What does the Orthodox Church celebrate on Lazarus Saturday? Why does this seemingly minor day occupy such a particular place in the liturgical year? Lazarus Saturday commemorates the raising of Lazarus, the friend of Jesus, four days after his death — a miracle that brings Great Lent to its formal close and opens the door to Holy Week. As the liturgy itself puts it, this is a genuine "paschal celebration," observed as though it were a Sunday in the middle of a Saturday. This guide explores the Gospel account, its theological depth, and the customs, ancient and surprisingly recent, that still surround this day.
To see how this day fits into the full sweep of the week that follows, see our complete guide to Orthodox Holy Week.
Table of Contents
- The Gospel account: Christ weeps and raises His friend
- Why is Lazarus Saturday a "paschal celebration"?
- Fully human, fully divine: the tears of Christ
- The bridge between Great Lent and Holy Week
- A baptismal day in the ancient Church
- "The Four-Day-Dead": a title unique to this feast
- Traditions: palm crosses, caviar, and lazarakia
- Fasting on Lazarus Saturday
- FAQ — Questions about Lazarus Saturday
The Gospel account: Christ weeps and raises His friend
The account is found in the Gospel of John (11:1-45). Lazarus of Bethany was the close friend of Jesus, a friendship that extended to his two sisters, Mary and Martha. When Lazarus falls gravely ill, Jesus is far away, beyond the Jordan. He tells His disciples the illness is "not unto death," then, after some time, that Lazarus has died.
Arriving in Bethany four days after His friend's death, Jesus is met by the grief of Martha and Mary. "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died," Martha tells Him. Jesus Himself weeps at the tomb — a detail the Byzantine hymnographers have never fully resolved: why would He weep, knowing He was about to call Lazarus back to life? Then, before the stone is rolled away, and despite Martha's warning that the body would already smell, Christ cries out: "Lazarus, come forth!" And the dead man comes out, still bound in his burial cloths.
Why is Lazarus Saturday a "paschal celebration"?
This miracle is not simply one wonder among many. No one had ever raised someone dead for four days — earlier miracles, whether by Christ or the prophets, occurred only hours after death. By raising Lazarus after his body had already begun to decay, Christ does not merely perform a further sign: He confirms, in advance, the truth of His own coming Resurrection and the universal resurrection promised to all humanity. In the early Church, Lazarus Saturday was even called the "announcement of Pascha" — it announces and anticipates the light of the Great and Holy Saturday still to come.
This is why this Saturday, ordinarily a day of fasting within the rhythm of Great Lent, is celebrated liturgically as though it were a Sunday — the only time in the entire Church year that the resurrectional service proper to Sunday is celebrated on another day. As Father Alexander Schmemann put it, with Lazarus's resurrection, "death begins to tremble" — the decisive duel between Life and Death has begun, providing the key to the entire liturgical mystery of Pascha still ahead.
Fully human, fully divine: the tears of Christ
Byzantine hymnographers interpret the Gospel account as illustrating Christ's two natures: in His humanity He weeps and asks "Where have you laid him?" (John 11:34), and in His divinity He commands Lazarus to rise (John 11:43). Yet Orthodox theology actually teaches something more unified than this division suggests. As Schmemann observes, all of Christ's actions are theandric — both divine and human at once, belonging to one and the same God-Man, rather than separable actions performed sometimes by one nature and sometimes by the other.
Schmemann offers a striking reading of why Christ wept: not because He lacked the power to raise Lazarus, but because He loved him. "The power of Resurrection is not a divine 'power in itself,' but power of love, or rather love as power." Lazarus, the friend of Jesus, becomes a symbol for all of humanity, and Bethany, his home, a symbol of the whole world as the home of man.
The bridge between Great Lent and Holy Week
On Friday evening, the eve of the celebration, the "great and saving forty days" of Great Lent are formally brought to a close at Vespers: "Having accomplished the forty days for the benefit of our souls, we pray to Thee, O Lover of Man, that we may see the holy week of Thy passion." Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday together form a unified liturgical cycle, serving as the passage from Lent into Holy Week — two unique and paradoxical days of visible, earthly triumph before the Lord's Passion begins, in which Christ Himself is a deliberate and active participant.
A baptismal day in the ancient Church
Lazarus Saturday was once among the few great baptismal days of the entire Church year. At the Divine Liturgy, the baptismal verse from Galatians — "As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Galatians 3:27) — replaces the Thrice-Holy Hymn, a sign of this day's resurrectional and baptismal character. In some churches today, adult converts are still baptized on this very day.
