The descent of the Holy Fire takes place every year on Great Saturday, on the eve of the Orthodox Easter. An early evidence of the convergence of fire in Jerusalem dates back to the 4th century and belongs to the pilgrim Etheria. The fire descends only on the eve of Easter, celebrated according to the old, Julian calendar, and we know that the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ falls every year on different days. The Holy Fire descends only through the prayers of the Orthodox Patriarch.
Jerusalem Church of the Resurrection covers Mount Golgotha with its roof, and the cave of the Holy Sepulcher, and the garden where the first appearance of the resurrected Christ the Savior to Mary Magdalene took place. This temple was erected in the 4th century by the holy emperor Constantine and his mother, Saint Helena.
In our days, the miracle of the descent of heavenly fire takes place like this. Around noon, the Patriarch of Jerusalem with the clergy and those praying in the procession goes from the Patriarchate to the Church of the Resurrection. The procession enters the temple and, having three times bypassed the chapel of the Holy Sepulcher, located inside the temple, stops near the entrance to it. Pilgrims from all over the world gather in the temple, all the candles and lights in the temple are extinguished.
Every year, several thousand of those present in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher see: the patriarch, whose clothes were specially examined, enters Kuvuklia, which has been checked and sealed. Every year, representatives of other Christian denominations and police officers participate in the examination of Kuvuklia, in its sealing and examination of the patriarch. The inspection is carried out to prove that the patriarch cannot bring a source of fire to Cuvuklia. This custom was established by the Turks, who took possession of Palestine in 1517. After a search in Kuvuklia, they sealed it and placed guards until the entrance of the patriarch.
The patriarch, dressed in one linen cassock, with thirty-three unlit candles in his hand, enters the chapel. On bended knee, he prays before the tomb of the Lord for the sending of the Holy Fire.
The convergence of fire is preceded by flashes in the form of bluish lightning, piercing the entire air space of the temple. Then, on the marble slab of the Holy Sepulcher, fiery balls of blue flame appear, as if in the form of drops of rain or dew. Sometimes the Holy Fire itself lights the lamps at the tomb. The patriarch lights cotton wool from them and then sets fire to candles with this fire. Leaving the chapel, he passes the fire to the Armenian Patriarch and the people. The whole temple is filled with jubilation, the fire is passed to each other, lighting it from already burning candles. People hold bundles of thirty-three candles in their hands - according to the number of years of the Savior's earthly life. The Holy Fire at first has a wonderful property - not to burn. Those standing in the temple spend the flame on their face and hair, “wash themselves”: for the first few minutes, the fire does not burn the skin and does not scorch the hair.
The miracle of the descent of the Holy Fire precisely on Orthodox Easter after the prayer of the Jerusalem Orthodox Patriarch is proof of the truth of our faith. In 1579, the Armenian community obtained from the Turkish authorities that their primate, and not the Orthodox patriarch, be allowed into the chapel. (It must be said that the Armenians, although they are Christians, distorted the Orthodox faith as early as the 4th century and adhere to the Monophysite heresy, that is, they recognize in Christ only one - Divine - nature.) The Orthodox humbly prayed to closed doors temple, the Armenians were waiting for the descent of the Holy Fire in Cuvuklia. And the Lord performed a miracle: the Holy Fire descended, but not on the tomb of the Lord. Lightning struck the column next to which the Orthodox were praying, and fire came out of it. The scorched marble column still testifies to this miracle.
eyewitness account
The famous traveler Abraham Sergeevich Norov was present at the descent of the holy fire. Norov traveled to Jerusalem in 1835, was in the chapel. From the chapel, Angela saw Metropolitan Misail, who was taking the fire: “Thus, we reached the chapel of the Holy Sepulcher in the midst of a wonderful spectacle of the people, agitated or hanging from all the arcades and cornices.
Only one of the Greek bishops entered the chapel of the Holy Sepulcher, the Bishop of Armenia (who had recently received the right to do so), the Russian consul from Jaffa, and we three travelers. The doors closed behind us. The never-extinguishing lamps over the tomb of the Lord were already extinguished, only weak illumination passed to us from the church through the side openings of the chapel. This moment is solemn: the excitement in the temple has subsided; everything was expected. We stood in the chapel of the Angel, in front of a stone that had been rolled away from the den; only the Metropolitan entered the den of the Holy Sepulcher. I have already said that the entrance there has no doors. I saw how the aged metropolitan, bowing before the low entrance, entered the nativity scene and knelt before the holy tomb, before which nothing stood and which was completely naked. Less than a minute passed, when the darkness was illuminated with light, and the Metropolitan came out to us with a flaming bunch of candles.
Miracle of Convergence Holy Fire
Holy Fire
The Resurrection of Christ is Easter, before which the described event takes place - the greatest event for Christians, which is a sign of the Savior's victory over sin and death and the beginning of the existence of the world, redeemed and sanctified by the Lord Jesus Christ.
For almost two thousand years, Orthodox Christians and representatives of other Christian denominations have been celebrating their greatest holiday - the Resurrection of Christ (Easter) in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (Resurrection) in Jerusalem. In this greatest shrine for Christians, there is a Tomb where Christ was buried and then resurrected; Holy Places where the Savior was judged and executed for our sins.
Each time, everyone who is inside and near the Temple on Easter witnesses the descent of the Holy Fire (Light).
Story
The Holy Fire has been in the temple for more than a millennium. The earliest references to the descent of the Holy Fire on the eve of the Resurrection of Christ are found among Gregory of Nyssa, Eusebius and Sylvia of Aquitaine and date back to the 4th century. They also contain descriptions of earlier convergences. According to the testimony of the Apostles and Holy Fathers, the uncreated Light illuminated the Holy Sepulcher shortly after the Resurrection of Christ, which one of the apostles saw: and the night was, however, two images I saw internally - sensually and sincerely, "- we read from the church historian Gregory of Nyssa. "Peter appeared before the Sepulcher and the light was terrified in vain in the tomb," writes St. John of Damascus. Eusebius Pamphilus tells in his "Church History" that when one day there was not enough lamp oil, Patriarch Narcissus (II century) blessed to pour water from the Siloam font into the lamps, and the fire that descended from heaven lit the lamps, which then burned for the whole Easter service. Among the early mentions of the testimony of Muslims, Catholics. The Latin monk Bernard (865) writes in his itinerary: "On Holy Saturday, which is the eve of Easter, the service begins early and after the service is completed, Lord have mercy, until, with the coming of an Angel, light is kindled in the lamps hanging over the tomb."
Ceremony
Litany (church ceremony) of the Holy Fire begins about a day before the start Orthodox Easter, which, as you know, is celebrated on a different day than other Christians. In the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, pilgrims begin to gather, wishing to see with their own eyes the descent of the Holy Fire. Among those present there are always many non-Orthodox Christians, Muslims, atheists, the ceremony is monitored by the Jewish police. The temple itself accommodates up to 10 thousand people, the entire area in front of it and the enfilades of surrounding structures are also filled with people - the number of people who want is much more than the capacity of the temple, so it is not easy for pilgrims.
"On the eve of the temple, all the candles, lamps, chandeliers were already extinguished. Even in the not-distant past (at the beginning of the 20th century - ed.), this was carefully monitored: the Turkish authorities carried out a strict search inside the chapel; on the slander of Catholics, they even reached the revision pockets of the clergy metropolitan, vicar of the Patriarch ... "
In the middle of the bed of the Life-Giving Sepulcher, a lamp is placed, filled with oil, but without fire. Pieces of cotton wool are laid out throughout the bed, and a tape is laid along the edges. So prepared, after examining the Turkish guards, and now the Jewish police, Kuvukliya (Chapel over the Holy Sepulcher) is closed and sealed by a local Muslim key keeper.
“And on the morning of Holy Saturday, at 9 o’clock local time, the first signs of Divine power began to appear: the first peals of thunder were heard, while it was clear and sunny outside. They lasted for three hours (until 12). The temple began to light up with bright flashes of light, in one place, then in another, heavenly lightning began to shine, foreshadowing the descent of Heavenly Fire, "writes one of the eyewitnesses.
"At half past two, the bell rings in the patriarchy and the procession begins from there. The Greek clergy enter the temple with a long black ribbon, preceding his Beatitude, the Patriarch. He is in full vestments, a shining miter and panagias. The clergy with a slow tread passes the "stone of anointing", goes to the platform connecting the Kuvukliya with the cathedral, and then, between two rows of armed Turkish rati, barely holding back the onslaught of the crowd, disappears into the large altar of the cathedral" - narrates a medieval pilgrim.
20-30 minutes after the sealing of Kuvuklia, Orthodox Arab youth runs into the temple, whose presence is also an obligatory element of the Easter celebrations. Young people sit on each other's shoulders like riders. They ask Mother of God and the Lord, so that he would bestow the Holy Fire on the Orthodox; "Ilya din, ilya wil el Messiah" ("there is no faith but the Orthodox faith, Christ is the true God") - they chant. For European parishioners, accustomed to other forms of expression of feelings and calm worship, it is very unusual to see such behavior of local youth. However, the Lord reminded us that He also accepts such a childishly naive, but sincere appeal to God.
"At a time when Jerusalem was under British mandate, the English governor once tried to ban these" savage "dances. The Patriarch prayed in Kuvuklia for two hours: the fire did not come down. Then the Patriarch, by his will, ordered the Arabs to be let in... And the fire came down.". The Arabs, as it were, appeal to all peoples: the Lord confirms the correctness of our faith by bringing down the Holy Fire on the eve of Orthodox Easter. What do you believe in?
“Suddenly, a small cloud appeared inside the temple above Cuvuklia, from which a fine rain began to drizzle. I was standing not far from Cuvuklia, therefore, small drops of dew fell on me, a sinner, several times. I thought, probably, there was a thunderstorm outside, rain, and the roof was the temple is not tightly closed, so the water penetrates in. But then the Greeks shouted: "Dew, dew ..." The blessed dew descended on Cuvuklia and moistened the cotton wool lying on the Holy Sepulcher. This was the second manifestation God's Power"- writes the pilgrim.
A procession enters the Temple - the hierarchs of the confessions celebrating Easter. At the end of the procession is the Orthodox Patriarch of one of the local Orthodox churches (Jerusalem or Constantinople), accompanied by the Armenian Patriarch and the clergy. In its procession, the procession passes all the memorial places in the temple: the sacred grove where Christ was betrayed, the place where he was beaten by the Roman legionnaires, Golgotha, where He was crucified, the Anointing Stone - on which the body of Christ was prepared for burial.
The procession approaches Kuvukliya and goes around it three times. After that, the Orthodox Patriarch stops in front of the entrance to Cuvuklia; he is exposed from the robes and he remains in one linen cassock, so that it can be seen that he does not bring matches with him into the cave or anything that can light a fire. During the reign of the Turks, close "control" of the patriarch was carried out by the Turkish Janissaries, who searched him before entering Cuvuklia.
Hoping to catch the Orthodox on a fake, the city Muslim authorities placed Turkish soldiers throughout the temple, and they unsheathed scimitars, ready to cut off the head of anyone who was seen bringing in or lighting fire. However, in the entire history of Turkish rule, no one has been convicted of this. At present, the Patriarch is being examined by Jewish police officers.
Shortly before the patriarch, the underling brings a large lampada into the cave, in which the main fire and 33 candles should flare up - according to the number of years of the Savior's earthly life. Then the Orthodox and Armenian Patriarchs (the latter is also undressed before entering the cave) enter inside. They are sealed with a large piece of wax and a red ribbon is placed on the door; Orthodox ministers put their seals. At this time, the lights in the temple are turned off and there is a tense silence - waiting. Those present pray and confess their sins, asking the Lord to grant the Holy Fire.
All the people in the temple are patiently waiting for the patriarch to come out with Fire in his hands. However, in the hearts of many people there is not only patience, but also awe of expectation: in accordance with the tradition of the Jerusalem Church, it is believed that the day when the Holy Fire does not descend will be the last for the people in the Temple, and the Temple itself will be destroyed. Therefore, pilgrims usually take communion before coming to a holy place.
Prayer and ritual continue until the expected miracle happens. AT different years the agonizing wait lasts from five minutes to several hours.
Convergence
Before the descent, the temple begins to be illuminated by bright flashes of the Blessed Light, small lightning flashes here and there. In slow motion, you can clearly see that they come from different places temple - from the icon hanging over Kuvuklia, from the dome of the Temple, from windows and from other places, and fill everything around with bright light. In addition, here and there, between the columns and walls of the temple, quite visible lightning flashes, which often pass without any harm through standing people.
A moment later, the whole temple turns out to be belted with lightning and glare, which snake down its walls and columns, as if flowing down to the foot of the temple and spreading over the square among the pilgrims. At the same time, candles are lit at those standing in the temple and on the square, the lampadas located on the sides of the Kuvuklia themselves light up themselves (with the exception of 13 Catholic ones), like some others within the temple. "And suddenly a drop falls on the face, and then a cry of delight and shock is heard in the crowd. Fire burns in the altar of the Katholikon! Flash and flame - like huge flower. And Kuvuklia is still dark. Slowly, slowly, by candlelight, the fire from the altar begins to descend towards us. And then a thunderous cry makes you look back at Cuvuklia. It shines, the whole wall shimmers with silver, white lightning streams over it. The fire pulsates and breathes, and from the hole in the dome of the Temple, a vertical wide column of light descended from the sky onto the Tomb, "The temple or its individual places are filled with an unparalleled radiance, which is believed to have first appeared during the Resurrection of Christ. At the same time, the doors The coffins are opened and the Orthodox Patriarch comes out, who blesses those gathered and distributes the Holy Fire.
The patriarchs themselves tell about how the Holy Fire lights up. "I saw how the metropolitan bent over the low entrance, entered the nativity scene and knelt before the Holy Sepulcher, on which nothing stood and which was completely naked. Not even a minute passed, when the darkness was lit up with light and the metropolitan came out to us with a flaming beam candles." Hieromonk Meletios cites the words of Archbishop Misail: “When I entered the Holy Sepulcher of the Lord, seeing the whole lid of the tombs, light shines like scattered small beads, in the form of white, blue, scarlet and other flowers, which then copulated, blushed and turned into the substance of fire ... and from this fire the prepared kandila and candles are lit.
Messengers, even when the Patriarch is in Kuvukliya, through special openings spread Fire throughout the temple, the fiery circle gradually
spread throughout the temple.
However, not everyone lights a fire from a patriarchal candle; for some, it lights up a samkhramu. It scattered with bright blue beads over Kuvuklia around the icon of the Resurrection of the Lord, and one of the lamps flared up after it. He burst into the temple chapels, to Golgotha (he also lit one of the lamps on it), sparkled over the Stone of Anointing (the lamp was also lit here). Someone's candle wicks were charred, someone's lamps, bunches of candles flared up by themselves. The flashes intensified more and more, sparks were carried here and there through the bunches of candles. ". One of the witnesses notes how the woman standing next to him lit up candles three times, which she twice tried to extinguish.
The first time - 3-10 minutes, the ignited Fire has amazing properties - it does not burn at all, regardless of which candle and where it will be lit. You can see how the parishioners literally wash themselves with this Fire - they drive it over their faces, over their hands, scoop it up in handfuls, and it does no harm, at first it does not even scorch their hair. "I lit 20 candles in one place and burned my brother with all those candles, and not a single hair writhed or burned; and having extinguished all the candles and then lit them with other people, I lit those candles, and I also lit those candles in the third , and then nothing touched his wife, he didn’t scorch a single hair, nor writhed ... "- wrote one of the pilgrims four centuries ago. The droplets of wax that fall from the candles are called the blessed dew by the parishioners. As a reminder of the Miracle of the Lord, they will remain on the clothes of witnesses forever, no powders and washings will take them.
