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 c. 981.

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. 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.

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. 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".

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.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Kazhdan, Alexander (1991). "Lazaros of Mount Galesios". In Kazhdan, Alexander (ed.). 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 (eds.). Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History, Volume 3 (1050-1200). Leiden and Boston: BRILL. pp. 160–164. ISBN 978-90-04-195158.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• 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.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)