The entrance to the tomb today is via a flight of uneven rock-cut steps from the street. The village seems to have been abandoned thereafter, though a visitor in 1347 mentioned Greek monks attending the tomb chapel. The 6th century church and tower were also heavily damaged at this time but remained standing. The new west church was most likely destroyed at this time, with only the tomb and barrel vaulting surviving. Īfter the fall of Jerusalem in 1187, the nuns of the convent went into exile. Melisende also fortified the complex with a tower. Lazarus and the older church was reconsecrated to Sts. Lazarus with a triapsidiole east end supported by barrel vaults (the largest of which would be used for the currently existing mosque). For the use of the convent, the queen had a new church built over the tomb of St. Melisende had extensive repairs made to the 6th-century Byzantine church, which remained the focal point of pilgrimages. The queen built a large Benedictine convent to the south of the tomb and church. In 1138, King Fulk and Queen Melisende obtained the village of Bethany from the Latin patriarch in exchange for land near Hebron. A chapel was built on the south side of the atrium. The second church followed the same general plan as the first, but the apse was situated about 13 metres (43 ft) to the east in order to create a larger atrium. It survived intact until the Crusader era. 518 and by the Frankish bishop Arculf in his narrative of the Holy Land c. This church was mentioned by the Coptic Pope Theodosius I of Alexandria c. The Lazarium was destroyed by an earthquake in the 6th century, and was replaced by a larger church. A sacristy on each side opened into the aisles. The apse, in a solid rectangular block shape, was at the east end. The church was in the form of a three-aisle basilica. The Lazarium consisted of the church (to the east of the site), the tomb of Lazarus (to the west), and an open space between the two which probably served as an atrium. Egeria noted, when the liturgy for Lazarus on the Saturday in the seventh week of Lent was performed, "so many people have gathered that they fill not only the Lazarium itself, but all the fields around." Therefore, the church is thought to have been built between 333 and 390. This is confirmed by the pilgrim Egeria in her Itinerary, where she recounts a liturgy celebrated there in about the year 410. The first mention of a church dedicated to Saint Lazarus, called the Lazarium, is by Jerome in 390. 330) and the Bordeaux pilgrim in the Itinerarium Burdigalense (c. There is no mention of a church at Bethany until the late 4th century AD, but both the historian Eusebius of Caesarea (c. Lazarus Tomb Bethany Historic church buildings at Bethany In 1965, a Greek Orthodox church was built just west of the tomb. The adjacent Roman Catholic Church of Saint Lazarus, built between 19 under the auspices of the Franciscan Order, stands upon the site of several much older ones. Since the 16th century, the site of the tomb has been occupied by the al-Uzair Mosque. Several Christian churches have existed at the site over the centuries. As the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913 states, however, while it is "quite certain that the present village formed about the traditional tomb of Lazarus, which is in a cave in the village", the identification of this particular cave as the actual tomb of Lazarus is "merely possible it has no strong intrinsic or extrinsic authority." Archeologists have established that the area was used as a cemetery in the 1st century AD, with tombs of this period found "a short distance north of the church." The site, sacred to both Christians and Muslims, has been identified as the tomb of the gospel account since at least the 4th century AD. The tomb is the purported site of a miracle recorded in the Gospel of John in which Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. The Tomb of Lazarus is a traditional spot of pilgrimage located in the West Bank town of al-Eizariya, in Palestine, the biblical village of Bethany, on the southeast slope of the Mount of Olives, some 2.4 km (1.5 miles) east of Jerusalem. The reputed tomb of Lazarus in al-Eizariya
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