The people who are at this time in the temple are overwhelmed with an inexpressible and incomparable in its depth feeling of joy and spiritual peace. According to those who visited the square and the temple itself during the descent of fire, the depth of feelings of the overwhelmed people at that moment was fantastic - eyewitnesses left the temple as if reborn, as they themselves say - spiritually cleansed and enlightened. What is especially remarkable does not remain indifferent even to those who are uncomfortable with this God-given sign.
There are also rarer miracles. Filming on one of the videotapes testifies to the healings taking place. Visually, the camera demonstrates two such cases - in a person with a mutilated rotting skhom, a wound smeared with Fire closes right before his eyes and the ear takes on a normal appearance, and a case of a blind man’s insight is also shown (according to external observations, a person had thorns in both eyes before “washing "Fire).
In the future, from the Holy Fire, lamps will be lit throughout Jerusalem, and the Fire will be delivered by special flights to Cyprus and Greece, from where it will be transported all over the world. Recently, direct participants in the events began to bring it to our country. In the areas of the city adjacent to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, candles and lamps in churches light up by themselves.
Blessed Fire. Shattered Column
Is it only Orthodox?
Many non-Orthodox, when they first hear about the Holy Fire, try to reproach the Orthodox: how do you know that it was bestowed on you? But what if he was received by a representative of another Christian denomination? However, attempts by force to challenge the right to receive the Holy Fire on the part of representatives of other denominations have been and have happened more than once.
For only a few centuries, Jerusalem was under the control of Eastern Christians, but most of the time, as now, the city was ruled by representatives of other teachings that were unfriendly or even hostile to Orthodoxy.
<В 1099 г. Иерусалим был завоеван крестоносцами, римская церковь и местные градоночальники почитая Православных за вероотступников, смело принялись попирать их права. Английский историк Стивен Рансимен приводит в своей книге повествование об этом летописца западной церкви: "Неудачно начал первый латинский патриарх Арнольд из Шоке: он приказал изгнать секты еретиков из принадлежавших им пределов в Храме Гроба Господня, затем он стал пытать православных монахов, добиваясь, где они хранят Крест и другие реликвии… Несколько месяцев спустя Арнольда сменил на престоле Даймберт из Пизы, который пошел еще дальше. Он попытался изгнать всех местных христиан, даже православных, из Храма Гроба Господня и допускать туда лишь латинян, вообще лишив остальных церковных зданий в Иерусалиме или около него… Скоро грянуло Божье возмездие: уже в 1101 г. в Великую Субботу не совершилось чуда сошествия Святого огня в Кувуклии, покуда не были приглашены для участия в этом обряде восточные христиане. Тогда король Балдуин I позаботился о возвращении местным христианам их прав…".
The chaplain of the Crusader Kings of Jerusalem, Fulk, relates that when Western worshipers (from among the Crusaders) visited St. city before the capture of Caesarea, for the celebration of St. Easter came to Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, because the holy fire did not appear and the faithful remained in vain waiting all day in the Church of the Resurrection. Then, as if by heavenly inspiration, the Latin clergy and the king with all his court went ... to the temple of Solomon, which they had recently converted into a church from the mosque of Omar, and meanwhile the Greeks and Syrians, who remained at St. Tomb, tearing their clothes, with cries called for the grace of God, and then, finally, came down St. Fire."
But the most significant event occurred in 1579. The owners of the Temple of the Lord are simultaneously representatives of several Christian Churches. The priests of the Armenian Church, contrary to tradition, managed to bribe Sultan Murat the Truthful and the local city authorities to allow them to celebrate Easter alone and receive the Holy Fire.
At the call of the Armenian clergy, many of their fellow believers came to Jerusalem from all over the Middle East to celebrate Easter alone. The Orthodox, together with Patriarch Sophrony IV, were removed not only from the Kuvuklia, but from the Temple in general. There, at the entrance to the shrine, they remained to pray for the descent of Fire, mourning the separation from Grace. The Armenian Patriarch prayed for about a day, however, despite his prayerful efforts, no miracle followed. At one moment, a ray struck from the sky, as is usually the case with the descent of Fire, and hit exactly the column at the entrance, next to which was the Orthodox Patriarch. Fiery bursts splashed from it in all directions and a candle was lit at the Orthodox Patriarch, who handed over the Holy Fire to the fellow believers. This was the only case in history when the descent took place outside the Temple, in fact, through the prayers of an Orthodox, and not an Armenian high priest. “Everyone rejoiced, and the Orthodox Arabs began to jump and shout for joy: “You are our one God, Jesus Christ, our true faith is one - the faith of Orthodox Christians,” writes monk Parthenius. At the same time, on the enfilades of buildings adjacent to the temple square were Turkish soldiers. One of them, named Omir (Anvar), seeing what was happening, exclaimed: "The One Orthodox Faith, I am a Christian" and jumped down onto stone slabs from a height of about 10 meters. However, the young man did not crash - the slabs under his feet melted like For the adoption of Christianity, the Muslims executed the brave Anvar and tried to scrape off the traces that so clearly testify to the triumph of Orthodoxy, but they did not succeed, and those who come to the Temple can still see them, like the dissected column at the doors of the temple. The body of the martyr was burned, but the Greeks collected the remains, which until the end of the 19th century were in the convent of Great Panagia, exuding fragrance.
The Turkish authorities were very angry with the arrogant Armenians, and at first even wanted to execute the hierarch, but later they had mercy and ordered him to always follow the Orthodox Patriarch as a warning about what had happened at the Easter ceremony and henceforth not to take a direct part in receiving the Holy Fire. Although the government has changed a long time ago, the custom is still preserved. However, this was not the only attempt by Muslims, who deny the Passion and the Resurrection of the Lord, to prevent the descent of the Holy Fire. Here is what the famous Islamic historian al-Biruni (IX-X centuries) writes: "... once the governor ordered to replace the wicks with copper wire, hoping that the lamps would not light up and the miracle itself would not happen. But then, when the fire went down, the copper caught fire" .
It is difficult to enumerate all the numerous events that take place before the descent of the Holy Fire and during it. However, one thing deserves special mention. Several times a day or immediately before the descent of the Holy Fire, icons or frescoes depicting the Savior began to stream myrrh in the Temple. This happened for the first time on Good Friday in 1572. The first witnesses were two Frenchmen, a letter about this from one of them is kept in the Central Library of Paris. After 5 months - on August 24, Charles IX staged the Massacre of Bartholomew in Paris. In two days, a third of the population of France was destroyed. In 1939, on the night from Good Friday to Good Saturday, she again began to stream myrrh. Several monks living at the Jerusalem monastery became witnesses. Five months later, on September 1, 1939, World War II began. In 2001 it happened again. Christians did not see anything terrible in this ... but the whole world knows about what happened on September 11 this year - five months after the myrrh-streaming.
Indifferent conversation. Blessed Fire. Nikolai Kuzmich Simakov
Evidence of an Unburning Flame
"From the king's candle we lit our candles, and from our candles all people lit their candles. The holy light is not the same as earthly fire, but wonderful, it glows differently, its flame is red, like cinnabar, glows indescribably ..." Hegumen Daniel. "Walking Abbot Daniel", XII century
"Yes, and I am a sinful slave from the metropolitan's hands, having lit 20 candles in one place and I burned mine with all those candles, and not a single hair writhed or burned; and having extinguished all the candles and then lit them with other people, I warmed those candles, so but on the third day those candles were also warmed up by me, and then I touched my wife with nothing, I didn’t scorch a single hair, nor grimaced, and I’m accursed, not believing that heavenly fire and the message of God, and so lit my candles three times and extinguished, and in front of the metropolitan and before all the Greeks, I say goodbye that I blasphemed God's power and called heavenly fire, which the Greeks do sorcery, and not God's creation; and the metropolitan me in this in all simple and bless. Vasily Yakovlevich Gagara . Life and journey to Jerusalem and Egypt of the Kazanian Vasily Yakovlevich Gagara (1634-1637). - Orthodox Palestine Collection, vol. 33. St. Petersburg, 1891. P. 11, 33-37.
“When I entered, he said, inside to the holy Sepulcher, we see a shimmering light on the entire roof of the tomb, like scattered small beads, in the form of white, blue, scarlet and other colors, which then, copulating, blushed and turned over time into substance fire, but this fire, in the course of time, as soon as you can read slowly forty times "Lord, have mercy!", does not burn, and from this fire prepared kandila and candles are kindled. But by the way, he added, how and from where this phenomenon happens, I can’t say. Hieromonk Meletius, 1793-1794 F. M. Avdulovsky. Filmed fire emanating from the Tomb of the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ, p. X., XII. pp. 46-47.
“Bedouins with shaved heads, women with money strung on their heads and on their noses and covered with white veils ran into the temple from the mountains .... Arabs burn their beards, Arab women bring fire to their bare necks.. In this cramped place fire permeates the crowds; but there was no example of a fire in such a case. Barbara Brun de Saint-Hypolite, 1859 Archimandrite Naum. Holy Fire over the Holy Sepulcher. M., "Peresvet", 1991
“I quickly found myself on the platform near the temple, where many of our pilgrims surrounded me. All of them, in tears of complete tenderness, joy and happiness, pointed out to me that the Holy Fire does not burn. the chest with this fire, and it really did not burn, it begins to burn only when the beam flares up with a bright flame. Following the example and instructions of my acquaintances pilgrims, I personally experienced all this. Striking this blessed fire around my neck and hands, I did not feel any pain ." Rostovtsev Konstantin, member of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society (1896). Spark of God // "Orthodox Life", No. 4, 1962
"This fire, for 10-15 minutes, does not burn at all. I personally drove it (with the whole bunch lit) over the sore spots of my body and did not feel it at all. And the Olivet monk, Father Savva, (as he put it) washed, drove all over his face, overgrown with a beard and mustache - and not a single hair caught fire, did not flare up. Maria Pavlovna Khreschatitskaya (pilgrim from the USA, 1958) Compiled by Archpriest Seraphim Slobodskoy. Law of God for the family and school. Fourth edition. Printing house of Job Pochaevsky (Jordanville) 1987
"I cover a large torch with my hand - the Fire is warm, pleasant, alive, it does not burn at all; this is not earthly, not ordinary fire - this is Heavenly Fire! I begin to wash it: I bring it to my chin, cheeks, forehead - the fire does not burn." Nikolay Kokukhin, Moscow, newspaper "Sunday school". Nikolai Kokuhin. "Sunday School", supplement to the newspaper "First of September", 1999, No. 13.
Father Georgy films everything on a video camera, takes pictures. I also take some pictures. We have ten packs of candles prepared with us. I stretch out my hand with candles to the burning bunches in the hands of people, I light it. I scoop up this flame with my palm, it is large, warm, light light yellow, I keep my hand in the fire - it does not burn! I bring it to my face, the flame licks my beard, nose, eyes, I feel only warmth and a gentle touch - it does not burn !!!
"Father George!" - I scream. But he is standing with his back to me, filming what is happening with a video camera, the noise prevents him from hearing me.
"Father George! Look!" He unfolds. "Take off!" In delight, I drive burning bunches of candles across my face.
Alexander Novopashin. Priest from Novosibirsk.
The Holy Fire has unique properties, and numerous documentary materials confirm this amazing fact - photographs, video filming, observation reports of eyewitnesses (parishioners, tourists, scientists). New evidence appears regularly in the media.
There is a documentary filming: a bearded man holds a burning candle close to his face - the whole head glows! - but the hair does not burn. This is the Holy Fire, which is outwardly similar to ordinary fire, but does not burn. You can keep your hand in it: it's safe. After about 5-7 minutes, the wonderful flame becomes just a flame.
It's amazing... At first, the fire doesn't burn, it's just warm. They wash their faces, swipe them across the face, apply them to the chest - and nothing. There was a case, one nun's apostle caught fire, and there was no trace left. Another cassock burned through. Carried home with a hole, but came - there is no hole. Archimandrite Varvolomey (Kalugin), resident of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, 1983 Sukhinina N. Fire engulfing doubt // "Family", weekly non-political newspaper, No. 16 (April), 2001
But there, in Jerusalem, I immediately ran a sheaf of flame across my eyes, across my forehead - it did not scorch. I lit the second beam in my left hand and ran it over the right side of my face. I feel - the beard is burned. The Holy Fire does not scorch the first few minutes. Igor shows me a palm with a black trace of soot, pokes a burning candle into it, shouts: "Look, it doesn't scorch." The multitude of people that filled the temple turned into a roaring sea of fire. Yuriev Yuri. Newspaper "Tomorrow", September 4, 2001
I had 5 bunches of candles in my hands, and my novice Valentina had as many as 30. After all, it is necessary to bring the memorable holy signs of the inexpressible mercy of God to those who were left in Novgorod and Bronnitsy, far from here. Joy of the spirit so leapt up in me, a sinner, that I was ready to swallow it: one by one I drove bunches of lighted candles over my face, hair, beard, took it in my mouth, hurried those around me to take advantage of the only, perhaps, in their life, a blessed opportunity, happiness ... but ... stop ... the fifth beam managed to turn in my hands into a burning natural fire, testifying in such an impressive way its Divine origin on me, a sinner. Archimandrite Hilarion is the rector of the Church of the Transfiguration of the Savior in the village of Bronnitsa and the confessor of the Novgorod Diocese. A heartfelt story about the pilgrimage to the Holy City of Jerusalem and other holy places of the Promised Land by the rector of the Transfiguration Church in the village of Bronnitsa and the confessor of the Novgorod Diocese, Archimandrite Hilarion.
I try to take Fire in my palm and discover that it is real. It can be touched, in the palm of your hand it feels like a material substance, it is soft, neither hot nor cold. Parishioner of the church of St. Nicholas in Biryulyovo Natalia.
Surprisingly, at first the fire does not burn at all. At this moment, it is not fire at all, but, as it were, a light similar to the Light of Tabor ... Its bright flashes are transmitted by hand, and here I am holding the blessed light. Someone nearby begins to eat it like bread, swallow it inside themselves, pass it over the body, arms and legs - as if saturated with grace ... There are so many people that nothing is heard, people rejoice ... Tatyana Shutova, journalist, Moscow, 1997. Recorded by M. Sizov. To the Holy Sepulcher. // Christian newspaper of the north of Russia "Vera" - "Eskom", April 2000, no. 2.
I had seven bunches of candles. We lit them one by one, passed the fire on our hands, on our face, and it did not burn, it only gave such a caressing warmth. This year, the blessed fire descended on the head of the Patriarch, many saw how those accompanying him removed this amazing fire from his head with their hands. Natalya O. is a journalist from Moscow. Trofimov A. On the events of Holy Saturday in Jerusalem. // magazine "Derzhavnaya Rus", No. 8 (52) (continued with No. 9 (53)), 1998
In Jerusalem, a miracle happened again - the blessed fire descended to earth
In the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, where about ten thousand believers gathered today, the miracle of the descent of the Holy Fire again took place. According to the correspondent RIA News", The Holy Fire flared up in the cave of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where there is a stone bed on which the body of the Savior was taken down from the Cross.
At the time of the miracle, only the Patriarch of Jerusalem was in the cave Irenaeus I(Skopelitis). During the prayer for the granting of miraculous fire in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, flashes of light appeared.
