Lazarus of Tripoli

Lazarus of Tripoli was a priest of the Peloponnese, burned alive by the Turks on 23 February 1605 because he would not give up his faith. He is honoured as a new hieromartyr and is commemorated on 23 February. He has no known canonization.

He came from Tripoli, of pious parents, Nicholas and Alexandra, who raised him in the instruction of the Lord and led him to a perfect measure of virtue. Ordained a priest, he taught the faithful the commandments of the Gospel, and urged others not to be unjust to the poor. A man of Tripoli named Seletos committed injustices daily, and Father Lazarus often advised him to stop. When Seletos was condemned to death for his deeds, he denied Christ before the Turkish authorities and became a Muslim to escape.

Saved, he and other Turks wanted to persuade the priest Lazarus too to give up his faith. They slandered him many times before the judge and promised him many good things if he became a Muslim, or else he would be condemned to death. The saint refused, and for this he was tortured without mercy, to force him to deny his faith: they scourged him, twisted his limbs and cut off parts of his body. His mother, seeing him in torment, did not turn him aside but strengthened him to endure to the end, telling him that it was better to suffer in the passing fire here than in the eternal one, and to inherit the Kingdom of God with all the martyrs, angels and saints.

At last, seeing that he could not be moved, they burned him alive, and he gave his soul into the Lord's hands with prayer on his lips, on 23 February 1605. Witnesses, believers and unbelievers alike, testified that they saw a bright light from heaven above the place of his burnt body for three days, to their fear and wonder. What remained of the body and the ashes were buried by the faithful, and his relics became a source of healing for those who hastened to them with faith. The original life and service of the saint are preserved in codex 797 of the Monastery of Vatopedi.