"The Four-Day-Dead": a title unique to this feast
To distinguish Lazarus of Bethany from the beggar Lazarus in Christ's parable, most Orthodox Christians refer to him as the "Four-Day-Dead Lazarus" or the "Righteous Lazarus of Four Days Dead" — emphasizing precisely the detail the Gospel itself stresses repeatedly. One of the most beautiful Orthodox churches in Vienna is known among the local Russian community as the Chapel of the Four-Day-Dead Lazarus, located at the city's Central Cemetery, where Lazarus is commemorated at every single service held there — a fitting place, given his unique status as the patron, in a sense, of those who have died.
Traditions: palm crosses, caviar, and lazarakia
Lazarus Saturday is the day hermits traditionally leave their retreats in the wilderness to return to the monastery for the Holy Week services. In the Greek Church, it's customary to plait elaborate crosses out of palm leaves, used the following day on Palm Sunday. In Russian practice, the fast is notably relaxed to allow caviar — a detail liturgical scholar Sister Vassa Larin has noted is unusual even among Lenten Saturdays, since wine and oil are permitted on other Lenten Saturdays too, but caviar specifically only on this one. The likely connection is the egg as a symbol of the resurrection, prominent at Pascha, with fish eggs serving as a kind of shadow of that symbolism.
The most charming food tradition associated with the day is the baking of small pastries called lazarákia, "Little Lazaruses," which likely originated in Greece or Cyprus — fittingly, since Eastern tradition holds that Lazarus later became the first bishop of Kition, today's Larnaca in Cyprus, home to the Cathedral of St. Lazarus. Made from flour, sugar, yeast, cinnamon, olive oil, and cloves, with no dairy or eggs to keep them Lenten, the little breads are shaped like tiny men wrapped tightly in grave cloths, with whole cloves for unblinking eyes.
Fasting on Lazarus Saturday
Although the forty days of Great Lent end on the Friday before, Lazarus Saturday itself remains a fasting day in ordinary practice — typically a day on which fish is allowed, one of only two such days during the whole of Great Lent, the other being the following Palm Sunday. For the complete dietary rules of this season, see our practical guide to Orthodox fasting.
FAQ — Questions about Lazarus Saturday
Is Lazarus Saturday part of Holy Week?
Yes, in Orthodox tradition, unlike the Western practice where Holy Week begins on Palm Sunday. Lazarus Saturday is treated as the true starting point of Great Week, forming with Palm Sunday a bridge between the ascetic effort of Lent and the contemplation of the Passion.
Why is it celebrated like a Sunday?
Because Lazarus Saturday is considered a genuine paschal celebration, anticipating the mystery of the Resurrection that will be fully celebrated at Pascha. It's the only time in the entire Church year that the resurrectional Sunday service is sung on a different day.
Why is Lazarus called the "Four-Day-Dead"?
This title distinguishes Lazarus of Bethany, raised by Christ, from the beggar Lazarus in the unrelated parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16). It also emphasizes the detail the Gospel and liturgical hymns stress repeatedly: that his body had already begun to decay, making the miracle unmistakably beyond any natural explanation.
Why is caviar allowed on this fasting day?
In Russian Orthodox practice, the Lenten fast is specifically relaxed on Lazarus Saturday to permit caviar, alongside the wine and oil already allowed on other Lenten Saturdays. The likely reasoning connects fish eggs to the broader symbolism of the egg as a sign of resurrection, prominent at Pascha — though even specialists note this explanation isn't found in any single authoritative source.
Why did Jesus weep if He knew He would raise Lazarus?
This is a question Byzantine hymnographers themselves never fully resolve. One classic Orthodox reading, offered by Father Alexander Schmemann, suggests the tears and the power to raise Lazarus aren't in tension at all: Christ's power to call His friend back to life flows from His love for him, not from some separate exercise of divine power detached from that love.
A Feast of Hope Before the Passion
Lazarus Saturday holds a singular place in the Orthodox liturgical year: not quite within Lent, not yet within Holy Week, it's that suspended moment when the Church contemplates, in advance, the victory of Life over death — before the painful narrative of the Passion even begins. In raising His friend, Christ does more than perform a miracle: He writes, at the very heart of the road to the Cross, the irrevocable promise of the Resurrection.
To continue this journey toward Paschal night, see our guide to Orthodox Great Lent and our guide to the great Orthodox feasts.