When Patriarch Irenaeus I came out of the cave of the Holy Sepulcher, carrying a lamp with Holy fire, many believers also began to miraculously ignite candles. Those present in the temple gradually began to pass the Holy Fire to each other. The members of the Russian delegation who are in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher also received it. They will deliver the Holy Fire to the Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Savior for the night patriarchal Easter service.
The Russian delegation is spiritually led by Bishop Alexander of Dmitrov, Vicar of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II. It includes Russian political, religious and public figures who arrived in Jerusalem as part of the delegation of the St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation.
What is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher
The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is the sacred center of Christianity, which today unites about a third of the world's population. It was built at the behest of Emperor Constantine the Great and his mother, the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Empress Helena, in the 4th century AD on the spot where the earthly journey of Jesus Christ ended.
During its centuries-old history, the temple was completely destroyed and rebuilt three times ( last time- after the fire of 1808).
The huge structure includes about 40 different buildings. The complex includes a temple on Mount Calvary, on which the Savior was crucified (18 marble steps lead to it), and a chapel over the Holy Sepulcher (Edicule). This is the most sacred place in the entire temple complex - there is a stone bed (lavitsa) where the body of Christ rested after the death of the Cross on Good Friday and until His Resurrection.
It is on this stone bed that the Holy Fire miraculously kindles.
What comes before a miracle?
The Holy Fire has been in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher for more than a millennium. The earliest references to a miracle on the eve of the Resurrection of Christ are found in the famous father of the Church, Gregory of Nyssa, and date back to the 4th century AD.
If we consistently describe the events preceding the Jerusalem miracle, then they develop in this way:
The church ceremony of the Holy Fire (litany) begins approximately a day before the start of Easter, which this year is celebrated on the same day by Eastern and Western Christians - Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants, Anglicans.
On Holy Saturday morning, the procession begins from the building of the Jerusalem Patriarchate. The procession bypasses the memorable places associated with the gospel events: the Sacred Grove, where Jesus Christ was betrayed; the place where He was beaten by the Roman legionaries; Calvary, where Christ was crucified; the stone of Anointing, on which his body taken down from the cross was prepared for burial.
At the end of their journey, the procession approaches the chapel above the cave of the Holy Sepulcher and circles around it three times. After that, the procession will stop in front of the entrance to Kuvuklia.
In accordance with tradition, from 10 am to 11 am Great Saturday the servant brings a large lampada into the Kuvukliya, in which the main fire should then flare up, and 33 candles (according to the number of years of the winter life of the Savior). Then Cuvuklia is sealed. It is noteworthy that after half an hour, Orthodox Arab youth runs into the temple, whose presence is an indispensable element of the Easter celebrations. Young people, sitting on each other's shoulders and chanting "there is no faith but the Orthodox faith, Christ is the true God," ask the Lord to grant the Holy Fire to believers. It is believed that the Savior accepts such a childishly naive, but sincere treatment.
After performing a number of rites, the Orthodox Patriarch (today, as already mentioned, this was the primate Jerusalem Orthodox Church Irenaeus) approaches the entrance to the chapel above the Holy Sepulcher. He is exposed from chasubles to a linen cassock, so that it can be seen that he does not carry matches or something capable of lighting a fire with him into the cave. The Patriarch then goes inside, and the entrance is sealed with a large piece of wax, placing a red band over the door.
After that, the lights are turned off in the temple and there is a tense silence. Those present pray, confess their sins and ask the Lord to grant the Holy Fire.
As a rule, the wait lasts from several minutes to several hours. Some time later, the whole temple turns out to be belted with lightning, which, as it were, flow down the walls and columns. At the same time, candles begin to light up for those standing in the temple and on the square in front of the temple. Then the chapel above the Holy Sepulcher begins to shine, and from the hole in the dome of the temple a wide vertical pillar of light descends onto the Holy Sepulcher. Following this, the doors of the temple open and the Patriarch comes out, who blesses the audience and distributes the Holy Fire.
In accordance with the tradition of the Jerusalem Church, it is believed that the day when the Holy Fire does not descend will be the last for the people in the temple, and the temple itself will be destroyed.
According to eyewitnesses, the Holy Fire has an amazing property - it does not burn a person at all.
ANNUAL HOLY FIRE MIRACLE
(The sacred fire descends only on Orthodox Easter, on Saturday of Passion Week)
Jerusalem is visited by believers from all over the world.
1988 At seven o'clock in the morning a thanksgiving service was served. All the pilgrims thanked the Lord with tears for a safe arrival to the holy land. We headed through the narrow streets of Jerusalem to the Church of the Resurrection of Christ. Here, on Great Saturday before Orthodox Easter (according to the old style), the Holy Fire descends. Greek pilgrims come here in the evening and stay in the temple all night to see Kuvuklia (the place of the Holy Sepulcher) in the morning, take a closer place.
They make special bunches of small candles, there are 33 of them - according to the number of years of the Savior. Anticipation. From the evening all the lights, all the lamps are extinguished, the whole temple is dark.
Grace descends in the afternoon, about one o'clock in the afternoon. There is no fixed time: sometimes they wait 10 minutes, sometimes 5 minutes, 20 minutes, there were cases when they waited for two hours (they were already crying and sobbing - feelings are so tense - after all, the whole year is blessed).
The celebration itself begins with a procession from the courtyard of the Jerusalem Patriarchate through the Church of St. James, and goes straight to the altar of the Church of the Resurrection. Then the patriarch in full vestments, the clergy, and the choristers come out of the royal doors. Sing slowly the troparion "Thy Resurrection, Christ the Savior, the angels sing in heaven, and make us on earth glorify Thee with a pure heart."
12 banners are carried in front. The procession heads towards Kuvukliya and goes around it three times. The doors of Kuvuklia were closed the day before and sealed. And so the patriarch undresses, remains in one vestment, he bows to the people. Under the singing of "Light of the quiet saint of the glory of the immortal Father in heaven, blessed holy, Jesus Christ, having come to the setting of the sun, having seen the light of the evening, we sing the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, God: you are worthy at all times to be the voices of the reverend, the Son of God give the belly, the same world praises you.
Moreover, at all times they were very strictly monitored, literally searched the patriarch and those who were close to him.
The Orthodox Patriarch enters. And now the Armenian bishop is allowed to enter Kuvukliya, but only in the chapel of the Angel, he remains with candles at the door of the cave of the Lord. The Orthodox Patriarch on his knees enters the tomb of the Lord. And what's in there?
According to the pilgrim, Bishop Meletios could not raise his head, and when he raised his head, he saw: like fiery dew - balls like water, bluish in color - this is not fire, but some kind of substance. Cotton wool is required, it ignites, burns, but does not burn. This fire is completely different. When cotton wool is ignited by this fire, the patriarch lights a lampada, candles and distributes to the people.
Everyone perceives this visible grace differently.
Some see how, as it were, a stream of a bluish color comes from Golgotha, or - like a cloud. All Kuvukliya is shrouded in this cloud.
Sometimes the phenomenon is lightning-like - lightning strikes the wall and directly reflects, illuminating everything. And the glow is blue.
Sometimes they see how the northern lights play over the dome of Kuvuklia.
We waited 8 minutes this year - it seems like an eternity. They stood exhausted.
And so, when grace is distributed, imagine: a sea of fire, and there is never a fire, never. There were cases when the apostle (a nun's vestment) caught fire, or mother alone burned her cassock, carried it with a hole in her hands, came home, looking for a hole, and the cassock was whole.
When grace is a sea of fire spills. Who cries, who screams with joy, who laughs. This feeling must be experienced, you can’t tell it. For the sake of this miracle, for the sake of this grace, everything is insignificant.
On the street they pointed out to us a dissected column. At one time, the Armenians claimed priority, the primacy of receiving the Holy Fire. They bribed the Turkish officials, came early and closed the doors. The Armenians shut themselves up in the church, but the Orthodox came and stopped in front of the closed doors, and the bishops, and the clergy, and the people accompanying them. In great sorrow, the time of the Holy Fire passed among the Orthodox, with mournful prayer they stood outside. And the Armenians inside sang, prayed in their own way and waited for grace. The Holy Fire came out of this column, split it, rolled and lit candles for the Orthodox, and since then no one has claimed the primacy of receiving the Holy Fire.
The power of God is great and immeasurable.
(From the book "The Holy Fire over the Holy Sepulcher". Moscow, "Peresvet", 1991)
blessed fire, eyewitness testimony
The Resurrection of Christ - Easter, before which the described descent of the Holy Fire takes place - is the greatest event for Christians, which is a sign of the Savior's victory over sin and death and the beginning of the existence of the world, redeemed and sanctified by the Lord Jesus Christ.
For almost two thousand years, Orthodox Christians and representatives of other Christian denominations have been celebrating their greatest holiday - the Resurrection of Christ (Easter) in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (Resurrection) in Jerusalem. In this greatest shrine for Christians, there is a Tomb where Christ was buried and then resurrected; holy places where the Savior was judged and executed for our sins.
Every time, everyone who is inside and near the church on Easter witnesses the descent of the Holy Fire.
The Holy Fire has been in the temple for more than a millennium. Earliest
references to the descent of the Holy Fire on the eve of the Resurrection of Christ are found in Gregory of Nyssa, Eusebius and Sylvia of Aquitaine and date back to the 4th century.
They also contain descriptions of earlier convergences. According to the testimony of the apostles and holy fathers, the uncreated light illuminated the Holy Sepulcher shortly after the Resurrection of Christ, which one of the apostles saw:
“Peter believed, he saw not only with sensual eyes, but also with a lofty apostolic mind - the Tomb of Light was ubiquitously filled, so that, although it was night, however, he saw two images internally - sensually and spiritually,” we read from the church historian Gregory Nissky.
“Peter appeared before the Sepulcher and the light was terrified in vain in the tomb,” writes St. John of Damascus. Eusebius Pamphilus tells in his “Church History” that when one day there was not enough lamp oil, Patriarch Narcissus (II century) blessed to pour water from the Siloam font into the lamps, and the fire that descended from heaven lit the lamps, which then burned throughout the entire Easter service .
Among the early references there are testimonies of Muslims, Catholics.
The Latin monk Bernard (865) writes in his itinerary: “On Holy Saturday, which is the eve of Easter, the service begins early and after the service is completed, “Lord have mercy” is sung until, with the coming of the Angel, the light in the lamps is kindled, hanging over the tomb.
We bring to your attention the story of an eyewitness about the descent of the Holy Fire in 2003, published on the Internet.
I tried to look inside through the window and bars. But it’s strange when you look inside the temple from the outside, from the street - everything is covered in darkness, barred, as if covered with a veil, a veil of darkness and the bustle of the world: inside it was complete darkness, not a single lampada offered its silent prayer, not a single candle burned, and even the faces of the saints on the icons could not be disassembled.
“And really, what is it? Everyone died, didn't they? Where are people? Why are they not in the temple tonight?
Why are they all sleeping? And how can you sleep tonight?”
That's how it always is. Human inertia and slowness, slowness in decision-making - stupidity and slowness where it is necessary to act quickly and decisively - how many misfortunes and troubles could have been avoided if not for this inertness and slowness? “Oh, unfortunate and inert at heart? How long will I be with you, how long will I endure you? Bring it to Me..."
As I already said, in the dilapidated door, by which I was hiding from the cold wind, there were large cracks, through one of which I looked and suddenly saw either an icon or a picture, but rather it was a picture, in my opinion, it was a very poor copy of Leonard's Madonna and Child, but this picture made a tremendous impression on me.
The Most Pure One looked at her Child with such love and tenderness, such grace emanated from Her face, which instantly dispelled all my fears ...
There is no death, no corruption and no fear, these are all just ghosts - if there is such Love!... “So, not everyone has died yet; it means that somewhere else there is life; means there is no death; it means that after all there is a world where not brute force reigns, the power of darkness and money, but a world where peace and love, and faith, and hope reign ... it means that I am no longer alone here, although as a prisoner, through the bars of the grate, so I through this gap, but I still see this other world, I already feel it, and yet there is already something and to whom to pray.
Some time later, through this gap, I suddenly clearly felt the smell of incense, at first weak - then stronger and stronger, and then I heard, at first weak, and then louder and louder the ringing of the censer ...
Looking through the crack, I saw an Ethiopian priest who was burning incense. A little later, I heard faint echoes of prayers, although strange, unusual and mournful to the ear, but still - it was a prayer!
Hooray! Someone is already praying, someone is no longer sleeping! Prayer, like incense, ascends to heaven. I am no longer alone in this desert. Some time later, to my great joy, a key rattled in the keyhole and the ancient door opened halfway with a great rattle - it simply could not do more due to its extreme dilapidation. After waiting for some time for decency, so as not to give the impression of a "burglar", I squeezed inside.
The Ethiopian, black as pitch and wrapped in a shawl up to his very nose, pretended to light a lamp or clean a candlestick behind an iron fence, but he did it so slowly and thoroughly that he obviously just watched me, again as a precaution; I don’t know, but he seemed to me just an angel from heaven ...
Inside, in this chapel, it was warmer, but not much, the walls and the high vaulted ceiling (exactly the 12th century) inside this Ethiopian chapel were so ancient, dilapidated and shabby, the plaster literally fell off the walls in huge pieces that I involuntarily thought that it was a building should look like if it has not been repaired for a thousand years, since the time of construction, since the 12th century ...
But here it didn't matter at all. Here the spiritual prevailed over the material, here everything was the opposite; here, material dilapidation emphasized spiritual strength, in contrast to the world, where material well-being emphasizes only the poverty of the spirit; here matter is completely neglected, because the spirit reigns here, here the physical laws of the world and the flesh do not operate, here there was a chapel of an ancient church (with access to the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher), although with a strange and unusual service for our ears, but still it was a church.
Here I felt at home.
Sitting down on a bench and finding a blanket in the corner - the same one that the Ethiopian had behind the iron fence - I threw it over my shoulders, it became much warmer, but now fatigue, spiritual and physical, had piled on, the uncertainty was felt even stronger.
It was already about 5 o'clock in the morning. It began to get light, and with the first light, all the night demons disappeared somewhere, only fatigue and tension remained in the idea of how many hours there are still to be spent here and how painfully slowly time drags on.
The sun gilded the roof of the Jerusalem Patriarchate with its first rays, and only then did I first see living, normal people on it, and not soldiers. They were women in black who stood and looked down, but apparently something prevented them from going down into the yard.
Then a bustling crowd of television men and photojournalists appeared, hung with cameras from head to toe, with a whole arsenal of all kinds of equipment.
They had something in common with the cops that dominated here until now - these, like those, fussily set up their cameras, pulled cables straight and everywhere they could and could not, smoked and casually chewed gum, just like as if they were preparing for the broadcast of a football match or a concert, and not for a miracle of the Lord.
Most of all NTV people fussed, now and then adjusting their cameras. But these were still living people, and not night soldiers.
Last year, TV screens were said to have been installed in the yard so that people who couldn't get inside could watch everything happening on the TV screen. This time, for some unknown reason, nothing of the kind was observed. A group of 5 believers finally broke through the roof, through the very doors where I was sitting, one of them said that he simply asked for the soldiers on the roof and they were let through. But why they missed only five and no one else, there was complete uncertainty about that.
These five took their place to the left of the temple doors, sitting humbly on chairs, all dressed in black, covering their faces with their hands, their eyes down. They represented a sharp contrast with the bustling and restless journalistic and soldier brethren. They were the only true believers here so far. They personified the world of the spirit - others - the world of the flesh, doing PR even on a miracle. Guys, what are you going to shoot here? I assure you that apart from the crowd you will not see anything here. The power of God is perfected in weakness. And the great miracle is not a Hollywood show with special effects, but the secret of faith, which takes place in the depths of the believing heart and is hidden from idle eyes. So it has always been, and so it will be now. And so it happened.
