Lazarus of Bethany was the brother of Martha and Mary and a friend of Jesus Christ, who is recorded in the Gospel of John as often visiting his household near Jerusalem. According to John 11:1-44, Lazarus fell ill and died, and when he had already lain four days in the tomb, the Lord came to Bethany and raised him from the dead. From this miracle the saint takes his title, "the Four-Days-Dead," and the Orthodox Church commemorates the event on Lazarus Saturday, the day before Palm Sunday, as a sign that prefigures the general resurrection.
Eastern Orthodox tradition relates that the raising of Lazarus moved many to believe in Christ and so drew the hostility of the religious authorities, who are said in the Gospel to have plotted to put Lazarus also to death. To escape this danger, Lazarus is said to have left Judea for the island of Cyprus. There the Apostles Paul and Barnabas, during their missionary journey, ordained him the first Bishop of Kition, the city now known as Larnaca.
By tradition Lazarus served as bishop in Cyprus for about thirty years after his raising, spreading the Christian faith, before he fell asleep in the Lord a second time and was buried at Kition. His relics were rediscovered there around the year 890, enclosed in a marble coffer bearing the inscription "Lazarus, the friend of Christ." The Byzantine emperor Leo VI the Wise had the relics translated to Constantinople in 898 and enshrined in a church built in the saint's honor; this translation is the event commemorated on October 17. In recompense to Larnaca, a church dedicated to St. Lazarus was raised over his tomb, where his marble sarcophagus is venerated to this day.
