from the city of Citium to Constantinople and deposited in silver caskets in the most beautiful temple dedicated under the name of that same holy man."
[11] But these things are to be understood of St. Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha. [But of Lazarus the brother of St. Magdalene, and the relics of both were brought to his temple,] This is clear from Cedrenus, who writes thus of Leo the Wise, Emperor, son of Basil the Macedonian: "He erected there also another temple, dedicated to the name of St. Lazarus; and in it he placed the body of the same Saint, which had been brought there, and the relics of his sister Mary Magdalene, conveyed from Ephesus." The phrase "from Ephesus" is absent in Curopalates, nor does it pertain to the remains of St. Lazarus, but to those of St. Magdalene, as can be gathered from the Greek: "He erected also another temple in those parts in the name of St. Lazarus, in which, having brought thither the body of the Saint, he deposited it; and indeed having brought thither also the relics of his sister Mary Magdalene from Ephesus." For the fact that the word "having brought" (metakomisas) is repeated twice indicates that the two treasures were not brought from the same place. Zonaras does not specify whence the relics of Magdalene were brought, but implies that they were brought separately, writing thus: "He erected another temple in the name of St. Lazarus, in which he deposited his sacred body brought from Cyprus, and also that of Mary Magdalene."
[12] These things are explained more clearly in the Menaea, where the body of Lazarus is said to have been found "in the island of Cyprus, in the city of the Citians," with this inscription: Lazarus from Cyprus. "Lazarus, four days dead and friend of Christ." But on July 22 she is called "the holy myrrh-bearer and equal-to-the-Apostles, Mary Magdalene from Ephesus. Magdalene," who is said to have come to Ephesus to St. John the Theologian and Apostle, and there to have fallen asleep in holiness, and to have been entombed at the entrance of the cave in which the Seven Holy Sleeping Boys later rested. Then, under our Emperor Leo of blessed memory, the relics of St. Magdalene were brought to Constantinople and deposited in the monastery of St. Lazarus. We shall treat more fully of St. Mary Magdalene on July 22, and of her brother St. Lazarus on December 17.