Places & Possessions: The Lazarus Pendant
What Matthew’s pendant reveals about history, atonement, and the version of himself he is trying to hold onto
In A Discovery of Witches, Matthew’s Lazarus pendant is easy to miss at first.
It appears in small, physical moments. He reaches for it when he is trying to stay calm, holding onto it as a way to steady himself. Over time, it becomes clear that this is not just habit. It is something he relies on.
The origin of that object goes much deeper.
Deborah Harkness inspiration for Matthew’s ampulla
The Knights of Lazarus in All Souls are rooted in a real historical order. The Order of Saint Lazarus was established during the Crusades and became known for caring for people with leprosy while also protecting pilgrims traveling through the Holy Land. It was both a religious and military order, built around service, discipline, and survival at the margins.
Deborah Harkness draws directly from that history, but she reshapes it.
In the series, the Knights of Lazarus become something different. Instead of serving a religious hierarchy, they operate as a hidden network that protects creatures, witches, vampires, and daemons, who exist outside the systems meant to control them.
That shift matters. It takes an order originally built around care and containment and turns it into something that protects what does not fit.
The pendant itself reflects that layered history.
It is described as an ampulla, a small vessel traditionally used to carry sacred oil, water, or relics. In the medieval world, these objects were often worn as pilgrimage badges, physical reminders of faith, protection, and connection to something larger.
That meaning carries through to Matthew. The pendant is not decorative. It is something he uses. A way of grounding himself in moments when control is at risk. It connects him to the order he leads, but it also connects him to something more personal.
Atonement.
Matthew’s life is shaped by violence, by long memory, and by the consequences of choices he cannot undo. The pendant becomes a way of holding that awareness close. Not to erase it, but to manage it.
It is a reminder of what he is capable of. And what he is trying not to become.
It is personal and symbolic. A private object that also signals something larger about who Matthew is and what he leads.
And like many objects in All Souls, its meaning shifts over time.
At first, it represents control. A system Matthew has built to manage himself and the world around him. But as the story moves forward, that system begins to strain. The rules that once held everything in place are no longer enough, and the structures Matthew depends on start to change.
The pendant remains, but what it represents becomes less certain.
It is still something he reaches for, but the question is no longer whether it can help him maintain control in the same way.
It’s what it means to carry that symbol forward in a world that is no longer defined by the same rules.
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Next week in Places & Possessions, we step inside The Old Lodge, Matthew’s private residence outside Oxford, and look at how the space holds his past while quietly making room for something new to take shape between him and Diana.
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