It was already about 9 o'clock - quite late to start crowd control; however, so far there was no one to control: they simply didn’t let anyone in, which was very unusual compared to previous years.
Suddenly, a heavy massive metal door opened, leading from the Church of the 40 Martyrs of Sebaste from the Patriarchate, and some woman ran out from behind it, an Israeli policeman was chasing her, trying to stop her, but she only brushed him off like an annoying fly, and calmly walked into the yard. All this looked more than strange.
There were already quite a lot of people on the square, but there weren’t any believers among them, again all the same policemen and television people. The doors of the temple were still closed, although it was past ten o'clock. Suddenly, two Greek priests in cassocks ran out from around the corner, looking rather confused and frightened. Seeing a brother, they rushed to me and began to explain that they needed to serve the liturgy in the church of St. Jacob and that they barely managed to get through the police cordons. I explained that someone had just passed through this iron door leading to the Patriarchate; together we approached and began to knock loudly on it. Indeed, a minute later the lock rattled and the door opened, the priests thanked and disappeared behind it, I remained in the yard.
After another 10 minutes, the same door opened again and a large group of Greek clergy, about 30 people, somehow timidly appeared from behind it. At that moment, there was a loud clatter of sticks on the pavement stones, announcing the arrival of a very important person. A long procession of Armenians appeared with their patriarch at the head, who solemnly carried in front of him on outstretched arms the keys to the doors of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The passing Armenians looked rather angrily at the Greek clergy, who modestly moved aside. Obviously, they long and stubbornly sought this right to be the first to enter the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and the excessively huge presence of police and soldiers can be attributed to their "merits". Going to the door, one of them put a ladder, climbed on it and took out the first seal, then the second, then they began to knock on the doors. The massive wooden door has round openings that open from the inside. So, before the arrival of the Armenian delegation, these holes opened up and I looked inside and saw that the temple inside was far from empty, as I was assured before, and that it was full of people, but I didn’t see a single ordinary person - there were only government officials people - all the same policemen.
The doors opened and the Armenian delegation went inside, followed by the Greek one. Suddenly there was a crush at the door, one of the main policemen created the most tension: he stood at the door and, shouting: “only priest, only priest ...,“ only priests ... ”, tried to push away these pathetic four old women who were sitting at the door and waited.
Everything in the temple was blocked off by police turnstiles. The Armenian delegation went to the left, the Greek - to the right from the stone of chrismation. It was almost impossible to move from one zone to another - when they saw a stranger, the Armenians immediately began to yell and angrily drove the stranger away.
Passing to the right, we immediately got through the door into the Greek Church of the Resurrection, which was also tightly blocked by police turnstiles, leaving only the central passage and two zones on the sides divided into three sectors.
But the most terrible thing was that, as I already said, not a single believer was visible in the temple, but crowds of police were swarming around. There were so many of them that it was just dazzling. They hung in clusters everywhere: on the patriarchal throne, on the metropolitan throne, on the altar, along the walls, on the floor, on all steps and even in the altar.
Some were with weapons (despite the fact that the Christian canon strictly forbids entering the temple with weapons), others without. But the main thing was not in this, but in the fact that in their whole appearance, in their movements, in facial expressions, in words, in deeds, in gestures - in everything there was a clear desecration of the holy place where they were, not only the absence respect, but also emphatic contempt and ridicule.
One of the submachine gunners chewed gum and defiantly blew big bubbles - well, just a typical American Yankee with its pseudo-culture and the complete absence of any moral and religious feelings. They behaved very rudely with the clergy, constantly pushing, chasing them from place to place and not letting them go anywhere. The feeling was terrible: as if all the shrines, icons and altars were covered with demons and demons who had gathered here for their demonic Sabbath. A clear violation of the order was the fact that the Kuvukliya of the Holy Sepulcher itself was not closed and sealed, but stood wide open in violation of the rules, and some strange people entered and left from there.
The temple began to gradually fill up, but these were mostly VIPs, all sorts of ministers and officials, generals hung with epaulettes, who came by individual special invitations (presenting their passports), as if to a theater show and occupied "the best seats in the stalls."
Going outside, I saw that the square in front of the temple was still empty, there were no ordinary people there: all the same soldiers, although it was already about 11 o'clock. Somewhere around 12, a Russian delegation of 500 people arrived.
First, Metropolitan Pitirim appeared in the main aisle, who had previously participated in the prayer for the peace of Jerusalem in the Patriarchate, he importantly tried to proceed to Kuvuklia, but was rather rudely stopped by the police and pushed aside; there they also set aside a place for the entire Russian delegation - in the far left sector from the altar of the Greek Church of the Resurrection.
Basically, the representatives of the Russian delegation were comrades with a very characteristic appearance: square and very well-fed, in impeccable Versace suits, with three chins and a beaver haircut, who even here, in the holiest place and at the holiest moment, preferred not to part with their mobile phones. and continued here, as if nothing had happened, vigorously discussing their business problems with Moscow via cellular communication: loan interest, purchases, sales, privatization agreements ...
How Russian people want to boo, here to show and prove to everyone that we are not like everyone else. In addition, they say, in the most holy place at the most holy moment, suddenly all the abominations of a person come out - and so this spectacle was even more disgusting than the spectacle of a police coven.
Both of them clearly had something in common: a common approach to life - matter determines being, being determines consciousness ... etc., etc., and other consequences of a long but brief study of a brief course of history, history of life of Russia ...
Especially still it is necessary to tell about TV people. Their cameras were stuck everywhere, two or three stationary and dozens of portable ones, powerful spotlights shone right in the eyes; Dozens of searchlights, poked everywhere, blinded the eyes, and for some reason, some kind of wire was stretched right under the dome of Kuvuklia.
In such a society and in such an environment, the expectation of a great miracle was not the most pleasant, but there was simply no other.
But no, I was wrong, there was clearly the presence of the One who created heaven and earth, and who brought his people out of Egyptian slavery. His presence is only hidden from the idle eye. Raising my eyes to the sky, I suddenly saw three doves under the dome of the Church of the Resurrection, flying there from nowhere and how. They hovered under the dome and a bright ray of sun cut through the entire space from top to bottom. There were exactly three pigeons, and then they disappeared just as suddenly as they appeared. At twenty minutes to an hour the first blow of the bell rang out, announcing that the Patriarch of Jerusalem was approaching the temple. Exactly at one o'clock, the Patriarch entered the temple with the clatter of sticks on stones and slowly began to approach the altar, making his own way through the huge crowd. Oddly enough, the police (for which they actually were gathered here) this time did not help him, but only hindered him. However, it is not difficult to guess who she helped and who she worked for. There was also a huge crowd at the altar, and it was also very difficult for the Patriarch to break through it, but he nevertheless made his way there and there they began to dress him in all the patriarchal vestments. Here, delegations of Copts, Ethiopians and other churches proceeded to the altar, asking for blessings from the Patriarch of the holy city of Jerusalem.
Finally, the Patriarch was dressed in all the patriarchal vestments and slowly began to move towards Kuvuklia, preceded by many banners and chanters, and with priests in white vestments behind.
Edicule by this time had already been sealed. This was very difficult for him, he was pale and concentrated in himself. On four sides he was surrounded by four gallant Greek guards in very beautiful clothes of bird colors, like the Swiss guards. The shouting and noise in the temple continued and grew. Loudly they shouted something like "freedom to Jerusalem", judging by the way the Israeli police rushed about.
The patriarch walked around Kuvuklia three times with banners and priests and stopped at the entrance. The patriarch began to be exposed. The miter, staff, sakkos, stole, club, handrails - the priests took to the altar. The tension grew and seemed to reach a climax. The screaming and noise were unimaginable. Usually, after the Patriarch enters Kuvukliya, deathly silence sets in, and intense prayerful expectation seems to drag on for an eternity. This time it was different. This time there was a feeling that the Holy Fire could descend even before the Patriarch entered Kuvuklia, that he was already here.
Here a scuffle broke out between one priest and a policeman, apparently because he pushed him too roughly, they shouted at each other for quite some time. Scream and noise and individual exclamations, shouting about something, were heard from everywhere. It was thought that, in such a vile atmosphere of fuss, screaming, fighting, running around, screaming, drumming, idle looks, disbelief, rejection, denial, doubt, lack of faith, hesitation, how in such an environment the greatest of miracles can be performed, planned and annually performed? Yes, all this is true, but after all, the incarnation of the Son of God in itself was an act of this incomprehensible, greatest humility of God, condescension to the fallen human nature, to the nature of fallen man distorted by sin. The roaring and screaming crowd is the symbol of this fallen world of the bottom, to which, humbling Itself, the grace of God descends in order to sanctify and save it - only in this way, through humility, lies the path to salvation.
And the Lord Himself shows the first example of this most saving humility in His miracle of the Holy Fire. The Holy Fire cannot descend. If he does not descend, this will already mean the coming of the Antichrist. They say that the expectation of the Holy Fire is from 10 minutes to an hour, and that at this time a person, as it were, lives his whole life. This time the wait didn't last more than a minute.
The patriarch entered Kuvuklia. I looked at the clock: it was exactly 2 o'clock. As soon as he entered, all the bells of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher struck such a tense, heart-rending prayer alarm, which I had never heard before or since.
The ringing was such that the glass trembled. At the same moment, all the electric spotlights and many other lamps instantly went out, as if someone's powerful hand had turned off the switch. This was indeed the case, because no one (of the people) turned off the electricity, it went out by itself.
It was an obvious miracle. A few moments later, the Patriarch appeared at the door of Kuvuklia with a bunch of burning candles. He shone all over, and it was as if light emanated from him.
An explosion of jubilation, along with fire, quickly spread from Kuvuklia - all eyes were turned there and almost no one noticed how the fire went from the other side. When I looked at the altar of the Church of the Resurrection a few moments later, I saw that all the Greek priests standing at the altar already had bunches of candles burning brightly even before the fire from Kuvuklia reached them. And the priest in vestments stood on the high place of the altar with two brightly blazing bunches of candles in his hands raised high - apparently, his candles flared up along with the Patriarch, but in the altar of the Church of the Resurrection.
This was the second miracle. Patriarch Irenaeus returned to the altar with bunches of burning candles, the whole temple instantly flared up with fire that does not burn, an explosion of jubilation and delight to the sound of bells, the whole temple was instantly filled with smoke to the very dome, and only a bright ray of the sun cut through it.
There was something unearthly and sublime in this.
Priest Oleg Viflyantsev (based on materials from the Holy Fire website)
THE MIRACLE OF THE Descent of the Holy Fire (1855, 1859 and 1982).
This is a miracle happens every year, before Orthodox Easter, in the Resurrection Church in Jerusalem.
This miracle, unique in its magnitude in the history of Christendom, takes place every year. Recall: the miracle of the convergence of fire takes place in an Orthodox church, on Orthodox Easter, celebrated according to the Orthodox, old style, when the Orthodox patriarch performs the service. The attempt of the Catholicos Bishop to receive the Holy Fire ended in failure, or rather, the punishment of the Lord: the sacred fire did not descend inside the temple, but lightning struck a column near the temple, scorching it from the inside and splitting it. No one else from the non-Orthodox dared to illegally receive the sacred fire.
This miracle is performed in the Church of the Resurrection of the Lord, in Jerusalem. The fire descends by itself, from God - not ignited by any person, neither by matches, nor by lighters, nor by other human inventions. For this song, the patriarch is specially checked before entering, and carefully, by the Gentiles.
The descending fire is called grace-filled, because it brings with it grace from God - the grace that sanctifies a person, frees from sins, heals diseases, gives talents and spiritual gifts. The Greeks call this fire the holy light: hagiosfotos. The first moments this fire does not scorch, does not burn, then it becomes ordinary, spontaneous.
The descent of the sacred fire is described by different eyewitnesses who lived in different centuries in a very similar way, with minor differences that only complement each other. For if their descriptions were identical, there would be a suspicion that one is copying from the other.
The Bible says: “in the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word will stand,” that is, two or three witnesses are needed for reliability.
So we, for comparison and perfect reliability, will give descriptions of two eyewitnesses of the convergence of fire, one who lived in the 19th century, the other in the 20th century.
In 1859, Mrs. Varvara (B. d. S.-I.) was present at the descent of the Holy Fire and described this miracle in a letter to her spiritual father Abbot Anthony.
On Great Saturday in the Feodorovsky Monastery, early in the morning, all the nuns and pilgrims tied small colorful candles into bundles so that each bundle consisted of 33 candles - in memory of the number of Christ's years.
At 10 o'clock in the morning, after the liturgy, our Orthodox on the tomb of the Lord extinguished the lamps, and in the church all the candles. (The Holy Sepulcher is the burial place of our Lord Jesus Christ, a former crypt, and now a chapel).
In the whole city, and even in the circumference, not a spark of fire remained. Only in the homes of Catholics, Jews and Protestants the fire did not go out. Even the Turks follow the Orthodox and on this day they come to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. I saw their children holding bundles of candles and spoke to them through an interpreter. There were also adults with children.
At 12 noon, the doors of the temple are open, and the cathedral is full of people. All without exception, old and young, go to the Church of the Resurrection of the Lord. Through the crowd of people, we hardly made our way there. All five tiers of choirs were full of pilgrims, and even on the walls, where it was possible to hold on somehow, there were Arabs everywhere. One drew special attention to himself: he sat down on the handle of a large candelabra in front of the icon and yourself kneel your daughter, seven years old. Bedouins with shaved heads, women with money strung on their heads and on their noses and covered with white veils, with children of different ages, ran into the temple from the mountains. Everyone fussed and bustled, impatiently waiting for the blessed fire. Turkish soldiers stood between the pilgrims and calmed the worried Arabs with their guns.
Catholic monks and Jesuits looked at all this with curiosity, among them was our Russian Prince Gagarin, who converted 18 years ago to the Latin Church. The royal gates were open, and the highest clergy of all Christian denominations could be seen there. [The Resurrection Cathedral is the only place on earth where representatives of all faiths are present together, as an exception to the rule, which nevertheless confirms the rule: you cannot pray with heretics].
For the first time, the Patriarch of Jerusalem happened to be present here - in previous years he lived in Constantinople. However, his viceroy, Metropolitan Peter Meletius, was in charge of the altar, and he himself received the Holy Fire. From Sunday (the week of Vay), the Metropolitan did not eat anything except prosphora, and did not even allow yourself drink water; from this he was paler than usual, however, he calmly spoke with the clergy.
Everyone had a bunch of candles in their hands, and others who stood in the choirs lowered several such bunches on wires and these bunches hung along the walls to receive heavenly fire. All the lamps are filled with oil, there are new candles in the chandeliers: the wicks are nowhere burned. Gentiles with incredulity carefully wipe all the corners in the Kuvukliya [kuvukliya - the place of the Holy Sepulcher where the body of Christ lay], and they themselves put cotton wool on the marble board of the Holy Sepulcher.
The solemn moment is approaching, everyone's heart beats involuntarily. Everyone is focused on the thought of the supernatural, but some have doubts, others, the pious, pray with the hope of God's mercy, while others, who have come out of curiosity, indifferently wait for what will happen.
Here a ray of the sun flashed through the hole above the cuvuklia. The weather is clear and hot. Suddenly a cloud appeared and blocked the sun. I was afraid that there would be no more Holy Fire and that the people would tear the Metropolitan to pieces out of vexation. Doubt darkened my heart, I began to reproach myself, why did I stay, why was it necessary to expect an unrealizable phenomenon? As I thought about it, I became more and more worried. Suddenly everything in the church went dark. I felt sad to the point of tears; I prayed earnestly... The Arabs began to shout, sing, beat their breasts, pray aloud, raise their hands to the sky; kavas and Turkish soldiers began to appease them. The picture was terrible, general anxiety!
