Was Lazarus of Bethany a bachelor?

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No traditions, East or West, suggest that Lazarus of Bethany was married. The simple fact that there are no legends, traditions or other pious stories to indicate that that Lazarus ever had a wife.

According to a tradition, or rather a series of traditions combined at different epochs, the members of the family at Bethany, the friends of Christ, together with some holy women and others of His disciples, were put out to sea by the Jews hostile to Christianity in a vessel without sails, oars, or helm, and after a miraculous voyage landed in Provence at a place called today the Saintes-Maries. It is related that they separated there to go and preach the Gospel in different parts of the southeast of Gaul. Lazarus, of whom alone we have to treat here, went to Marseilles, and, having converted a number of its inhabitants to Christianity, became their first pastor.

According to a tradition of the Greek Church, the body of St. Lazarus had been brought to Constantinople, just as all the other saints of the Palestinian group were said to have died in the Orient, and to have been buried, translated, and honoured there. It is only in the thirteenth century that the belief that Lazarus had come to Gaul with his two sisters and had been Bishop of Marseilles spread in Provence. It is true that a letter is cited (its origin is uncertain), written in 1040 by Pope Benedict IX on the occasion of the consecration of the new church of St.-Victor in which Lazarus is mentioned. But in this text the pope speaks only of relics of St. Lazarus, merely calling him the saint who was raised again to life. He does not speak of him as having lived in Provence, or as having been Bishop of Marseilles. The Catholic Encyclopedia

Whatever the truth of the actual life of Lazarus, there is still a strong Catholic tradition that Lazarus sailed from Palestine in 53 AD and fixed his residence near Marseilles. Again no mention is ever made of Lazarus having a wife, but that he did become the first bishop of Marseilles. Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich also mentions Lazarus' voyage to Gaul in her revelations.

According to legend, Mary Magdalene and Lazarus left the Holy Land around 53 A and arrived in Massilia – Marseilles. There, each year on February 2, the local people celebrate the arrival of Lazarus and Mary Magdalene. It is said that they installed themselves in a necropolis, on the south side of the Lacydon river, taking care of the ill and preaching the new faith. After about a decade, Mary Magdalene headed for nearby Sainte Baume, where she invoked St Michael to chase out a monster, the Tarasco, from the cave where she supposedly spent the remaining days of her life.

Less known is the legend that her sister Martha also came to France. Saint Martha went to Avignon, though she was asked by the people of Tarascon, just south of the city, to appease the Tarasco, which had fled there. By showing the sign of the cross and using Holy Water, she appeased the monster that used to rise out of the waters of the Rhone to devour children and livestock.

In short, there are several legends which say that the Christianization of France was said to have occurred by those who had witnessed the miracles of Jesus and the Passion themselves. - In the footsteps of the Marys in France

The Golden Legend also recounts the arrival of Lazarus and his companions to Southern France (Gaul).

According to the thirteenth century Italian chronicler Jacob Voragini, author of The Golden Legend, a handful took to the sea in a rudderless raft later translated as a “radeau.” The passengers included Mary Magdalen, her servant Martilla, Mary Salome, Mary the mother of James, Lazarus (who Jesus had brought back from the dead), Martha (the sister of Lazarus) and Sara, described as a dark Egyptian servant. Without rudder or oars they were guided by the hand of God through the perilous seas if The Golden Legend is correct. They landed at a place named Ratis near Marseilles in France. They took refuge under a “porch” of a temple of the “people of that country.” What Voragini does not say is that it was a temple to three goddesses. He was writing in an era where pagans and their goddesses were forced to assimilate into Christianity. - Legend of the Three Marys

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