Lazaros of Mount Galesios

Saint Lazaros of Mount Galesios (Greek: Λάζαρος ὁ Γαλησιώτης, Lazaros ho Galēsiōtēs; c. 972/981 – 7 November 1053) was an 11th-century Byzantine monk and stylite, who founded a monastic community at Mount Galesios near Ephesus.

Life

Lazaros was born near Magnesia to a peasant family, and his original name was Leo (Λέων). The exact date of his birth is unknown; traditionally it has been calculated at c. 972, but a reference in a manuscript (Moscow, Hist. Mus. 369/353, fol. 220) records that he died at the age of 72, hence that he was born in (in Catalan).[1]

After finishing his elementary schooling, he left his home and went to Attaleia to become a monk. Later he went to the famed Lavra of Saint Sabas in Palestine, before returning to his home region.[1] He founded three monasteries at Mount Galesios near Ephesus, while he himself became a stylite and lived in a pillar. The monks in the monastic communities Lazaros founded lived in individual cells, rather than the cenobitic monasticism of most monasteries; they were even allowed to earn their own income through practicing a handicraft.[1]

Hagiography

Lazaros's hagiography was written by his disciple, the kellarites Gregory; and reworked by the Patriarch of Constantinople, Gregory II of Cyprus, in the late 13th century.[1] According to the description of Alexander Kazhdan, the hagiography "has few supernatural miracles but many vignettes rich in everyday details: the young Lazaros escaped sexual seduction in the house of a girl whom he accompanied to Chonae; Lazaros's corpse, with the help of the monk Cyril, signed the diatyposis for the monks; many thefts and quarrels, travels, and visits are described. Gregory focuses on local events, while Constantinople is depicted as a remote city teeming with danger".[1]

References

Sources

  • Greenfield, Richard P. H., ed. (2000). The Life of Lazaros of Mt. Galesion: An Eleventh-Century Pillar Saint. Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks. ISBN 978-0-88402-272-5.
  • Kazhdan, Alexander (1991). "Lazaros of Mount Galesios". In Kazhdan, Alexander. The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. p. 1198. ISBN 0-19-504652-8.
  • Schadler, Peter (2011). "Gregory the Cellarer". In Thomas, David; Mallett, Alex. Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History, Volume 3 (1050-1200). Leiden and Boston: BRILL. pp. 160–164. ISBN 978-90-04-195158.
  • Vathi, Theodora (28 November 2003). Λάζαρος ο Γαλησιώτης. Encyclopaedia of the Hellenic World, Asia Minor (in Greek). Foundation of the Hellenic World. Retrieved 31 July 2017.
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