Meanwhile, in the altar, they began to clothe the Metropolitan - not without the participation of the Gentiles in this. The Clear helps him to put on the silver surplice, girds him with a silver cord, puts on his shoes; all this is done in the presence of the Armenian, Roman and Protestant clergy. Having dressed, they lead him arm in arm with a bare head between two walls of soldiers, preceded by smart kavass, to the door of the Kuvuklia and lock the door behind him. Kuvukliya is empty, it is preliminarily searched).
And here he is alone at the tomb of the Lord. Silence again. A cloud of dew descends on the people. I also got it on my white batiste dress.
In anticipation of fire from the sky, everything is silent, but not for long. Again anxiety, shouting, rushing about, praying; those who are worried are again appeased. Our mission was on the pulpit above the royal gates: I could see the reverent expectation of His Grace Cyril. I also looked at Prince Gagarin, who was standing in the crowd. His face expressed sadness, he gazed intently at the cuvuklia. In the front room, on both sides of the cuvuklia, there are round holes in the walls, through which the abbots and abbots of the surrounding monasteries serve candles to His Eminence Viceroy (Metropolitan).
Suddenly, a bunch of lighted candles appears from a side hole... In an instant, Archimandrite Seraphim passes the candles to the people. At the top of the cuvuklia, everything is lit: lamps, chandeliers. Everyone shouts, rejoices, crosses themselves, weeps for joy, hundreds, thousands of candles transmit light one to another ... Arabs burn their beards, Arab women bring fire to their naked necks. [They scorch their beards - that is, they wash their beards with fire, passing the burning flame of candles through the hair of the beard from below, - after all, the first minutes the fire does not burn and does not scorch either the skin or the hair. - Comp.]. In crowded places fire permeates the crowds; but there was no occasion for a fire to break out. The general delight cannot be described: this is an indescribable miracle. After the sun - immediately a cloud, then dew and fire. The dew falls on the cotton wool, which lies on the tomb of the Lord, and the wet cotton wool suddenly ignites with a blue flame. The viceroy touches the cotton wool with unburned candles - and the candles are lit with a dull bluish flame. The viceroy passes the candles lit in this way to the persons standing at the holes. It is remarkable that at first from such a multitude of candles in the church - half light; faces are not visible; the whole crowd is in some kind of blue fog. But then everything is illuminated and the fire burns brightly. Having passed the fire to everyone, the governor comes out of the cuvuklia with two huge bunches of lit candles, as with torches.
The Arabs, as usual, wanted to carry him in their arms, but Vladyka evaded them and himself, as if in a fog, walked with quick steps from the Kuvuklia to the altar of the Resurrection Church. Everyone tried to light his candle from his candles. I was in the way of his procession and also lit it. He seemed transparent; he was all in white; inspiration burned in his eyes: the people saw him as a messenger from heaven. Everyone wept for joy. But now, an indistinct rumble passed among the people.
Unintentionally, I looked at Prince Gagarin - his tears were flowing in a hail and his face was shining with joy. Yesterday he extolled the advantages of the Roman confession, but today, amazed at the effect of heavenly grace, bestowed only on Orthodoxy, he sheds tears. Is this not the late fruit of repentance?
The patriarch accepted the viceroy into his arms. And the Bedouins, in wild delight, gather in a circle and dance in the middle of the church, beside themselves with joy, stand on each other's shoulders, sing and pray until they fall exhausted. Nobody stops them.
Mass followed, after which everyone runs to light the lamps: some go home, some go to Elijah the Prophet, to the Holy Cross Monastery, some go to Bethlehem, some go to Gethsemane. The lights on the streets during the day, in the sunlight - an extraordinary sight! His Eminence, Viceroy Peter Meletius said that for 30 years now, God has been worthy of him to receive heavenly fire:
- Now grace has already descended, on the tomb of the Lord, when I ascended into the Kuvukliya: it is clear that you all prayed earnestly, and God heard your prayers. And it happened that I prayed for a long time with tears, and the fire of God did not descend from heaven until two o'clock in the afternoon. And this time I already saw him, as soon as they locked the door behind me! Has the dew fallen on you?
I replied that even now traces of dew were still visible on my dress, like wax stains. "They will remain forever," said Vladyka. This is true: I gave the dress to be washed 12 times, but the stains are still the same.
I asked what Vladyka felt when he left the Kuvukliya, and why did he walk so quickly? “I was like a blind man, I didn’t see anything,” he answered, “and if they hadn’t supported me, I would have fallen!” This was noticeable: his eyes did not seem to look, although they were open.
This is the summary of the letter of Mrs. Barbara B. de S.-I. In this description, one should especially pay attention to the fact that there is not one miracle, but two: in addition to the blessed fire, the blessed dew also descends from the blessed cloud. This is confirmed by another eyewitness, the monk Parthenios from Mount Athos. He says this: after the patriarch leaves the tomb of the Lord, “the people rush inside the tomb of the Lord to kiss; and I [Monk Parthenius] was honored to venerate. The entire tomb of Christ was wet, supposedly soaked in rain; but I couldn't find out why. In the middle of the tomb of the Lord stood that great lamp, which itself lit up, and burned with great light. (M., 1855, monk Parthenius).
And here is what an eyewitness says about the blessed fire that descended in 1982.
The time is 10 o'clock, there are four hours left until the Holy Fire.
They have already sealed the doors of the Kuvuklia, put a seal of wax. The Arabs are now in procession.
Noise, screams, music. Arabs turn to God very violently, with a southern temperament. Patriarch Diodorus is walking past us. In a few minutes, the patriarch will enter the tomb of the Lord in one chiton. At the door of the Coffin are a Coptic and an Armenian. They will stand as witnesses to the receiving of the blessed fire.
On this day, every Orthodox Christian, every believer tries to come to the Church of the Resurrection. Pilgrims come from different countries. The patriarch has already entered the Kuvukliya, now he will pray for the sending of the Holy Fire. ... The Holy Fire descended unusually quickly this year.
Screams, noise, crying. Everyone lights candles with blessed fire, stretches out candles, hundreds of hands are visible, and the whole temple seems to be lit, there are lights all around, huge bunches of candles, 2-3 bunches in each hand. The whole temple is illuminated.
Leaving the temple, we see: all the streets of Jerusalem are crowded with people, everyone carries the Holy Fire.
Here are the stories of some of the sisters after the convergence of the fire.
I saw fire around the cuvuklia and around the dome of the temple, in the form of triangular lightning.
Experiencing joy, some sisters wept, even sobbed around me when the blessed fire descended.
And there were Russians from Belgium near me. "Hooray!" they shouted.
Who has joy, who has tears. In general, there is no such mood as in our church in Russia. What a merciful Lord: after all, they are swearing nearby, and the police are separating someone, anything can happen ... but grace descends, everyone can see it equally.
The sisters say that grace still manifests itself after the first descent, after the fire.
I see it sparkles again above the Kuvukliya, around the Kuvukliya lightning in such zigzags, then it sparkles there, then on the very dome of the Kuvukliya ... Suddenly a ball appeared (like ball lightning). At some point, it suddenly fell apart, flashing in a zigzag. Immediately we all jumped up: grace! What a miracle.
We are all waiting. Suddenly everyone whistled, I look, right on the image of the Resurrected blue ball descended. And the patriarch comes out, he has already received the Holy Fire.
We come to Golgotha, suddenly the whole temple will shine again, and again grace is on Golgotha!
When I first came here, I was told that grace heals. My hands were so ill with rheumatism, they were all twisted. “Lord,” I think, “I will put my hands on the Light, directly on grace.” And grace is warm and does not bake. I apply and feel, the Lord gave me consolation, - for joy I don’t remember what, hot or cold fire. And with such joy I walked to the mission building, I didn’t feel anything, whether there was an illness or not, but there was only such joy in my soul that you couldn’t convey it. I did not know for joy what to do, cry or scream.
So, the testimonies of different centuries unambiguously converge: the Holy Fire happens every year. But the miracle is not one, but two: in addition to fire, there is also dew from the cloud. And the blessed fire accompanies the manifestation of lightning, not only inside the Kuvuklia, but also outside it, outside the Church of the Resurrection and in other sacred places in Jerusalem, consecrated by the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ there.
(According to the materials of the book: “The Holy Fire over the Holy Sepulcher”, Mzdatelstvo “Perese em", Moscow, 1991).
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THE MIRACLE OF THE HOLY FIRE |
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Directly above the burial cave of the Savior since ancient times there is a special chapel - Cuvuklia. The word "Edicule" means "royal bedchamber". To designate a tomb, this word is used in the only place on earth - in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where the "King of kings and Lord of lords" was laid for a three-day sleep. Here He is risen, the firstborn from the dead, opening the way to the Resurrection for all of us. Modern Edicule is a chapel about eight meters long and six meters wide, located under the vaults of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. As in the gospel times, the Holy Sepulcher, the Holy Tomb, currently consists of two rooms: a small “burial chamber” 2.07x1.93 meters, almost half occupied by a stone bed - arcosalium, and an entrance room (room), called the chapel of the Angel , measuring 3.4x3.9 meters. In the middle of the chapel of the Angel there is a pedestal with a part of the sacred stone, which was rolled away at one time from the Holy Tomb by the Angel and on which he sat, addressing the myrrh-bearing women. The modern Church of the Holy Sepulcher is a huge architectural complex, including Golgotha with the place of the Crucifixion, the rotunda - an architectural structure with a huge dome, under which is directly located Kuvuklia, Katholikon, or the Cathedral Church, which is the cathedral for the Patriarchs of Jerusalem, the underground Church of the Finding of the Life-Giving Cross, the Church of the Holy Helena Equal-to-the-Apostles, several aisles - small temples with their own thrones. On the territory of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher there are several active monasteries, it includes many auxiliary premises, galleries, etc. Moreover, various parts of the Temple belong to several Christian denominations. For example, the Franciscan church and the altar of nails - to the Catholic Order of St. Francis, Church of Helena Equal-to-the-Apostles, chapel of the "Three Marys" - the Armenian Apostolic Church, the grave of St. Joseph of Arimathea, an altar on the western part of Kuvuklia - the Ethiopian (Coptic) church. But the main shrines - Golgotha, Kuvukliya, Kafolikon, as well as the general management of services in the Temple, belong to the Jerusalem Orthodox Church. From the time that Jerusalem began to belong to Orthodox Christians, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher has been located within the city, surrounded by a high square wall under Sultan Suleiman; the length of each of the four sides is exactly one kilometer. From ancient times it is known about the Miracle of the descent of the Holy Fire on the Holy Sepulcher. The descended Fire has a unique property: it does not burn the first minutes. Commanding the Fire to descend, the Lord testifies of His Resurrection. According to the testimony of St. Fathers, Apostle Peter. Having run to the Sepulcher after the news of the Resurrection of the Savior, he, in addition to the funeral sheets, as we read in the Gospel, saw an amazing light inside the Sepulcher of Christ. “Having seen this, Peter believed, he saw not only with sensual eyes, but also with a high apostolic mind: the Tomb of light was filled, so that although it was night, he saw it in two images: internally, sensually and spiritually.” This is how St. Gregory of Nyssa informs us about this. The earliest written testimony of an eyewitness to the appearance of the Holy Fire on the Holy Sepulcher dates back to the 4th century and was preserved by the church historian Eusebius Pamphilus. Although according to many, both ancient and modern evidence, the appearance of the blessed light can be observed in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher throughout the year, the most famous and impressive is the miraculous descent of the Holy Fire on the eve of the Feast of the Holy Resurrection of Christ, on Great Saturday. Throughout almost the entire time of the existence of Christianity, this miraculous phenomenon has been observed annually by both Orthodox Christians and representatives of other Christian denominations (Catholics, Armenians, Copts, etc.), as well as representatives of other non-Christian religions. To see the miracle of the descent of the Holy Fire, people have been gathering at the Holy Sepulcher since Good Friday; many people stay here immediately after the procession, which is performed in memory of the events of this day. The very descent of the Holy Fire takes place on Great Saturday afternoon. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher is filled in such a way that on Saturday morning people stand close to each other, even in the most remote places of the Temple. Those who did not get inside the Temple fill the area and the entire nearby territory. According to the most conservative estimates, the capacity of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is up to 20 thousand people, the area around the Temple and the immediate surroundings of the Temple can accommodate another 50 thousand people. On Holy Saturday, both the Temple, and the square in front of the Temple, and the immediate surroundings are filled with people awaiting the descent of the Holy Fire. So it was, according to the descriptions of Russian pilgrims, one hundred, two hundred, and nine hundred years ago. One of the most ancient descriptions of the descent of the Holy Fire belongs to Father Superior Daniel, who visited the Holy Tomb in 1106-1107. Here is how he describes the event: “And when it was seven o'clock on the Sabbath day [about 12-13 o'clock modern time. - Auth.], King Baldwin went [The temple at that time belonged to the Crusaders. - Auth.] with his army to the Holy Sepulcher from his house, everyone went on foot. The king sent messengers to the courtyard of the monastery of Savva the Sanctified and called the hegumen and the monks, they went to the Sepulcher, and I, thin, went with them. We came to the king and bowed to him. Then he also bowed to the abbot and all the monks and ordered the abbot of the Savva monastery and me, thin, to go near him, and ordered the other abbots and all the monks to go in front of him, and ordered his army to go behind. And they came to the western doors of the Temple of the Resurrection [The temple in those days looked different from the modern one. - Auth.]. And many people surrounded the church doors and could not then enter the Temple. Then King Baldwin ordered his soldiers to disperse the people by force, and a road was laid among the crowd, like a street, to the very Coffin. We went to the eastern doors of the Holy Sepulcher, the king went ahead and took his place, on the right side at the fence of the great altar, opposite the eastern doors and the doors of the Sepulcher. Here was the place of the king, created on a dais. The king commanded the abbot of the Savva monastery with his monks and Orthodox priests to stand over the Sepulcher. But he ordered me, thin, to be placed high above the very doors of the Tomb, opposite the great altar, so that I could see through the doors of the tomb. The doors are tomb, all three [in modern Edicule one. - Auth.], were sealed with the royal seal. Catholic priests stood in the great altar. And as the eighth hour of the day came, the Orthodox priests began the service at the top of the Sepulcher, there were all the spiritual men, and many hermits. The Catholics in the great altar began to squeal in their own way. So they all sang, and I stood there and diligently looked at the doors of the tomb. And as they began to read paroemias of Great Saturday, at the first reading of paroemias the bishop with a deacon came out of the great altar, went to the doors of the tomb, looked into the Sepulcher through the sacrum of the doors, did not see the light in the Sepulcher and returned back. And as they began to read the sixth proverb, the same bishop went up to the doors of the tomb and saw nothing. Then all the people cried out with tears: "Kyrie, eleison!" - which means "Lord, have mercy!". And when the ninth hour had passed and they began to sing the passage song “Let us sing to the Lord,” then suddenly a small cloud came from the east and stood over the uncovered top of the Temple, a slight rain fell over the Tomb and very wet us standing at the Tomb. Then suddenly a light shone in the Holy Sepulcher, a bright brilliance emanated from the Sepulcher. The bishop came with four deacons, opened the doors of the tomb, took a candle from King Baldwin, entered the Tomb, lit the royal candle first from the light of the saint, took this candle out of the Tomb and handed it to the king himself. The king stood up in his place, holding a candle with great joy. From the king's candle we lit our candles, and from our candles all the people lit their candles. The light of the saint is not the same as earthly fire, but wonderful, it glows differently, its flame is red, like cinnabar, glows indescribably. Almost the same procedure is going on now. Only the modern Temple does not have a hole in the dome; the Israeli police and Turkish guards replaced the knightly guards. The entrance to the modern Temple is not from the east, but from the south, and Catholics now do not participate in the descent of the Holy Fire, but