Lazarus (Greek: Λάζαρος), surnamed Zographos (Ζωγράφος, "the Painter"), is a 9th-century Byzantine Christian saint.

Lazarus became a monk at an early age and is thought to have studied the art of painting at the Stoudios Monastery in Constantinople.

[3][4] Lazarus was noted to possess the following virtues: love for Christ, asceticism, prayer, and rejection of the vanities of the world.

Hearing of this, Theophilos gave orders to have "sheets of red hot iron to be applied to the palms of his hands where, as a result, he lost consciousness and lay half dead.

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.

[10] 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 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 (r. 842–867) before his death the same year.