his deathbed, the Empress Theodora, an iconodule, convinced Theophilos to release Lazarus from prison. Lazarus found refuge at Tou Phoberou, a secluded church of St. John the Forerunner once located in Phoberos on the Asiatic shore of the Bosporus. The Church is believed to have once functioned as an imperial monastery that housed as many as one-hundred and seventy monks. After the death of Theophilos in 842, Theodora asked Lazarus to forgive her husband's actions, to which he replied “God is not so unjust, O, Empress, as to forget our love and labors on his behalf, and attach greater value to that mans hatred and extraordinary insanity.” Lazarus served as a model of perseverance for those who had suffered from iconoclast persecution. Attributed artworks After the restoration of the icons in 843, Lazarus was again free to pursue his painting. Despite his previous wounds, Lazarus was said to have painted a large fresco of St. John at the Phoberos Monastery. The painted icon was known to have the power to perform cures and miracles. That same year, he also famously restored a portrait of Christ known as the Christ Chalkites (Christ of the Chalke) over the Chalke Gate, a ceremonial entrance of the Great Palace of Constantinople. Neither of these two works survive today. Lazarus was also accredited with the mosaic decoration of the apse of Hagia Sophia within the pilgrim accounts of Antony, Archbishop of Novgorod during a visit to Constantinople. Antony described the mosaic as depicting the Mother of God holding a Child Christ flanked by two angels, which was noted to have been seen by both Emperor Basil l and Michael III () before his death the same year. However, these accounts are dated several centuries later in . Ambassador to Rome In 856, Lazarus was served as a diplomat for Michael III, Theophilos and Theodora's son, who sent him as an emissary to visit Pope Benedict III to discuss the possibility of reconciliation between the Catholic Church of Rome and the Orthodox Church, who at this point had very strained relations. In 865, during his second mission to the Pope, Lazarus died at Rome on 28 September, although Raymond Janin disputes the date. He was buried in the Monastery of Evanderes, near Constantinople. The feast day of Saint Lazarus Zographos is 17 November in the Orthodox calendar, and 23 February in the Roman Catholic calendar. References