are present at the same time. Both historical and contemporary practice testify that three groups of participants must be present during the descent of Fire. First of all, the Patriarch of the Jerusalem Orthodox Church or one of the bishops of the Jerusalem Patriarchate with his blessing (as was the case in 1999 and 2000, when the Keeper of the Sepulcher, Metropolitan Daniel, received the Fire). Only through the prayers of this obligatory participant in the sacrament of the Holy Fire, the miracle of his descent is performed. This is an experience that has been proven over the centuries. In 1578, when the Turkish mayor of Jerusalem was replaced, the Armenian priests agreed with the new mayor to transfer the right to receive the Holy Fire instead of the Jerusalem Orthodox Patriarch to a representative of the Armenian Church. The Orthodox Patriarch with the clergy in 1579 on Holy Saturday was not even allowed into the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. They stood in front of the closed doors of the Temple from the outside. The Armenian clergy entered Kuvukliya and began to pray to the Lord for the descent of Fire. But their prayers were not answered. Orthodox priests standing at the closed doors of the Temple also turned to the Lord with prayers. Suddenly, a noise was heard, the column, located to the left of the closed doors of the Temple, cracked, Fire came out of it and lit candles in the hands of the Jerusalem Patriarch. With great joy, the Orthodox priesthood entered the Temple (the Turks immediately expelled the Armenian priests from Kuvuklia) and glorified the Lord. Traces of the convergence of Fire can still be seen on one of the columns located to the left of the entrance. Since 1579, no one has challenged or made an attempt to receive the Holy Fire bypassing the Jerusalem Orthodox Patriarch. Representatives of other Christian denominations are always present in the Temple on Holy Saturday, but they receive the Fire from the hands of the Orthodox Patriarch. Mandatory participants in the sacrament of the descent of the Holy Fire are the hegumen and the monks of the Lavra of St. Savva the Sanctified. Of all the ancient monasteries of the Judean Desert, which once flourished with great ascetics, only this Lavra has survived in its original form, seventeen kilometers from Jerusalem, in the Kidron Valley, not far from the Dead Sea. In 614, during the invasion of Shah Khasroy, the Persians killed fourteen thousand monks here. In the modern monastery there are fourteen monks, including two Russians. But the presence of the abbot of the monastery with the monks was obligatory both during the pilgrimage of abbot Daniel, and during the descent of Fire in modern times. And finally, the third group of obligatory participants are the local Orthodox Arabs. On Holy Saturday - twenty to thirty minutes after the sealing of Kuvukliya - shouting, stomping, drumming on top of each other bursts into the Temple and starts singing and dancing Arab Orthodox youth. There is no evidence of the time when this ritual was established. The exclamations and songs of the Arab youth are ancient prayers in Arabic addressed to Christ and the Mother of God, Who is asked to beg the Son to send down Fire, to George the Victorious, especially revered in the Orthodox East. Young Orthodox Arabs loudly exclaim, literally shout out that they are "the most eastern, the most Orthodox, living where the sun rises, bringing candles with them to kindle the Fire." According to oral tradition, during the years of British rule over Jerusalem (1918-1947), the English governor once tried to ban "savage" dances. The Patriarch of Jerusalem prayed for two hours: The fire did not come down. Then the Patriarch ordered his will to let the Arab youth. After they performed the ritual, the Fire descended. All three of these groups necessarily take part in the modern litany of the Holy Fire. In our time, the descent of the Holy Fire occurs on Great Saturday, usually between 13 and 15 hours of Jerusalem time. Somewhere by ten o'clock in the afternoon of Holy Saturday, all candles and lamps in the entire huge architectural complex of the Temple are extinguished. After that, there is a procedure for checking Kuvuklia for the presence of sources of fire and sealing the entrance to Kuvukliya with a large wax seal. Representatives of the Jerusalem mayor's office, Turkish guards, Israeli police, etc., who carried out the check, put their personal seals on a large wax seal. Then you become a witness to a miraculous phenomenon. At first, occasionally, and then more and more strongly, the entire air space of the Temple is pierced by flashes of light, flashes of light. They have a bluish color, their brightness and size increase in waves. A short time after the sealing of Kuvuklia, young Orthodox Arabs, as already mentioned, begin to offer their prayers to Christ, the Most Holy Theotokos, St. George for the bestowal of the Holy Fire. Their emotional prayers, exclamations and dances, accompanied by drum beats, take place directly at Kuvuklia for 20-30 minutes. After some time, as a rule, about thirteen hours, the litany (in Greek, “prayer procession”) of the Holy Fire begins directly - a procession from the altar of the Katholikon through the entire Temple with access to the rotunda and a three-fold bypass of Kuvuklia. Ahead are banner-bearers with twelve banners, followed by youths with ripids, a crusader cleric and, finally, His Beatitude Patriarch of Jerusalem himself. The abbot with the monks of the monastery of Savva the Sanctified also participate in the procession. The patriarch stops at the very entrance to Kuvuklia, they expose him: they take off his festive robes, leave him in one white undershirt. At the same time, sometimes the Patriach is searched. Although this is not mandatory every time, representatives of the authorities can use this right every time, which was often done in the past. It depends on the order of the direct authorities of Jerusalem: if the ruler hates Christians, they can search. Only in one vestment does the Patriarch enter Cuvuklia. Now everything depends on him, on his secret kneeling prayer. The tension reaches a climax, many of those gathered feel that because of their sins the Great Miracle may not happen. After the Patriarch enters Kuvuklia, the intensity and frequency of bluish flashes of light increases. Bluish lightning strikes with Greek “tricks”) [In Moscow, a certain hegumen of an indefinite denomination, Innokenty Pavlov, also believes that there is no miracle of the descent of the Holy Fire, but that “the Patriarch of Jerusalem simply lights a candle from a lamp and then gives it to the faithful.” - Approx. ed.], and in the last almost fifty years, the Jews have been participating both in the sealing of Kuvuklia and in the search of the Jerusalem Patriarch. Little needs to be said about the possibility of fraud. The fact is that the very land on which the Temple is built belongs to a Turkish family. An interesting ritual takes place every morning: the priests standing in front of the main gate await the opening of the Temple, hand over the rent established a long time ago, and after that, accompanied by members of the Turkish family, they go to the Temple. Any procession in the Temple, for example, the Easter procession around Kuvuklia, is accompanied by kavas - Turks guarding the processions from the provocations of Muslims and Jews. Before entering the Edicule of the Jerusalem Patriarch, it stands sealed, under the supervision of two Turkish guards and the Israeli police. On Great Saturday, as already mentioned, before entering Kuvuklia, the Patriarch undresses and is carefully searched, although not always. The safety of the seal on the entrance doors of Kuvuklia is checked before the entrance of the Patriarch of Jerusalem with the Armenian High Priest. To receive the Fire, two enter Kuvuklia - the Patriarch of Jerusalem and a representative of the Armenian Church. The representative of the Armenian Church, who, together with the Patriarch of Jerusalem, enters Kuvukliya to receive the Fire, remaining in the chapel of the Angel, sees all the actions and has the opportunity to intervene. Given the almost two thousand years of interest of non-Christian participants in this Great Miracle in exposing and disrupting at least one descent of the Holy Fire, the version of forgery can only cause a smile among people living in Jerusalem. Even Muslim Arabs, who consider it necessary to bring the Holy Fire home, any argument about forgery will be considered a deception. They have a legend that in the year when the Holy Fire does not descend, the end of the world will come. The question of how the Holy Fire descends on the three-day bed of the Savior has long been of interest to the inquisitive. There is direct evidence of the painting of the burning of the Holy Fire. In the message of Aretha, Metropolitan of Caesarea of Cappadocia, to the Emir of Damascus (beginning of the 10th century), it is written: “Then suddenly lightning appears, and censers are kindled, all the inhabitants of Jerusalem take from this light and light a fire.” The cleric of Constantinople Nikita wrote (947): “About the sixth hour of the day, looking at the Divine Tomb of the Savior, the Archbishop sees the Divine light: for through the chapel of the Angel, the entrance to the door is available to him. Having seized the time to transmit this light to the polycandiles who are in the holy church of God, as he usually does, he had not yet stepped out of the Sepulcher, as it was already possible to suddenly see the whole church of God, filled with incomparable and Divine light. Trifon Korobeinikov wrote (1583): “And then all people see the grace of God, which came from heaven to the Holy Sepulcher, the fire walking on the board of the Holy Sepulcher like lightning and everyone sees a color in it: the Patriarch approaches the Sepulcher, holding the candles open the Sepulcher, and will bring down fire from the Holy Sepulcher on the patriarchal hands and on the candles. At the same time, the Christian censers themselves were kindled, even over the Holy Sepulcher. Hieromonk Meletios, who made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1793-1794, relates the story of the descent of Fire from the words of Archbishop Misail, Bishop of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, who received the Fire for many years. “When I entered,” he said, “inside to the holy Sepulcher, we see a shining light on the entire lid of the Tomb, like scattered small beads, in the form of blue, white, scarlet and other flowers, which then, copulating, blushed and transformed over time into the substance of fire; but this fire, in the course of time, as soon as it is possible to read slowly forty times "Lord, have mercy", does not burn, and from this fire the prepared kandila and candles are lit. All the sources cited report either the condensation of liquid small drops of “fire beads” directly on the bed-arkosalia of the Holy Sepulcher with the existing dome over the Cuvuklia, or the fall of raindrops over the Cuvuklia and the presence of “small beads” on the lid of the Holy Sepulcher due to rain when the dome of the Temple is open and about bluish flashes - lightning, preceding the descent of the Holy Fire. Both of these phenomena simultaneously take place during the kneeling prayer of the Patriarch of Jerusalem and at the present time. His prayer leads to the kindling of the Holy Fire from small drops of liquid in the presence of flashes - lightning; at the same time, the wicks of candles or lamps on the lid of the Holy Sepulcher are spontaneously ignited. It is also possible to light the wicks of Orthodox lamps hanging near Kuvuklia. So it was almost two thousand years ago, according to the descriptions of eyewitnesses, this is how the miracle of the descent of the Holy Fire is being performed according to the descriptions of eyewitnesses at the present time. Our Lord Jesus Christ commands the Fire to ignite from the droplets of “rain” on the lid of the Holy Tomb or on the wick of the Orthodox lamp near the Kuvuklia, through the prayer of the Jerusalem Patriarch, as if reminding us sinners every year on Holy Saturday of His Resurrection and victory over hell. But sinful people differently perceive the fact of the descent of the Holy Fire. To those who seek and doubt, the Lord bears witness to the truth of His Resurrection precisely at this place in Jerusalem in the Gospel times and strengthens them in faith. To those who are indifferent and not striving for their own salvation and eternal life, he bears witness to His Resurrection and the coming Dread Judgment. He testifies to His conscious opponents of His victory over hell and eternal torment awaiting all His opponents after the Last Judgment. Accordingly, different religions interpret the fact of the descent of Fire in different ways. Almost all Christian denominations (including Catholics before the Great Schism of 1054 - that is, before the separation of Catholicism from Orthodoxy - who took an active part directly in the litany) are present in the Temple and receive the Holy Fire from the hands of the Patriarch of Jerusalem. Muslims are not officially present in the Temple, but they do not deny the fact of the descent of the Holy Fire, revering our Savior Jesus Christ as one of their Prophets. Deny the fact of the descent of the Holy Fire, as well as the fact of the Resurrection of Christ, only Jews and atheists. It is they who spread, including in the press, rumors about the "tricks" of dishonest priests. The officials who checked Kuvuklia, searched the Patriarch and were thus guarantors that there were no forgeries, under Christian and Muslim control over Jerusalem, were representatives of the authorities who could be executed for slander, and under the existing Israeli control of power, according to Israeli laws, libel can be subject to a hefty fine in court. With all possible options during the miracle of the descent of the Holy Fire, the following phenomena remain absolutely inexplicable from the point of view of modern science. 1. The presence of flashes of light preceding and accompanying the ignition of the Holy Fire. After the Patriarch entered Kuvuklia, an unusual phenomenon was observed in the Temple. Throughout the Temple, but mainly near the Katholikon and Kuvuklia area (the domes are located above them), flashes of a bluish color begin to appear, reminiscent of lightning, similar to those that everyone observed in the evening in the sky. These lightning flashes can flash in any direction - from top to bottom, and from left to right, not necessarily under domes. Flashes have characteristic features: light flashes without a visible source, flashes never blind anyone, there is no sound accompaniment (thunder), characteristic of ordinary lightning. All this gives eyewitnesses the impression that the source of the flashes is, as it were, outside our world. It is not difficult to distinguish them from camera flashes. Filming the waiting and convergence of Fire on his video camera, M. Shugaev was able to see clear differences. Using the frame-by-frame viewing mode and using freeze frames, you can easily differentiate them: flashes from the camera are shorter in time and have a white color, flashes-lightnings are longer in time and have a bluish color. According to the testimonies of the monks bearing obedience directly at Kuvuklia, bluish flashes can be seen in the Temple not only on Holy Saturday. But these flashes are one-time and short in time, but long in time and following one after another with small intervals, flashes of light occur only on Great Saturday, somewhere from twelve to sixteen or seventeen hours. 2. The phenomenon of the appearance of liquid droplets. To begin with, it should be noted that only people who are on official business can directly see the Holy Tomb on Holy Saturday: the clergy participating in the litany, and official representatives of the Jerusalem authorities, sealing Kuvuklia and ensuring order. The information that is available can come either directly from such people, or in the retellings of loved ones. In addition to the sources already cited, you can use the story of a 19th-century pilgrim who interviewed the Patriarch: “Where, your Beatitude, would you like to receive Fire in Kuvuklia?” The aged archpastor, not paying attention to what was heard in the tone of the question, calmly answered as follows (I almost wrote down what I heard word for word): Angela and behind me the doors were closed, twilight reigned there. The light barely penetrated through two holes from the rotunda of the Holy Sepulcher, also dimly lit from above. In the aisle of the Holy Sepulcher, I could not distinguish whether I had a prayer book in my hands or something else. it was as if a whitish spot was noticed against the black background of the night: it was obviously a white marble plaque on the Holy Sepulcher. When I opened the prayer book, to my surprise, the seal became completely accessible to my vision without the help of glasses. Before I had time to read the lines with deep emotional excitement three or four, when, glancing at the board, which was turning whiter and whiter and so that all four of its edges were already clearly visible to me, I noticed on the board of it, as it were, small scattered beads of different colors, or rather to say, as if pearls the size of a pinhead and even less, and the board began to positively emit, as it were, light. Unconsciously sweeping away these pearls with a fair piece of cotton wool, which began to merge like drops of oil, I felt a certain warmth in the cotton wool and just as unconsciously touched it with a candle wick. It flared up like gunpowder, and - the candle burned and illuminated three images of the Resurrection, as it illuminated both the face of the Mother of God and all the metal lamps above the Holy Sepulcher "” (Nilus S. Shrine under a bushel. Sergiev Posad, 1911). There are no official documents on the study of the chemical composition of drops Informal analytical studies conducted by modern enthusiasts speak of the essential oil content of the drops (similar compounds may be of a plant nature). 