Lazzarone, a name now often applied generally to beggars, is an Italian term, particularly used of the poorest class of Neapolitans, who, without any fixed abode, live by odd jobs and fishing, but chiefly by begging.
LAZARITES (Lazarists or Lazarians), the popular names of the “Congregation of Priests of the Mission” in the Roman Catholic Church. It had its origin in the successful mission to the common people conducted by St Vincent de Paul (q.v.) and five other priests on the estates of the Gondi family. More
immediately it dates from 1624, when the little community acquired a permanent settlement in the collège des Bons Enfans
in Paris. Archiepiscopal recognition was obtained in 1626;
by a papal bull of the 12th of January 1632, the society was
constituted a congregation, with St Vincent de Paul at its head.
About the same time the canons regular of St Victor handed over
to the congregation the priory of St Lazarus (formerly a lazar-house)
in Paris, whence the name of Lazarites or Lazarists.
Within a few years they had acquired another house in Paris and
set up other establishments throughout France; missions
were also sent to Italy (1638), Tunis (1643), Algiers and Ireland
(1646), Madagascar (1648) and Poland (1651). A fresh bull of
Alexander VII. in April 1655 further confirmed the society;
this was followed by a brief in September of the same year,
regulating its constitution. The rules then adopted, which were
framed on the model of those of the Jesuits, were published
at Paris in 1668 under the title Regulae seu constitutiones communes
congregationis missionis. The special objects contemplated
were the religious instruction of the lower classes, the training of
the clergy and foreign missions. During the French Revolution
the congregation was suppressed and St Lazare plundered by
the mob; it was restored by Napoleon in 1804 at the desire of
Pius VII., abolished by him in 1809 in consequence of a quarrel
with the pope, and again restored in 1816. The Lazarites were
expelled from Italy in 1871 and from Germany in 1873. The
Lazarite province of Poland was singularly prosperous; at the date of its suppression in 1796 it possessed thirty-five establishments. The order was permitted to return in 1816, but is now extinct there. In Madagascar it had a mission from 1648 till 1674. In 1783 Lazarites were appointed to take the place of the Jesuits in the Levantine and Chinese missions; they still have some footing in China, and in 1874 their establishments throughout the Turkish empire numbered sixteen. In addition, they established branches in Persia, Abyssinia, Mexico, the South American republics, Portugal, Spain and Russia, some of which have been suppressed. In the same year they had fourteen establishments in the United States of America. The total number of Lazarites throughout the world is computed at about 3000. Amongst distinguished members of the congregation may be mentioned: P. Collet (1693–1770), writer on theology and ethics; J. de la Grive (1689–1757), geographer; E. Boré (d. 1878), orientalist; P. Bertholon (1689–1757), physician; and Armand David, Chinese missionary and traveller.
See Regulae seu constitutiones communes congregationis missionis (Paris, 1668); Mémoires de la congrégation de la mission (1863); Congrégation de la mission. Répertoire historique (1900); Notices bibliographiques sur les écrivains de la congrégation de la mission (Angoulême, 1878); P. Hélyot, Dict. des ordres religieux, viii. 64-77; M. Heimbrecher, Die Orden und Kongregationen der katholischen Kirche, ii. (1897); C. Stork in Wetzer and Welte’s Kirchenlexikon (Catholic), vii.; E. Bougaud, History of St Vincent de Paul (1908).
LAZARUS (a contracted form of the Heb. name Eleazar, “God has helped,” Gr. Λάζαρος), a name which occurs in the New Testament in two connexions.
