Lazarus Zographos
9th-century Byzantine Christian saint (810-867) (c.810-867)
Feast: 23 February (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
Who they were
At Constantinople, Saint Lazarus, monk, who, born in Armenia, was a renowned painter of sacred icons; having refused to destroy his works, he was subjected to terrible tortures on the orders of the iconoclast Emperor Theophilus and, once the controversy over the right veneration of images had been settled, he was sent to Rome by the Emperor Michael III to strengthen the concord and unity of the whole Church.
The miracles
There was never a formal cause: he has been honoured as a saint since before the Church's formal processes began.
Why that counted as sanctity
The Roman Martyrology remembers him on 17 November as an Armenian-born icon painter tortured under the iconoclast Emperor Theophilus.
Connected on this site
- Catherine of Bologna Saint“He was later followed by Saint Catherine of Bologna.” — Wikipedia
- Roman Martyrology, 17 November (Italian Bishops' Conference, Santo del giorno)
- Wikidata Q2567661 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — Lazarus Zographos (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 22 September 2026. Corrections welcome.