3. The phenomenon that the Fire does not burn and does not burn, while the heat is spreading. An ordinary candle fire has a temperature of many hundreds of degrees, close to a thousand degrees Celsius. If you try to perform ablution with such a fire for more than five seconds, burns on your hands and face are guaranteed. Hair (beard, eyebrows, eyelashes) will light up or begin to smolder. In the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, more than ten thousand people light about twenty thousand bunches of candles for two or three minutes (most of the pilgrims light two or three bunches of candles). People stand close to each other. The volume of the Temple is limited. Try to light twenty thousand bunches of candles in a dense crowd of people within a few minutes with an ordinary fire. We think that the hair and parts of clothing in most women will definitely flare up. With a thousand-degree fire temperature and twenty thousand fire sources in a closed room, heat stroke and fainting will occur, especially in the elderly. The Holy Fire has a property that distinguishes it from the fire we are used to. He not only does not burn, but also does not burn for a time sufficient to say “Lord, have mercy” about forty times, and with continuous washing of a human face (without removing his hand with candles). Holy Fire warms, but does not burn! At the same time, it should be noted that the candles are easily ignited from the Fire and the Fire that does not burn a person spreads through the Temple due to the ignition of the candles - one from the other. From the Patriarchal Candles, the Fire spreads throughout the Temple within a few minutes. Naturally, pilgrims with burning candles are in an emotional rapture, paying very little attention to the behavior of their neighbors. But the fire does not set fire to the hanging parts of clothing (scarves, belts), or the long hair of women! The age of most pilgrims, as a rule, is above average, they spend almost a day in the Temple, but heat strokes and fainting are not observed. In the entire history of the convergence of Fire, there has not been a single fire. 4. The presence of the joint appearance of all the above miraculous phenomena precisely on Great Saturday on the eve of the Orthodox Easter holiday (in accordance with the Alexandrian Paschalia, which is currently followed only by the Orthodox Churches). It can be said that the phenomena observed during the descent of the Holy Fire partially occur in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and at ordinary times. According to the testimonies of the monks bearing obedience directly at Kuvuklia, bluish flashes can be seen in the Temple not only on Holy Saturday. But these are one-time flashes. Numerous outbreaks with a short interval of time occur only on Holy Saturday, from about 12 to 16-17 hours. Self-ignition of lamps, also sometimes observed on other days, may be due to these flashes. But in ordinary times, such a spontaneously igniting fire does not have the property not to burn. It seems that any attempts to reproduce the convergence of the Holy Fire in a laboratory built in close proximity to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher will be forced to face the problem of reproducing the aforementioned miraculous property of Fire. Having worked hard, it is possible to recreate the chemical composition of the drops, and with the help of special modern equipment, to artificially recreate intense flashes of light (most likely, accompanied by sound or thunder), but this property of Fire will never be reproduced! Yes, and the case that occurred in 1579, when the Fire descended from the column, indicates that the above description is a description of only the most common properties of the descent of Fire. But Fire can descend directly in another way. It is impossible not to see that the descent of Fire on Great Saturday on the Holy Sepulcher is the result of a direct Divine (in the language of science - transcendental) influence. The Lord has commanded every year for more than two thousand years, at the place of His suffering on the Cross and earthly death, the Fire descend, and He commands on the day before His Resurrection. The descent of the Holy Fire is observed only on the eve of Orthodox Easter, according to the Orthodox calendar, and only through the prayers of the Orthodox Patriarch; The fire descends only on the candles of the Orthodox Patriarch, which is an indisputable evidence of the undoubted truth and divine grace of Orthodoxy - unlike many other confessions that only call themselves Christian. History remembers two cases when representatives of other Christian denominations tried to get the Fire. The unsuccessful attempt of the Armenian clergy to receive the Fire has already been mentioned. In 1101, representatives of the Roman Catholic Church, who owned Jerusalem at that time, independently tried to get the Fire. The miracle of the descent of the Holy Fire in Kuvuklia did not happen until Orthodox Christians were invited to participate in this rite. “The first Latin Patriarch Arnold of Choquet started unsuccessfully: he ordered the sects of heretics to be expelled from their limits in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, then he began torturing Orthodox monks, seeking where they kept the Cross and other relics. A few months later, Arnold was replaced on the throne by Daimbert of Pisa, who went even further. He tried to expel all local Christians, even Orthodox Christians, from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and admit only Latins there, generally depriving the rest of the church buildings in or near Jerusalem. God's retribution soon struck: already in 1101, on Great Saturday, the miracle of the descent of the Holy Fire in Kuvuklia did not happen, until Eastern Christians were invited to participate in this rite. Then King Baldwin I took care of the return of their rights to local Christians ”(S. Runciman. Eastern Schism. M., 1998, p. 69-70). And since then, none of the non-Orthodox has been trying to repeat such attempts, fearing failure and the inevitable shame that follows. The Miracle of the Holy Fire is one of the few miracles of Orthodoxy, in principle accessible to everyone who wants to know the truth: "come and see!" Any doubter, having paid 600-700 dollars (this is the price of a standard tourist trip to the Holy Land - Jerusalem, Tiberias - for 7 days), is quite able to personally verify the authenticity of the fact and all the above details of the descent of the Holy Fire. The miracle is taking place in the face of the whole world, “of all progressive mankind” (and is even regularly broadcast on Russian television and on the Internet, on the website of the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem). But how many respond with their hearts to this obvious call, obvious to everyone? .. Once upon a time, many hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, before His redemptive suffering and Resurrection, before the inhabitants of Israel (and in their person - before all mankind) the question arose of who is right: the servants of the True God or the servants of the pagan gods ? So it was when a dispute arose between the servants of the idol of Baal and the prophet of God Elijah (see: 1 Kings 18, 21-39). And after much discussion, Elijah offered them a simple way to check who was right. We, the people of the 21st century, can rightly call this method the experimental method - in accordance with the exact criteria of the experimental method adopted in modern science. The proposal was this: “Let each of us call on the name of his God, and the God who will give an answer through fire is the true God. And if the Lord is God, then let us follow Him, and if Baal is God, then let us follow Baal.” And then, by the grace of God, it was revealed who is the true God and who is His true admirer, because then the fire came down only through the prayer of the prophet Elijah and burned both the sacrifice, and the firewood, and the stone altar itself, on which the priests of Baal had encroached fiasco. And then it became clear to everyone where the true worship of God is. The situation of the convergence of the Holy Fire on the Holy Sepulcher annually practically reproduces this experimental situation that took place many hundreds of years before the birth of Christ. And here there are many praying representatives of different faiths, and here there is a true servant of the true God, through whose prayer (and only through his prayer!) Fire miraculously descends, possessing supernatural properties. Only now, aren't there ministers of other faiths who are trying to challenge their right to receive Fire from God, as was the case under Elijah. Due to the fact that such attempts, as history shows, always end in failure, and there is no one else who wants to take risks and disgrace ... God is immutable, this is clearly evidenced by the biblical Old Testament text: I am the Lord your God, and I will not change ( Mal. 3, 6). And just as then, in the distant times of Elijah, God, unchanging in nature, gives an answer to inquiring humanity, the answer to the question of where the true faith is, gives an answer through fire. The answer is not false, just as the answerer Himself is not false - the Lord is the truth (Jer. 10, 10). And anyone who accepts the biblical text as truth must, by virtue of their faith in the unchanging God and faith in the authenticity of the mentioned story about the descent of fire from heaven through the prayer of the prophet Elijah, with logical necessity, conclude that fire is sent by God only through the prayer of His true minister. But, as a rule, no one makes this conclusion ... In that ancient story about the descent of fire through the prayer of the prophet Elijah, perhaps the most striking thing was not even the miracle of its descent, but the fact that, having perceived with delight at first the miraculous witness of the true God, the Israelites almost immediately fell back into apostasy. The children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, they have destroyed Your altars, and they have killed Your prophets with the sword; I was left alone, but they are also looking for my soul in order to take it away (1 Kings 19, 10) - this is how the prophet Elijah complains about them to God only a short time after the miracle of the convergence of fire. This is what is most striking in all this ancient history. A similar picture persists in our time - the joy of jubilation about the descent of the Holy Fire is replaced by a retreat into the darkness of lies for the majority of witnesses of its descent in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher ... The Fire descends, leaving unanswered fallen and blinding humanity, unanswerable in the face of the Righteous Judge. They did not accept the love of the truth for their salvation (2 Thess. 2:10) - such is the pattern of behavior of the human race drowning in sins, and with this vicious pattern, a conscious and arbitrary pattern, even an obvious Miracle of God cannot do anything ... |
Holy Week (week)
Holy Week (week)
The last week of Great Lent, which is dedicated to the remembrance of the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, was called "Passionate". In the early Christian communities, at this time it was prescribed to eat only dry food, avoid entertainment, stop work and cases in the courts, and release prisoners. All services of Holy Week are distinguished by the depth of their experiences and consistently "reproduce" the last days of the life and suffering of Jesus Christ. Therefore, during Holy Week, the days of memory of the saints are not celebrated, the remembrance of the dead and the sacraments of Marriage and Baptism are not performed (with the exception of special cases). Each day of Holy Week is called "great". In Catholic churches, during Holy Week (up to and including Good Friday), it is customary to remove or hang with a purple cloth all images of the Crucifixion.
In worship Great Monday the Old Testament patriarch Joseph the Beautiful, sold by his brothers to Egypt, is remembered as a prototype of the suffering Jesus Christ, as well as the gospel story about Jesus cursing a barren fig tree, symbolizing a soul that does not bear spiritual fruit - true repentance, faith, prayer and good deeds.
AT Maundy Tuesday I recall the denunciation of the Pharisees and scribes by Jesus, as well as the parables uttered by Him in the Jerusalem Temple: about tribute to Caesar, about the resurrection of the dead, about the Last Judgment, about ten virgins and talents.
AT Great Wednesday a sinner is remembered, who, having washed Christ's feet with precious ointment and thus prepared Him for burial.
In worship Maundy Thursday four events are recalled that, according to the gospel tradition, took place on this day: the Last Supper, at which the sacrament of the Eucharist was established by Christ, the washing of the feet of His disciples by Christ as a sign of humility and love for them, the prayer of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane and the betrayal of Judas.
Day Good Friday dedicated to the memory of the condemnation to death, the suffering on the Cross and the death of Jesus Christ. According to the tradition of the Eastern Church, at the end of Vespers on Good Friday, Shrouds- an image of Jesus Christ being buried in a coffin - which is installed for worship in front of the altar of the temple. In the Western tradition, the exposition of the Holy Cross and the worship of the Holy Sepulcher are performed.
AT Great Saturday there is a commemoration of the burial of Jesus Christ, the stay of His body in the tomb, the descent into hell to proclaim victory over death there and the deliverance of souls who awaited His coming, and the remembrance of the prudent thief called to paradise. Divine services on this day begin in the early morning, continue until the end of the day and merge with the beginning of the solemn Paschal matins.
In the Western tradition, on Holy Saturday during Easter Eve, the consecration of the fire and the lighting of a special candle are performed - Easter, which is then installed at the altar or pulpit and remains there until the final service of Pentecost.
Throughout the day, the consecration of the Easter meal (cakes, eggs, cottage cheese Easter, salt, meat products, etc.) is held in the temples.
Holy Fire- one of the strongest symbols of faith and confirmation of its truth among Orthodox Christians. Once again, he descended from heaven last Saturday, April 15 in Jerusalem in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher (erected in the 4th century by decree of the Roman Emperor Constantine and his mother Queen Helena at the place where Christ's earthly path was completed) on the eve of the Great Feast of Orthodox Easter Christ. This year the Easter holidays of the Orthodox and Catholic faiths coincided.
Holy Fire: miracle or man-made reality?
Scientists and atheists have been trying to explain the power and nature of the Holy Fire for a long time, but so far the attempts have not been successful. Believers accept fire as the highest grace of God, without questioning even the slightest doubt about its divine nature. Skeptics and atheists carefully try to explain this phenomenon from a scientific point of view, and I think this is also normal.
I did not publish this article on the eve of the Easter holiday, as was originally intended, respecting the feelings of true believers, so that my reasoning would not look like an attempt on the shrine of saints.
And yet, let's try to understand the mystery and nature of the descent of the Holy Fire.
How is the preparation for the reception of the Holy Fire
Not for the first millennium, the Holy Fire descends in one place, only in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, and only on the eve of Orthodox Easter, subject to a few more conditions.
The first mention of this phenomenon dates back to the 4th century, they are found among church historians.
A vivid description, full of depth of experienced feelings, is given in his book “I saw the Holy Fire” by Archimandrite Savva Achilleos, who for more than 50 years was the main novice at the Holy Sepulcher. Here is a fragment of a book about how the Holy Fire descends:
“... the patriarch bowed low to approach the Life-Giving Tomb. And suddenly, in the midst of dead silence, I heard some kind of quivering, barely perceptible rustle. It was like a thin breath of wind. And immediately after that, I saw a blue light that filled the entire inner space of the Life-Giving Tomb.
Oh, what an unforgettable sight it was! I saw this light whirl like a strong whirlwind or storm. And in this blessed light, I clearly saw the face of the Patriarch. Big tears were running down his cheeks...
… the blue light has returned to a state of motion. Then it suddenly turned white... Soon the light took on a rounded shape and in the form of a halo stood motionless above the head of the Patriarch. I saw how His Beatitude the Patriarch took bundles of 33 candles into his hands, raised them high above him and began to pray to God to send down the Holy Fire, slowly stretching his hands to the sky. As soon as he raised them to the level of his head, all four beams suddenly lit up in his hands, as if they were brought close to a flaming furnace. At the same moment, the halo disappeared from the light above his head. Tears flowed from my eyes from the joy that engulfed me .... "
Information taken from the site https://www.rusvera.mrezha.ru/633/9.htm
Holy Fire in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, preparation for the descent
The ceremony of preparation for the descent of Fire begins almost a day before the start of Orthodox Easter. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which can accommodate 10 thousand people, is in a hurry to visit these days not only Orthodox believers, but also other Christians, Muslims, and atheist tourists. Representatives of the Jewish police are also present here, vigilantly monitoring not only order, but also ensuring that no one brings fire or devices into the temple that cause it.
Then, an unlit oil lamp is placed on the center of the bed of the Holy Sepulcher, and a bunch of candles in the amount of 33 pieces is also placed here - the number of years of the life of Jesus Christ. Pieces of cotton wool are laid around the perimeter of the bed, a tape is attached along the edges. Everything is done under the strict supervision of the Jewish police and Muslim representatives.
It is important that the manifestation of the descent of Fire is ensured by the obligatory presence in the temple three groups of participants:
- Patriarch of the Jerusalem Orthodox Church or, with his blessing, one of the bishops of the Jerusalem Patriarchate.
- Abbot and monks of the Lavra of St. Savva the Sanctified .
- Local Orthodox Arabs, most often represented by Arab Orthodox youth, who make themselves known by noisy non-traditional performance of prayers in Arabic .
The Orthodox Patriarch closes the festive procession, accompanied by the Armenian Patriarch and the clergy, who go around the most holy places of the temple, go around Kuvuklia (the chapel above the Holy Sepulcher) three times.
Then the Patriarch undresses from the vestments, demonstrating the absence of matches and other things that can cause fire, and enters Kuvukliya.
After that, the chapel is closed, the entrance is sealed by a local Muslim keykeeper.
Those present from this moment are waiting for the Patriarch to come out with Fire in his hands. Interestingly, the waiting time for convergence varies from year to year, from a few minutes to several hours.
