LAZARUS OF BETHANY. - Brother of Martha (v.) and Mary, friend and guest of Jesus (Jn 11:5, 36; Mt 21:17; Mk 11:11) and raised from the dead by Him. The raising of L. is narrated with many details in Jn 11.
To rationalists who claim to see in this account merely a symbol of the spiritual resurrection of the sinner, it may be pointed out that the precision of these details, in the evangelist’s intention, were meant to serve as controls for the historical truth of his narrative. Note the circumstantial details of place (at Bethany, about 15 stadia from Jerusalem: 11:17), of time (dead for four days), the fear of the stench, the minute description of the tomb, the burial bands, the mention of friends and adversaries, and the consequences of hatred that arose among the latter—chief priests, who denied the resurrection (v. RESURRECTION), and who then sought to kill Jesus (Jn 11:53) and even L. himself (12:10). Some details even seem counterproductive to John’s purpose of demonstrating Jesus’ divinity. Why would he have invented Jesus’ weeping and human prayer?
To the objection drawn from the silence of the Synoptics, it may be replied that they had already sufficiently demonstrated that Jesus had the power to raise the dead (the daughter of Jairus: Mk 5:21-34 and parallels: Mt 11:5; the son of the widow of Nain: Lk 7:22); in their compositional plan, they intended to limit themselves to Jesus’ ministry in Galilee and Perea, reserving the account of His activity in Judea proper until after the description of His triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
Objections that speak of a revival from apparent death (it suffices to consider the four days) or of an amplification of the accounts of the beggar Lazarus (Lk 16:20-31) or of Martha and Mary (Lk 10:38-42) are without substance.
The legend that L. evangelized Provence and was bishop of Marseilles dates back only to the 12th century. More reliable are the Eastern accounts that place the relics of L. at Kition (Larnaca, Cyprus). In the Roman Martyrology, L. is commemorated on the 17th Sunday of Lent.
Pietro De Ambroggi
ICONOGRAPHY. - From the Gospel of St. John, iconography soon drew the representation of the miracle of the raising of L. to demonstrate faith in the omnipotence of Jesus Christ, in death, and in the certainty of the resurrection (1 Cor 15:13ff.). The frequency of this scene in both paintings and funerary sculptures attests to this certainty, in Tertullian’s expression, “the hope of Christians is the resurrection of the dead” (*De Resurr. carnis*: PL 2, 841).
G. Wilpert has listed over 50 examples in paintings (*Pitture*, p. 208); in sarcophagi there are at least as many examples, both in Rome and in Ravenna, Terni, Auch, Arles, Cahors, Clermont-Ferrand, Le Mas d’Aire, Luci de Béarn, Tarascona, Barcelona, Saragossa, and Istanbul.
In some sarcophagi intended to contain a deceased woman, the figure of L., according to Wilpert, assumed a feminine face (*Sarcofagi*, II, pp. 202-203 and pls. 139 and 212, 2).
The representation of the miracle also appears on marble slabs containing inscriptions (examples in O. Marucchi, *I monumenti del Museo Pio-Lateranense*, Milan 1910, pls. 35, 5; 57, 10, 15; G. Schneider-Graziosi, *Il labaro costantiniano e la risurrezione di L. sopra due marmi del cimitero di Priscilla*, in *Nuovo bullettino di archeologia cristiana*, 19 [1913], p. 137, fig. 3). The raising of L. is recalled by Damasus in the profession of faith dictated for his epitaph (*A. Ferrua, Epigrammata Damasiana*, no. 43, Vatican City 1942) and two examples that were repeated in the epitaph of a Seberianus (*O. Marucchi, op. cit.*, pls. 52, no. 37).
