1774 – April 23, 1802
A young Bulgarian shepherd from the region of Gabrovo who suffered martyrdom under Ottoman rule in 1802, refusing to deny Christ.
The Holy New Martyr Lazarus the Shepherd of Bulgaria
Lazarus was a New Martyr of the Ottoman period, a young Bulgarian shepherd who was falsely accused, tortured, and put to death for refusing to deny Christ and embrace Islam. He is commemorated on April 23. By tradition he was born in 1774 and died in 1802 at the age of twenty-eight.
According to the synaxarion he was born at Gabrovo in Bulgaria to pious and God-loving parents. As a young man he left his homeland and went to Soma in Asia Minor, near Pergamon, where he worked as a shepherd.
The charge against Lazarus arose from a chance encounter in the fields and a false report; offered his freedom in exchange for accepting Islam, he refused. The synaxarion relates that he was held in prison and beaten over a period of days, subjected to severe torments before he was finally executed.
He is numbered among the New Martyrs of the Ottoman era and is honored especially among the saints of Bulgaria. The Church commemorates him on April 23.