Mission to Novgorod
Sent from Caesarea in 1343 as a noted iconographer, Lazarus joined the household of Archbishop Basil of Novgorod, one of the leading hierarchs of the Russian Church in the fourteenth century. His skill as a painter was put to use in copying the celebrated Novgorod Icon of Sophia, the Wisdom of God, which he prepared for the Caesarea diocese, and he also set down a written account of the churches and monasteries of Novgorod.
He served the archbishop faithfully for ten years. According to the account of his life, when Archbishop Basil died in 1352, Lazarus himself prepared the body for burial, dressing it in the appointed vesture and weeping greatly. Bereft of both his Novgorod patron and, soon afterward, of Bishop Basil of Caesarea, he at first considered returning to his homeland.
Founding the Murom Monastery
By tradition a vision of the departed Novgorod hierarch directed Lazarus to go northward toward the sea, to Mucha (Murom) Island in Lake Onega. The island's owner, a merchant named Ivan, at first refused him access, but after prayer and the merchant's own vision the resistance was withdrawn and permission was granted. Arriving alone, Lazarus set up a cross, a hut, and a small chapel.
The local Lopari and Chud peoples of the region opposed the newcomer, burning his dwelling and harassing him. The synaxarion relates that the opposition gave way after he healed a child who had been born blind, praying over the boy and sprinkling him with holy water, after which the inhabitants withdrew in peace and, by the account, were reconciled to the Christian faith.
With the blessing of Bishop Moses of Novgorod (who held the see from 1352 to 1360), who provided an antimension and church vessels, Lazarus raised up a monastery. He built a church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, said to have been the first in all that coastal region, a church of the Resurrection of Lazarus, and a wooden church of Saint John the Forerunner together with a refectory. The Murom Dormition Monastery thus became one of the earliest monastic foundations of the Russian North.
Repose and Legacy
Having governed his monastery into great old age, Lazarus appointed as his successor the Athonite Elder Theodosius. After receiving the Holy Mysteries and blessing the brethren, he reposed on March 8, 1391, by the traditional reckoning at the age of one hundred and five years, and was buried in a chapel beside the Dormition church.
The Church of the Resurrection of Lazarus associated with his monastery is regarded as among the most ancient surviving wooden churches of the Russian North. In 1959 it was moved to the open-air architectural museum on Kizhi Island in Lake Onega, where it is preserved.