The moment of expectation is one of the strongest in faith: believers know that if the Fire is not sent from above, the temple will be destroyed. Therefore, the parishioners take communion and pray fervently, asking to grant them the Holy Fire. Prayers and rituals continue until the appearance of the blessed Fire.
How the Holy Fire descends
This is how people present in the temple at different times describe the atmosphere of expectation of the Holy Fire. The phenomenon of convergence is accompanied by the appearance in the temple of small bright flashes, discharges, flashes here and there ...
When shooting with a slow-motion camera, the lights are especially clearly visible near the icon located above Kuvuklia, in the area of the dome of the Temple, near the windows.
A moment later, the whole temple is already lit up with glare, lightning, and right there .. the doors of the chapel swing open, the Patriarch appears in his hands with the same Fire sent down from Heaven. At these moments, candles in the hands of individuals spontaneously ignite.
An incredible atmosphere of joy, delight and happiness fills the entire space, it truly becomes an energetically unique place!
At first, Fire has amazing properties - it does not burn at all, people literally wash themselves with it, scoop it up with their palms, pouring water on themselves. There are no cases of ignition of clothes, hair and other objects. The temperature of the fire is only 40ºС. There are cases and witnesses of the healing of ailments and diseases.
They say that droplets of wax falling from candles, called the Blessed Dew, will remain on people's clothes forever, even after washing.
And in the future, from the Holy Fire, lamps are lit throughout Jerusalem, although there are cases in areas near the temple of their spontaneous combustion. Fire is delivered by air to Cyprus and Greece, and so all over the world, including to Russia. In the areas of the city adjacent to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, candles and lamps in churches light up on their own.
There were fears that this year the Fire would not come down due to the fact that archaeologists in the fall of 2016, for scientific purposes, opened the tomb with the Holy Sepulcher, in which, according to giving, the body of Jesus Christ rested after the crucifixion. The fears were in vain.
Video about the descent of Fire in Jerusalem.
Scientific explanation of the Holy Fire
How does science explain the nature of the Holy Fire? No way! There is no scientific evidence for this phenomenon. Just as there are no scientific interpretations of all things that happen according to the will of God. One must accept the fact of Fire as a divine essence.
Attempts to somehow explain the nature of this phenomenon are rather revealing, as is usually the case, the desire to convict the Church of insincerity, deceit, and concealment of the truth.
But in fact, why does the Fire come down only among Orthodox Christians? Well, God is one, faiths are just different? And why does Orthodox Easter fall on different calendar dates every year, and why does the fire come down at the right time? By the way, in the past, its convergence was observed at night with the onset of Holy Saturday before Easter, now it happens during the day, closer to noon.
Holy Fire is a myth
What arguments do skeptics give, exposing the miracle of the descent of the Holy Fire, thereby trying to dispel the myths about the divine nature of fire in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher:
- The fire at the right time is obtained from essential oils, previously sprayed into the atmosphere of the temple and capable of self-ignition.
- The candles that are given out in the temple shop are impregnated with a special composition that saturates the atmosphere of the temple, causing the same flashes and spontaneous combustion of candles.
But after all, other candles were lit, which passionate skeptics brought with them to the temple.
- Some substances, such as white phosphorus, exhibit spontaneous combustion. Concentrated sulfuric acid, when combined with manganese, ignites spontaneously, while the flame does not burn. The fire does not burn for some time when the ethers are burning. But only the first moments.
Divine fire does not burn after a while.
- Here is another recipe for self-ignition:
“... they hang lamps in the altar and arrange a trick so that the fire reaches them through the oil of the balsam tree and accessories from it, and its property is the appearance of fire when combined with jasmine oil. Fire has a bright light and brilliant radiance.
- The phenomenon of fire can be explained as a result of the interaction of streams of charged particles passing through the upper layers of the atmosphere, through the Earth's magnetic field.
But why here and now? Unconvincing!
- Perhaps the answer lies in geophysics? The land of Jerusalem is very old, in addition, the temple is located in a unique place, on ancient tectonic plates.
Perhaps this fact contributes to the phenomenon.
- Or maybe the believers themselves, who have gathered at the Temple of the Lord, with their excitation energy, a special state of the nervous system in anticipation of a miracle, are able to generate energy flows, which are not poor in places of pilgrimage anyway.
- Does not recognize the miraculous nature of fire and the Catholic Church.
- A lot of noise in 2008 was made by the interview of the Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III to Russian journalists, in which he brought the phenomenon of the descent of the Holy Fire closer to an ordinary church ceremony, without any emphasis on the miracle of the descent.
Scientific experiment confirming the divine essence of Fire
Professor Pavel Florensky in 2008 took measurements and recorded three flashes-discharges, akin to those that occur during a thunderstorm, and thereby confirmed the special atmosphere during the appearance of Fire, that is, simply its Divine origin.
Just a year ago, in 2016, Andrey Volkov, a Russian physicist and employee of the Russian Research Center "Kurchatov Institute", managed to bring equipment to the temple for the ceremony of the convergence of the Holy Fire and make measurements of the electromagnetic field inside the room. Here is what the physicist himself says:
- For six hours of observing the electromagnetic background in the temple, it was at the moment of the descent of the Holy Fire that the device recorded a doubling of the radiation intensity.
- Now it is clear that the Holy Fire was not created by people. This is not a deception, not a hoax: its material "traces" can be measured.
For almost two thousand years, Orthodox Christians have been celebrating their greatest holiday - the Resurrection of Christ (Easter) in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.
Every time, everyone who is inside and near the Temple, on Easter, witnesses the descent of the Holy Fire.
The Holy Fire has been in the temple for more than a millennium. The earliest references to the descent of the Holy Fire on the eve of the Resurrection of Christ are found among Gregory of Nyssa, Eusebius and Sylvia of Aquitaine and date back to the 4th century. They also contain descriptions of earlier convergences. According to the testimony of the Apostles and holy fathers, the uncreated Light illuminated the Holy Sepulcher shortly after the Resurrection of Christ, which one of the apostles saw: "Peter appeared before the Sepulcher and the light was terrified in vain in the tomb," writes St. John of Damascus. Eusebius Pamphilus tells in his "Church History" that when one day there was not enough lamp oil, Patriarch Narcissus (II century) blessed to pour water from the Siloam font into the lamps, and the fire that descended from heaven lit the lamps, which then burned throughout the entire Paschal service .
Litany (church ceremony) of the Holy Fire begins about a day before the start of Orthodox Easter. In the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, pilgrims begin to gather, wishing to see with their own eyes the descent of the Holy Fire. Among those present there are always many non-Orthodox Christians, Muslims, atheists, the ceremony is monitored by the Jewish police. The temple itself accommodates up to 10 thousand people, the entire area in front of it and the enfilades of surrounding structures are also filled with people - the number of people who want is much more than the capacity of the temple, so it is not easy for pilgrims.
In the middle of the bed of the Life-Giving Sepulcher, a lamp is placed, filled with oil, but without fire. Pieces of cotton wool are laid out throughout the bed, and a tape is laid along the edges. So prepared, after examining the Turkish guards, and now the Jewish police, Kuvukliya (Chapel over the Holy Sepulcher) is closed and sealed by a local Muslim key keeper.
Before the descent, the temple begins to be illuminated by bright flashes of the Blessed Light, small lightning flashes here and there. In slow motion, it is clearly seen that they come from different places in the temple - from the icon hanging over Kuvuklia, from the dome of the Temple, from windows and from other places, and fill everything around with bright light. In addition, here and there, between the columns and walls of the temple, quite visible lightning flashes, which often pass without any harm through standing people.
A moment later, the whole temple turns out to be belted with lightning and glare, which snake down its walls and columns, as if flowing down to the foot of the temple and spreading over the square among the pilgrims. At the same time, candles are lit at those standing in the temple and on the square, the lampadas located on the sides of Kuvuklia (with the exception of 13 Catholic ones) are lit themselves. The temple or some of its places are filled with an unparalleled radiance, which is believed to have first appeared during the Resurrection of Christ. At the same time, the doors of the Tomb open and the Orthodox Patriarch comes out, who blesses those gathered and distributes the Holy Fire.
"... The most vivid description refers to 1892, where a wonderful picture of the burning of the Holy Fire is given from the words of the Patriarch. He said that sometimes, having entered Cuvuklia, and not having time to read the prayer, he already saw how the marble tomb slab was covered with small multi-colored beads like small pearls. And the stove itself began to emit an even light. The patriarch swept these pearls with a piece of cotton wool, which merged like drops of oil. He felt warmth in the cotton, and touched the candle wick with it. The wick flared up like gunpowder - the candle lit up. On the stove is first laid with cotton wool.According to eyewitnesses, sometimes non-believers do this in order to eliminate doubts on this score.
There is other evidence as well. The Metropolitan of Trans-Jordan, who received the Holy Fire more than once, said that when he entered Kuvuklia, the icon lamp standing on the Tomb was burning. And sometimes - no, then he fell and with tears began to ask for mercy from God, and when he rose the lamp was already burning. From it he lit two bunches of candles, carried out and served fire to the people waiting for him. But he himself had never seen a fire ignite.
After the Patriarch leaves the Cuvuklia, or rather, he is taken to the Altar, the people rush into the inside of the Coffin - to kiss. The whole slab is wet, as if wet with rain." The excerpt is taken from the book: Holy Fire over the Holy Sepulcher, 1991.
According to eyewitnesses, the fire does not burn the first minutes after the descent. Here is what they write:
"Yes, and I am a sinful slave from the metropolitan's hands, having lit 20 candles in one place and I burned mine with all those candles, and not a single hair writhed or burned; and having extinguished all the candles and then lit them with other people, I warmed those candles, so but on the third day, those candles were warmed up by me, and then without touching anything, I didn’t scorch a single hair, nor grimaced, and I’m cursed, not believing that heavenly fire and the message of God, and so three times I kindled my candles and extinguished, and before Metropolitan and in front of all the Greeks that I said goodbye that I blasphemed God's power and called the fire of heaven, which the Greeks do sorcery, and not God's creation; and the metropolitan will bless me in this in all simple and simple ways. Life and journey to Jerusalem and Egypt of the Kazanian Vasily Yakovlevich Gagara (1634-1637).
"Father Georgy films everything on a video camera, takes pictures. I also take a few pictures. We have ten packs of candles prepared with us. I stretch out my hand with candles to the burning bunches in the hands of people, I light it. I scoop up this flame with my palm, it is large, warm, light "light yellow, I hold my hand in the fire - it doesn't burn! I bring it to my face, the flame licks my beard, nose, eyes, I feel only warmth and gentle touch - it doesn't burn!!!" Priest from Novosibirsk.
"It's amazing... At first, the Fire doesn't burn, it's just warm. They wash themselves with it, drive it across the face, apply it to the chest - and nothing. with a hole, but it came - there is no hole. Archimandrite Bartholomew (Kalugin), resident of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, 1983
"I try to take Fire in the palm of my hand and find that it is material. It can be touched, in the palm it is felt as a material substance, it is soft, neither hot nor cold." Parishioner of the church of St. Nicholas in Biryulyovo Natalia.
The people who are at this time in the temple are overwhelmed with an inexpressible and incomparable in its depth feeling of joy and spiritual peace. According to those who visited the square and the temple itself when the fire descended, the depth of feelings that overwhelmed people at that moment was fantastic - eyewitnesses left the temple as if reborn, as they themselves say - spiritually cleansed and enlightened.
Many non-Orthodox, when they first hear about the Holy Fire, try to reproach the Orthodox: how do you know that it was bestowed on you? But what if he was received by a representative of a different Christian denomination? However, attempts by force to challenge the right to receive the Holy Fire by representatives of other faiths have been and have happened more than once.
The most significant event occurred in 1579. The owners of the Temple of the Lord are simultaneously representatives of several Christian Churches. The priests of the Armenian Church, contrary to tradition, managed to bribe Sultan Murat the Truthful and the local city authorities to allow them to celebrate Easter alone and receive the Holy Fire. At the call of the Armenian clergy, many of their fellow believers came to Jerusalem from all over the Middle East to celebrate Easter alone. The Orthodox, together with Patriarch Sophrony IV, were removed not only from the Kuvuklia, but from the Temple in general. There, at the entrance to the shrine, they remained to pray for the descent of Fire, mourning the separation from Grace. The Armenian Patriarch prayed for about a day, however, despite his prayerful efforts, no miracle followed. At one moment, a ray struck from the sky, as is usually the case with the descent of Fire, and hit exactly the column at the entrance, next to which was the Orthodox Patriarch. Fiery bursts splashed from it in all directions and a candle was lit at the Orthodox Patriarch, who handed over the Holy Fire to the fellow believers. This was the only case in history when the descent took place outside the Temple, in fact, through the prayers of an Orthodox, and not an Armenian high priest. “Everyone rejoiced, and the Orthodox Arabs began to jump and shout for joy: “You are our one God, Jesus Christ, our true faith is one - the faith of Orthodox Christians,” writes monk Parthenius. At the same time, on the enfilades of buildings adjacent to the temple square were Turkish soldiers. One of them, named Omir (Anvar), seeing what was happening, exclaimed: "The One Orthodox Faith, I am a Christian" and jumped down onto stone slabs from a height of about 10 meters. However, the young man did not crash - the slabs under his feet melted like For the adoption of Christianity, the Muslims executed the brave Anvar and tried to scrape off the traces that so clearly testify to the triumph of Orthodoxy, but they did not succeed, and those who come to the Temple can still see them, like the dissected column at the doors of the temple. The body of the martyr was burned, but the Greeks collected the remains, which until the end of the 19th century were in the convent of Great Panagia, exuding fragrance.
The Turkish authorities were very angry with the arrogant Armenians, and at first even wanted to execute the hierarch, but later they had mercy and ordered him to always follow the Orthodox Patriarch as a warning about what had happened at the Easter ceremony and henceforth not to take a direct part in receiving the Holy Fire. Although the government has changed a long time ago, the custom is still preserved.
The Holy Fire is the greatest miracle of God for all people. For believers - indescribable bliss and joy in Christ, for unbelievers - the opportunity to see and believe!
In 2001, the Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne of the Jerusalem Church, Metropolitan Cornelius of Peter, in an interview with the GKRIZES ZONES program on the Greek TV channel MEGA, recalled that “every creation of God is good, because it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer” (1 Tim. 4, 4- 5). According to him, in the case of the Holy Fire, or as it is called in Greek - the Holy Light, “we are talking about natural, natural light, but the prayers read by the Patriarch or another bishop replacing him sanctify this natural light, and as a result of this he has the grace of the Holy Light. This is a natural light, which is lit from the Inextinguishable Lamp, kept in the sacristy of the Church of the Resurrection. But prayers have the power to sanctify natural light, and it also becomes supernatural light. The miracle is in the epiclesis, in the prayer of the bishop; this light is sanctified by it"
I, of course, with reverence am to this event. And, of course, I really don’t like hysteria, no matter what authoritative lips it comes from. I also want to say that we in the Russian Spiritual Mission began to study the text of the Order of the Holy Light. In this order of office, we are talking about the fact that "Christ is the True Light", that "The Light of Christ enlightens all." When the Resurrection of Christ took place, a glow was visible. It is clear that the Light of Christ or the Light of Tabor is not actually a flame, it is precisely the Divine Light. But we, people, are constantly trying to replace the living God with His image, His icon - it is more convenient for us to pray this way, otherwise we cannot contain Him in our limited consciousness. We have the Body and Blood of Christ under the guise of bread and wine, and therefore the Divine Light is presented in the form of Fire, which we can actually see, which we can even kindle ourselves."
