Lazaros of Mount Galesios
Saint Lazaros of Mount Galesios was an 11th-century Byzantine monk and stylite, who founded a monastic community at Mount Galesios near Ephesus.
Life
Lazaros, whose secular name was Leo, was born near Magnesia to a peasant family, and his original name was Leo. The exact date of his birth is unknown; traditionally it has been calculated at, but a reference in a manuscript records that he died at the age of 72, hence that he was born in.After finishing his elementary schooling, he left his home and went to Attaleia to become a monk. Later he went to the famed Lavra of Saint Sabas in Palestine, before returning to his home region. He founded three monasteries at Mount Galesios near Ephesus, while he himself became a stylite and lived in a pillar. The monks in the monastic communities Lazaros founded lived in individual cells, rather than the cenobitic monasticism of most monasteries; they were even allowed to earn their own income through practicing a handicraft.
According to a vita of Lazaros of Mount Galesios written by his disciple Gregory the Cellarer, Lazaros climbed and descended Mount Argeas in the depths of winter while singing the Psalms, as he encountered harsh weather and even a bear and attacking dogs.