In non-funerary art, the scene appears in biblical cycles, as attested by the distich composed by Prudentius for a basilica in Saragossa (*PL* 60, 106); the mosaic scene in S. Martino in caelo aureo (493-526), now S. Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna (*Wilpert, Mosaiken*, p. 798). It also appears on terracotta lamps, both from Carthage (*A. Héron de Villefosse, Lampe chrétienne figurant la résurrection de L. trouvée à Carthage*, in *Bulletin de la Société des antiquaires de France*, 1917, pp. 136-39) and from Alexandria in Egypt (*R. Pagenstecher, Die Auferweckung des Lazarus auf einer römischen Lampe*, in *Bulletin de la Société archéologique d’Alexandrie*, new series, 2 [1909], pp. 267-72). The scene is also woven into textiles, as attested by St. Asterius, bishop of Amasea (*PG* 40, 166); it is often found in gold-glass (*R. Garrucci, Storia dell’arte cristiana*, Prato 1881, pls. 177, 6-8; 178, 3). It also appears in the silver chapel of Brivio from the 5th century (*Venturi, I*, p. 521, fig. 450). In ivory, as in the Palermo diptych of the 5th century (*Venturi, I*, fig. 382); in the chapel of Brescia (*J. Kollwitz, Die Lipsanothek von Brescia*, Berlin 1933), and on the reverse of the diptych of Boethius in the same city (*A. Muñoz, Le pitture del dittico di Boezio nel Museo cristiano di Brescia*, in *Nuovo bullettino di archeologia cristiana*, 13 [1907], pp. 5-14); in a Gospel cover from the Treasury of the Duomo of Milan; in the ivory chapels of the Civic Museums of Bologna and Darmstadt (*G. Stuhlfauth, Die altchristliche Elfenbeinplastik*, Freiburg im Br. 1896, pp. 30 and 118); and on a panel in the Strasbourg Museum (*id., op. cit.*, p. 165). The scene is also found on a thin bronze plaque discovered at Vermand, near St. Quentin (*A. Danielcourt, Étude sur quelques antiquités trouvées en Picardie*, in *Revue archéologique*, 1 [1886], pp. 92-93).
In all the monuments mentioned, the tomb of L. is always represented as a Roman sepulchral monument with a roof and pediment. This style persists even in later frescoes, such as those in S. Giovanni a Porta Latina or on the doors of Benevento, Pisa, and Monreale. In the Codex Purpureus Rossanensis, however, L. emerges from a cave (*A. Muñoz, Codex purpureus Rossanensis*, Rome 1907, pl. 1). This type influenced the scenes of the raising of L. seen in the Coptic Gospel of the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris (ms. copt. no. 13, fol. 253v), the frescoes in the biblical cycles of S. Urbano alle Caffarelle and S. Angelo in Formis, and in the mosaics of Monreale; the small gold-ground mosaic in a liturgical book binding in the Opera del Duomo in Florence, etc. Even in Giotto’s fresco in the Scrovegni Chapel (Padua), L. emerges from a cave.
As has already been said, the legend that Provence was evangelized by L. and his sisters Martha and Mary is no older than the 11th century and originates from the abbey of Vézelay at the time of Abbot Geoffrey. (*L. Duchesne, Fastes épiscopaux de l’ancienne Gaule*, I, 2nd ed., Paris 1907, pp. 321-59). The legend that L. was bishop of Marseilles may have been facilitated by the tomb of Bishop Lazarus of Aix, deposited in the 5th century in the crypt of St. Victor in Marseilles (*G. Morin, St L’Assise et Maximin*, Paris 1897). In reality, however, St. Jerome states that Paula saw the *sepulchrum Lazari* near Bethany (*Ep. 108*; *PL* 22, 887).
Adone, in his Martyrology, indicates him on September 17 without mentioning a place. A monk named Bernardo presents him as bishop of Ephesus for 40 years; in the Greek Synaxaria, his memory is found on different days regarding the translation of his relics to Constantinople from Cyprus in the year 899 by order of Emperor Leo VI (H. Delehaye, Synaxarium Ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae, cols. 1-4, 146, 5-4, 548, 658, 660; Saints de Chypre, in Analecta Bollandiana, 26 [1907], pp. 257-58).
The cathedral of Autun, dedicated to St. Nazarius until the beginning of the 12th century, changed its name to St. Lazarus when, around 1147, it was believed that the relics of St. Lazarus the resurrected were held there. Marseille, however, did not claim these relics, supposing they had been saved to Autun from Saracen raids. Behind the altar of Autun’s cathedral was a monument erected by a monk named Martino during the episcopate of Bishop Stephen II (1170-89), shaped like a small church in white, red, and black marble, with a small vaulted lower chamber containing in its center a sarcophagus with an inscription on its lid: "Lazzare vieni forse" ("Lazarus, come forth, perhaps"). Four statues of St. Peter, St. Andrew, St. Martha, and St. Mary Magdalene (fragments now in the Autun Museum) were also present.
- See plate LXIII.