with business that they could not accept the offer. This refusal, and the wish of the family of count Gondi, as well as of the brother of the coimt, the archijishoi) of Paris, induced Vincent in 1624 to establish the society of the missionary priests, who were chiefly to devote themselves to the religious care of the country pcopb and the lower classes. The new institution soon re- ceived the royal sanction, and pope Urban VIII made it a special religious society under the name of the Priests of the Mission. In 1632 they received the college of St. Lazarus in Paris, whence their usual name Lazarists is derived. Their more spacious establishment and the increase of their income now enabled the congregation
LAZARUS
301
LAZARUS
to extend their sphere of action. In addition to the revival of religion among the masses of the people, the chief ol)jects of the Priests of the Mission were the ref- ormation of the clergy by means of conferences, and the establisliment of seminaries in accordance with the de- crees of the Council of Trent. Even during the lifetime of St. Vincent nearly all the dioceses of France had been visited by his disci))les; and, besides, also Italy, Corsica, Poland, Ireland, Scotland, Algeria, Tunis, and Madagas- car received the missionaries, who, on the coast of Afri- ca, vied with the Order of Mercy in the redemption of slaves. To Poland they were called by the queen, Ma- ria Louisa, wife of king John Casimir II. They estab- lished a missionary institution, under the direction of Lambert, while the plague and famine were raging, in particular in "Warsaw. Lambert and his successor, Ozenne, fell victims to the epidemic, but the mission became very prosperous. The first successors of Vin- cent as superiors general were Eene Almeras (1G72), Edmund Jolly (1G97), and Nicolas Pierron ; at the time of the first revolution abbe Cayla de la Garde was the head of the congregation. At this time the congrega- tion had reached its zenith; and as in France no less than forty-nine theological seminaries were conducted by it, it exercised a gieat influence on the theological views of the French clergy. During the Revolution, the Lazarists, in common with all the other religious denominations, perished ; but they were restored as early as 1804, and even received from the public exchequer a support of 15,000 francs. At Paris a hospital belonging to the public domain was given to them for the estab- lishment of a central institution and a novitiate ; they also received several houses in the departments beyond the Alps, and the right to accept legacies. But when Na- ])()leon had fallen out with the pope he again abolished the Lazarists by a decree of 1809, suppressed all their houses, cancelled the dotation, and contiscated the prop- erty which had been given to them or acquired by them. They were legally restored in 181G : and, though they could not recover their original house, St. Lazare, they acquired another house in the Kue Sevres, whither they also transferred their seminary. They now resumetl their former labors, but remained for some time without a regular superior general. After the death of Cayla de la Garde two vicars general had been appointed, but in 1829 the pope appointed a new superior general (Pierre DewaiUy), as the convocation of a chapter general pre- sented insurmountable obstacles. The pope, in making this appointment, expressly recognised the fact that the office of superior general had always been filled by a Frenchman. According to the Roman Almanac for 1870, the office of superior general was at that time filled l)y father Etienne. In 18(5".! (according to P. Karl vom heil. Aloys, Statisclies Jahrhuch der Kirche, Ratisbon, 1802) the Lazarists had 18 houses in France, 27 in Italy, 4 in the British Isles, fi in Germany, 3 in the Pyrenean peninsula, 10 in Poland (with 143 members). In Asia they had establishments in Asiatic Turkey, in Persia, in JIanilla, and in rive provinces of China ; in Africa, at Alexandria, in Egypt, at Algiers and Mustapha, in Algeria, and at Adowa, in Abyssinia. In America they ha<l 17 establishments. In all, there were in 1862 about 100 establishments, with 2000 members. See Wetzer u. Wcltc, Kirchen-Lex. vi, 383 ; Fehr, Gesch. der Moncksor- deii, ii, 254. (A. J. S.)
Laz'arus (Ari^apor, an abridged form of the Heb. name EUazrir, with a (ireek termination, which in the Talmud is written "'iT"^ [see Byna?us, De morte Chr. i, 180; comp. Josephus, ]r«?-, V, 13, 7; Simonis, Onoinast. N. T. p. 9G ; Fuller, Miscdl. i, 10 ; Suicer, Thesaiir. ii, 205 ]. It is proper to note this here, because the parable which describes Lazarus in Abraham's bosom has been sup- posed to contain a latent allusion to the name of Eliezer, whom, before the birth of Ishmael and Isaac, Abraham regarded as his heir [see Geiger, in the Jiid. Zeitschr. 18G8, p. 19G sq.]), the name of two persons in the X.T.
1. An inhabitant of Bethany, brother of Mary and
INIartha, honored with the friendship of Jesus, by whom he Avas raised from the dead after he had been four days in the tomb (John xii, 1-17). A.D. 29. This great miracle is minutely described in John xi (see Kit- to, Daibj Bible lUusf. ad loc). Tlie credit which Christ obtained among the people by this illustrious act, of which the life and presence of Lazarus afforded a stand- ing evidence, induced the Sanhedrim, in plotting against Jesus, to contemjjlate the destruction of Lazarus also (John xii, 10). Whether they accomplished this object or not we are not informed, but the probability seems to be that when they liad satiated their malice on Christ they left Lazarus unmolested. According to an old tra- dition in Epiphanius {Hnr. Ixvi, 34, p. C52), he was thir- ty years old when restored to life, and lived thirty years afterwards. Later legends recount that his bones were discovered A.D. 890 in Cyprus (Suicer, Thesimr. ii, 208), which disagrees with another story that Lazarus, accom- panied by JNIartha and Mary, travelled to Provence, in France, and preached the Gospel in Marseilles (Fabrici- us. Codex Aj)ocr. N. Test, iii, 475, and Lux evang. p. 388 ; Thilo, Apocryph. p. 711 ; see Launoii Dissert, de Lazari appulsu in Provinciam, in his Opera, ii, 1).