Kissing Lazarus


There's a story untold in the Bible -  how the returned to life Lazarus went on to be the first Bishop of Larnaka.  The stone coffin in which he lay is preserved in a crypt beneath the high altar of the Church of St. Lazarus, 

When I went down into the crypt it reminded me of  the Cave of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.  In Orthodox pilgrim mode I have kissed the rock in both those places! But there was to be no kissing Lazarus in the crpypt

His coffin is empty! He has not yet been raised from the dead a second time, in spite of the empty tomb! The body was nicked by the high principled Crusaders who took it off to Marsailles! 
However, there was no need to rely on a Homeopathic Theory of relics - i..e. the notion that there's a holy place where the relic used to be. The Crusaders  conveniently left a portion of skull behind. It is upstairs in the church, in a golden relique.

Kneeling in the near darkness of the crypt tomb I had a profound experience my own mortality. I like the idea that my brother Lazarus will rest in the sleep  of death (rest in pieces) and by God's grace will be raised up on the last day (whatever that means!?)

Ascending to the main church,  I found my way to the relique.  The small fragment of St. Lazarus' skull is covered in  Perspex,  but I kissed it none-the-less.  And that brought me close! To the Bible story, the reality of death,  the hope of resurrection and the thousands of Christian folk who have come to honour the saint over the millennia.

©Richard Woodham 2008

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