Lazaros 2

Prosopography of the Byzantine Empire
SexM
FloruitM IX
Dates829 (tpq) / 865 (ob.)
Variant NamesLazarus
ReligionChristian;
Iconophile
EthnicityKhazar
LocationsConstantinople (workplace);
Constantinople (residence);
Constantinople;
Prodromos, Phoberos (Church of, Constantinople);
Rome
OccupationArtist;
Monk;
Priest
Textual SourcesLiber Pontificalis, ed. L. Duchesne, Le liber pontificalis. Texte, introduction et commentaire, 2 vols. (Paris, 1886-92); re-issued with 3rd vol. by C. Vogel, (Paris, 1955-57) (chronicle);
Nicolaus I, Epistulae et Decreta, PL 119. 769-1182; ed. E. Perels, MGH, Epp. 6, pp. 257-690 (letters);
Scylitzes, Ioannes, Synopsis Historiarum, ed. J. Thurn (Berlin, 1973) (history);
Theophanes Continuatus, ed. I. Bekker (Bonn, 1838) (history);
Zonaras = Ioannis Zonarae Epitome Historiarum, libri XIII-XVIII, ed. Th. Büttner-Wobst, (Bonn, 1897) (history)

Lazaros 2 was a monk and an artist, famous during and after the reign of the emperor Theophilos (Theophilos 5) for his skill at depicting living creatures (τὸν μοναχὸν Λάζαρον - περιβόητος δὲ τηνικαῦτα κατὰ τὴν ζῷα γράφουσαν ὐπῆρχε τέχνην: Theoph. Cont. III 13, pp. 102-3); he was a painter of icons and refused to abandon his craft though the emperor (Theophilos 5) resorted first to persuasion and then to maltreatment and then, when Lazaros 2 persisted even in prison, to torture, attempting to ruin his hands; at the point of death he was released after the intercession of the empress (Theodora 2) and others close to Theophilos 5 and was hidden in the Church of the Prodromos of Phoberos; there he produced an icon of the Prodromos which still survived in the days when the author of Theophanes Continuatus was writing (mid tenth century) and was credited with performing many miraculous cures; after the death of Theophilos 5 and the Triumph of Orthodoxy he painted an icon of Christ on the Chalke with his own hands; invited by the empress Theodora (Theodora 2) to pardon her husband and ask forgiveness for him, he replied that he had no complaints about the justice of God in overlooking his own devotion and sufferings and favouring Theophilos 5's hatred and madness: Theoph. Cont. III 13 (pp. 102-104), Scyl., pp. 60-61 (ὁ μοναχὸς Λάζαρος, περιβόητος τηνικαῦτα κατὰ τὴν ζωγραφικὴν ὑπάρχων τέχνην), Zon. XV 27. 6-10.

A Khazar by race, Lazaros 2 was a monk and an artist; during the papacy of Benedict III (Benediktos 7) (855-858), he delivered to Rome gifts from the emperor Michael III (Michael 11) to the see of St Peter: Lib. Pont. 106. 33 ("per manum Lazari monachi et picturiae artis nimie eruditum, genere vero Chazarus"). A priest and a monk, he was known as the Khazar ("Lazarus presbyter et monachus qui dicitur Cazaris"); he is named in a letter from pope Nicholas I (Nikolaos 28) to the emperor Michael III (Michael 11) in c. 865 as a supporter of the patriarch Ignatios (Ignatios 1): Nicolaus I, Ep. 86 (PL 119, 956B).

See further ODB II, pp. 1197-98, Synax. Eccl. Const. 231-234 (died at Rome, perhaps c. 865)

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