page_title: Rich man and Lazarus
section_title: Legacy in Early Christianity and Medieval tradition
hierarchical_section_title: Rich man and Lazarus / Literary provenance and legacy / Legacy in Early Christianity and Medieval tradition
caption_attribution_description: Rila Monastery, Rilakloster, Kloster Rila, Рилски манастир, Bulgaria
context_page_description: The parable of the rich man and Lazarus is a well-known parable of Jesus appearing in the Gospel of Luke.
  In the parable, Jesus tells his audience – his disciples and some Pharisees – of the relationship, during life and after death, between an unnamed rich man and a poor beggar named Lazarus. The traditional name Dives is not actually a name, but instead a word for "rich man", dives, in the text of the Latin Bible, the Vulgate. The rich man was also given the names Neuēs and Fineas in the 3rd and 4th centuries. Anonymity and naming play an important role in this parable. Ordinarily, poverty is anonymous, and wealth is acknowledged. Yet Lazarus is named, and the rich man is anonymous, anticipating the reversal that occurs at the end.
  Along with the parables of the Ten Virgins, Prodigal Son, and Good Samaritan, it was one of the most frequently illustrated parables in medieval art, perhaps because of its vivid account of an afterlife.
context_section_description: Hippolytus of Rome (ca. AD 200) describes Hades with similar details: the bosom of Abraham for the souls of the righteous, fiery torment for the souls of wicked, and a chasm between them. He equates the fires of Hades with the lake of fire described in the Book of Revelation, but specifies that no one will actually be cast into the fire until the end times.
  In some European countries, the Latin description dives (Latin for "the rich man") is treated as his proper name: Dives. In Italy, the description epulone (Italian for "banquetter") is also used as a proper name. Both descriptions appear together, but not as a proper name, in Peter Chrysologus's sermon De divite epulone (Latin "On the Rich Banquetter"), corresponding to the verse, "There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day".
  The story was frequently told in an elaborated form in the medieval period, treating it as factual rather than a parable. Lazarus was venerated as a patron saint of lepers. In the 12th century, crusaders in the Kingdom of Jerusalem founded the Order of Saint Lazarus.
  The story was often shown in art, especially carved at the portals of churches, at the foot of which beggars would sit (for example at Moissac and Saint-Sernin, Toulouse), pleading their cause. There is a surviving stained-glass window at Bourges Cathedral.
  In the Latin liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church, the words of In paradisum are sometimes chanted as the deceased is taken from church to burial, including this supplication: "Chorus angelorum te suscipiat ... et cum Lazaro quondam paupere aeternam habeas requiem" (May the ranks of angels receive you ... and with Lazarus, who was once poor, may you have eternal rest").
caption: Fresco of Lazarus and the Rich Man at the Rila Monastery.
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