Lazarus of Pskov

Holy Venerable Lazarus of Pskov, the Clairvoyant, schemamonk of the Pskov Caves monastery, in the world Lazarus Evstigneev-⁠Lobkov, was born in 1733 in the family of a church reader. He served as a priest in the town of Opochka in the Pskov province, and by his exemplary piety drew the notice of all and won the love of not only his good parishioners. After the death of his wife he broke wholly with the world, intensified his prayer struggles and, to serve God unhindered, resolved to take the monastic habit. He entered the Pskov Caves monastery and struggled in it without leaving until his death. He was tonsured a monk in 1785 and held the obedience of treasurer until 1800.

His solitary life at the Pskov Caves resembled that of the ancient desert-⁠dwellers. Little daylight reached his cell, which looked like a cave, because its windows were blocked by stalls selling candles. Inside it was lit by an ever-⁠burning lamp before a copper icon, the Crucifixion of the Saviour. For constant remembrance of death he had a coffin, in which he was laid after death. His bed was a plank covered with matting, and his pillow a stone. His strict ascetic life, under the veil of humility, is known fully to God alone. Only some signs can be told: in the whole of Holy Week he ate only once, on Great Thursday, and then little, a prosphora with water. The command of the Apostle, "pray without ceasing", he fulfilled literally. For living converse with God he withdrew every night into the Dormition cathedral and locked the doors from within; to the morning service he always came first, at the first stroke of the bell, and every day he served the early Liturgy.

To the aged man the struggles of mortifying the flesh, vigil, fasting and prayer seemed little. With the inner cross he joined an outer one: soon after entering the monastery he put on iron chains, first of seventeen, then of twenty-⁠five pounds, and always wore a hair shirt. What is a burden beyond the strength of the carnal man gave wings to the spiritual man, the earthly angel. With meditation on God, fasting and prayer he joined useful work: he sewed vestments and the money earned, with gifts from various people, he gave to the poor and to visitors who came to him for blessing and counsel, setting aside a part for the upkeep of an almshouse he had set up. At his own expense he made a silver cover for the icon of the Forty Martyrs in the parish church of the holy Great Martyr Barbara, and crowns with flowers, all of gilded silver. Once the abbot of the monastery, Archimandrite Benedict, doubted the use the saint made of the money brought by the devout and, searching his cell in secret, found nothing in it; and what could be found in the cell of one who firmly held the command of the Saviour: "Do not lay up treasures on earth".

In the life of Saint Lazarus there was a rare event: for three days he lay as if wholly dead. He had been put in the coffin, the Church's rite for the dead was read over him, everything was ready for burial, and the slab to close his coffin in the cave, the common burial vault, in the place chosen by Lazarus himself, had been prepared. But, to the amazement and joy of all, the elder came to life. No one could explain the wonder exactly. The elder himself, out of deep humility, told this secret to no one until his death. From certain data one may believe that the event was not natural; in it are seen traces of a special providence of God. After his return to life the saint increased his struggles, wearing heavier chains than before, and gave himself to the strictest silence. In talks with some visitors he repeated with sorrow: "The death of the sinner is terrible", which suggests that during his apparent death he was granted revelations of the life beyond and of the state of sinners' souls. The living faith of the elder, "working through love", gave him high spiritual gifts: he saw into the thoughts of visitors he had never seen or known before, in conversation he revealed at times in veiled terms, at times openly, the past and future of some people and gave fitting counsel.

On 29 May 1822, a little before his repose in 1824, he was granted a visit from the emperor Alexander I, who was at the Pskov Caves monastery on the way from Pskov to Riga. Learning from Archimandrite Benedict of Saint Lazarus's strict ascetic life, the emperor wished to see him in person in his poor cell and went to him, with the abbot, for his blessing and a talk in the cell. The elder, spent in body but alert in spirit, received the dear Guest, the Tsar, as "the Lord's anointed", with childlike simplicity, holy love and joy. In the sincere half-⁠hour talk in the cell, the emperor asked, among other things: "Which prayer is more readily received by God?", and the elder answered: "It is known to you, Sovereign: the Lord's Prayer is the pattern of prayers; and to your request for counsel from my poverty, I hold that the practice of justice is the light of a Tsar before the heavenly Father. The life of the Tsar must serve as an example to his subjects. Remember, Sovereign, that we have little left to live on earth...". The emperor was deeply moved by the grace-⁠filled word of the ascetic and was surely convinced inwardly that this was one of those "of whom the world was not worthy". At parting the elder fell at the emperor's feet, and the Lord's anointed in his turn honoured him with a bow to the ground. Traces of this touching and edifying conversation were seen in the tears flowing from the royal eyes as he left the elder's cell. (At that time the righteous Lazarus also foretold the day of his own death.)

Father Lazarus was small and always walked bent, with his face covered; his body was extremely emaciated, but he was strong in spirit and lived to deep old age, reposing in the ninety-⁠first year of his life. Three days before his death he gave up serving the early Liturgy.

The glory of God was manifest in the whole life of Father Lazarus, and so his death was worthy of his struggles. Strengthened with all the Mysteries of the faith, he quietly went out like a burnt-⁠down candle at the end of his earthly pilgrimage and truly "in the day of his death found grace among those who fear God". He departed to his eternal homeland to the heavenly Father "with a hope full of immortality". After the repose of Saint Lazarus ten rubles were found with him, with the inscription "For the entertainment of the brethren" (strict with himself, Saint Lazarus honoured hospitality even in his last moments, out of love for his neighbour; on his name day he always invited the brethren to a pie and entertained them), and his iron chains.

The relics of Saint Lazarus rest in a separate tomb, beneath a stone vault, in the God-⁠built cave together with the relics of the first ascetics of the monastery, Mark and Jonah. Over the tomb a gilded copper plate was placed in 1835, with an inscription that here lies the body of the hieroschemamonk Lazarus, who received the schema in 1800 and reposed on 27 May 1824, in the ninety-⁠first year of his life.

Among Saint Lazarus's miracles one is told. A young merchant's clerk, come on pilgrimage, wished to give him five rubles for a prayer service, and the saint said to him sternly: "Put down everything you have", exposing that he had stolen three hundred rubles from his master. The young man repented and left all the money, and the saint told him to go home with only the monastery's bread, for with the money he would not reach home. Ten versts from the monastery two robbers stopped him and searched him in vain; one wanted to stab him so that he could not give them away, but he secretly called on the Mother of God and the name of Father Lazarus and escaped unharmed. At home he confessed everything to his master, and the merchant, moved, came with his family to the monastery, refused to take back the stolen money and gave a further three hundred rubles for the adornment of the monastery.

Archimandrite John (Krestyankin) said of Saint Lazarus: "He lived for God, died in God's work, leaving to posterity the example of a monastic life crowned with venerable holiness. And the struggle of his life determined that his tomb should be beside the tombs of the venerable founders of the monastery. The life of the Venerable Lazarus continued after his death, making the humble hieroschemamonk the heavenly protector of the monastery in which he struggled". Saint Lazarus is commemorated on 11 July, with the Synaxis of the Saints of Pskov (the date moves), and on 18 July, with the Synaxis of the Venerable Fathers of the Pskov Caves (the date moves), in the new style.