Fr. Lazarus was born in Russia in 1940 during the Soviet Union. He and his parents were part of the  underground catacomb church during the Soviet Union. In the early 1990’s Fr. Lazarus came to the U.S. He came to Jordanville and spent 1 year of seminary there. For various reasons he had to stop seminary and find a secular job near the monastery, but he continued to attend services on Sundays and Feast days throughout the year.

Then Fr. Lazarus became very sick and soon after was accepted as a Novice. No one knew what his illness was; he went to doctors and his medical records only showed was that he had some sort of “weakness.” Fr. Lazarus’ answer to this was that he didn’t want to know what it was, he only knew that it was a gift from God and the cure for his soul.

In the following years he bore his illness with much patience and endurance, and without complaining. He knew the services very well and when he was no longer able to attend services because of his illness, he listened to the recordings of the services from his room, following them in the service books as well.

Fr. Lazarus was also very forgiving. He would often quote the words of our Saviour to forgive “up to seventy times seven” (Matt 18:22). If there was ever a quarrel between him and another he would frequently stop in the middle of the quarrel and ask forgiveness of the person and the quarrel would end immediately.

The last few months of his life were very peaceful. On the Saturday before the Sunday of Forgiveness Fr. Lazarus started to become very sick. During the first week of lent, he would go between being very sick and being normal. He received communion on Wednesday during Clean week and reposed on the following Friday evening.

+May the Lord grant rest to his soul.