<Epiphany>
25. (11) - - - On the fifth (day of Epiphany, they assemble) at the Lazarium, about a mile and a half from Jerusalem - - -
<Lazarus Saturday>
29. (3) At dawn on the morning of Saturday (of the seventh week of Lent) the bishop makes the usual Offering of a Saturday morning. Then, for the dismissal, the archdeacon makes this announcement: "At one o'clock today let us all be ready at the Lazarium." Just on one o'clock everyone arrives at the Lazarium, which is Bethany, at about two miles from the city. (4) About half a mile before you get to the Lazarium from Jerusalem there is a church by the road. It is the spot where Lazarus' sister Mary met the Lord <John 11:29>. All the monks meet the bishop when he arrives there, and the people go into the church. They have one hymn and an antiphon, and a reading from the Gospel about Lazarus' sister meeting the Lord. Then, after a prayer, everyone is blessed, and they go on with singing to the Lazarium. (5) By the time they arrive there so many people have collected that they fill not only the Lazarium itself, but all the fields around. They have hymns and antiphons which — like all the readings — are suitable to the day and the place. Then at the dismissal a presbyter announces Easter. He mounts a platform, and reads the Gospel passage which begins "When Jesus came to Bethany six days before the Passover". After this reading, with its announcement of Easter, comes the dismissal. (6) They do it on this day because the Gospel describes what took place in Bethany "six days before the Passover", and it is six days from this Saturday to the Thursday night on which the Lord was arrested after the Supper. Thus they all return to the Anastasis and have Lucernare in the usual way.
<Easter Octave>
39. (1) The eight days of Easter they celebrate till a late hour, like us, and up to the eighth day of Easter they follow the same order as people do everywhere else. The arrangements and decorations for the eight days of Easter are like those for the season of Epiphany in the Great Church, and also in the Anastasis, At the Cross, on the Eleona, at Bethlehem, the Lazarium, and elsewhere.
(transl. Wilkinson)
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