1. Lazarus of Bethany, brother of Martha and Mary. The story that he died and after four days was raised from the dead is told by John (xi., xii.) only, and is not mentioned by the Synoptists. By many this is regarded as the greatest of Christ’s miracles. It produced a great effect upon many Jews; the Acta Pilati says that Pilate trembled when he heard of it, and, according to Bayle’s Dictionary, Spinoza declared that if he were persuaded of its truth he would become a Christian. The story has been attacked more vigorously than any other portion of the Fourth Gospel, mainly on two grounds, (i.) the fact that, in spite of its striking character, it is omitted by the Synoptists, and (ii.) its unique significance. The personality of Lazarus in John’s account, his relation to Martha and Mary, and the possibility that John reconstructed the story by the aid of inferences from the story of the supper in Luke x. 40, and that of the anointing of Christ in Bethany given by Mark and Matthew, are among the chief problems. The controversy has given rise to a great mass of literature, discussions of which will be found in the lives of Christ, the biblical encyclopaedias and the commentaries on St John.
2. Lazarus is also the name given by Luke (xvi. 20) to the beggar in the parable known as that of “Lazarus and Dives,”[1] illustrating the misuse of wealth. There is little doubt that the name is introduced simply as part of the parable, and not with any idea of identifying the beggar with Lazarus of Bethany. It is curious, not only that Luke’s story does not appear in the other gospels, but also that in no other of Christ’s parables is a name given to the central character. Hence it was in early times thought that the story was historical, not allegorical (see Lazar).
LAZARUS, EMMA (1849–1887), American Jewish poetess, was born in New York. When the Civil War broke out she was soon inspired to lyric expression. Her first book (1867) included poems and translations which she wrote between the ages of fourteen and seventeen. As yet her models were classic and romantic. At the age of twenty-one she published Admetus and other Poems (1871). Admetus is inscribed to Emerson, who greatly influenced her, and with whom she maintained a regular correspondence for several years. She led a retired life, and had a modest conception of her own powers. Much of her next work appeared in Lippincott’s Magazine, but in 1874 she published a
prose romance (Alide) based on Goethe’s autobiography, and
received a generous letter of admiration from Turgeniev. Two
years later she visited Concord and made the acquaintance of the
Emerson circle, and while there read the proof-sheets of her
tragedy The Spagnoletto. In 1881 she published her excellent
translations of Heine’s poems. Meanwhile events were occurring
which appealed to her Jewish sympathies and gave a new turn
to her feeling. The Russian massacres of 1880–1881 were a
trumpet-call to her. So far her Judaism had been latent. She
belonged to the oldest Jewish congregation of New York, but she had not for some years taken a personal part in the observances of the synagogue. But from this time she took up the cause of her race, and “her verse rang out as it had never rung before, a clarion note, calling a people to heroic action and unity; to the consciousness and fulfilment of a grand destiny.” Her poems, “The Crowing of the Red Cock” and “The Banner of the Jew” (1882) stirred the Jewish consciousness and helped to produce the new Zionism (q.v.). She now wrote another drama, the Dance to Death, the scene of which is laid in Nordhausen in the 14th century; it is based on the accusation brought against the Jews of poisoning the wells and thus causing the Black Death. The Dance to Death was included (with some translations of medieval Hebrew poems) in Songs of a Semite (1882), which she dedicated to George Eliot. In 1885 she visited Europe. She devoted much of the short remainder of her life to the cause of Jewish nationalism. In 1887 appeared By the waters of Babylon, which consists of a series of “prose poems,” full of prophetic fire. She died in New York on the 19th of November 1887. A sonnet by Emma Lazarus is engraved on a memorial tablet on the colossal Bartholdi statue of Liberty, New York.
See article in the Century Magazine, New Series, xiv. 875 (portrait p. 803), afterwards prefixed as a Memoir to the collected edition of The poems of Emma Lazarus (2 vols., 1889). (I. A.)
LAZARUS, HENRY (1815–1895), British clarinettist, was born in London on the 1st of January 1815, and was a pupil of Blizard, bandmaster of the Royal Military Asylum, Chelsea, and subsequently of Charles Godfrey, senior, bandmaster of the Coldstream Guards. He made his first appearance as a soloist at a concert of Mme Dulcken’s, in April 1838, and in that year
- ↑ The English Bible does not use Lat. Dives (rich) as a proper name, saying merely “a certain rich man.” The idea that Dives was a proper name arose from the Vulgate quidam dives, whence it became a conventional name for a rich man.
