How does the Holy Fire actually light up in Jerusalem? The Miracle of the Descent of the Holy Fire

What will happen if the Holy Fire does not come down, says Archimandrite Viktor (Kotsaba).

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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 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 the Apostle Peter saw.

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.

– Father, how many times have you been present at the descent of the Holy Fire?

– By the grace of God, I happened to be a witness to this miracle several times. Of course, the experience is unforgettable. First of all, the trip itself requires some effort: these days there are a huge number of people in Jerusalem and it is not at all easy to go to the Edicule of the Holy Sepulcher, where the Holy Fire descends.

It seems that on this very day, on Great Saturday, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher becomes the center of the world. The people have been arriving since the evening, the whole city is blocked, the police are active at their posts. The path to the Church of the Resurrection of Christ is also not easy, which must be overcome by entering Old city. Every 100-200 meters there is a new post, people crowd into crowds. In one of them we once stood for more than an hour. The path itself is not long, but takes up to about 1.5 - 2 hours. It happens that you are squeezed in the center of the crush, and you cannot move anywhere. Everyone is in a hurry to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

I remember my first trip to the Holy Fire, then I didn’t have any special passes, but I managed to calmly go all the way and stop right at the entrance to Cuvuklia. Then for me it was also a miracle. (smiles)

- Nobody knows at what moment the Holy Fire will come down? How is the waiting going?

- Our entire delegation has been in the Temple since 10 am. The fire usually goes down around 2 pm. All this time we stay in one place, because if we leave, it will not be easy, almost impossible to enter. Around screams, vanity, noise and heat. There is, of course, the opportunity to pray, because we are standing near the Kuvuklia of the Holy Sepulcher itself.

First, the Arab Orthodox youth appears, who in their own language shouts slogans announcing that Christ is Risen, sings different songs, runs, climbs out with drums to Kuvuklia. When I first saw such behavior in a temple, I was amazed. But this is considered the norm: at a time when Jerusalem was under the British mandate, the English governor tried to ban these "savage" dances, young people were not allowed into the Temple - and the Fire did not appear. The patriarch prayed in Kuvuklia for two hours and then ordered the Arabs to be let in... Then only the fire descended.

The Arabs seem to be addressing all peoples: the Lord confirms the correctness of our faith by bringing down the Holy Fire on the eve of Orthodox Easter.

Further, the Patriarch with the bishops of the Jerusalem Church leads the procession, bypassing Kuvuklia three times, after which he completely undresses and goes inside. All lamps are extinguished. Regal silence sets in, despite the large number of people, only flashes of phones and cameras appear. After about 15 minutes, the Patriarch comes out with Fire and distributes it to everyone. One of the “dancing” Orthodox Arabs runs up to him, takes the Fire, and, cutting through the crowd, simply runs to the other end of the Temple. In a matter of minutes, the entire Temple is ablaze with the Holy Fire.

Immediately after the descent, the fire has a special property, it does not burn the face and hands. I checked for myself, it really is. It feels soft, not like the fire we are used to. After that, everyone congratulates each other with the words “Christ is Risen!”

- There is a legend that if the fire does not come down, it will be the end of the world.

- This, of course, is a well-known legend, so everyone is waiting with trepidation and fear for the descent of the Holy Fire.

- Have there been cases when the fire did not go down?

– There was the only case in history when the descent of the Holy Fire took place outside the Temple through the prayers of the Orthodox Patriarch. It happened in 1579.

As you know, the owners of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher are several Churches. And so the priests of the Armenian Church, contrary to tradition, persuaded and bribed Sultan Murat the Truthful and the mayor to allow them to celebrate Easter alone and receive the Holy Fire. At the call of the Armenian clergy from all over the Middle East, many of their fellow believers came to Jerusalem in order to celebrate Easter alone. The Orthodox, together with Patriarch Sophrony IV, were removed not only from Kuvuklia, but also taken out of the Temple. They prayed for the fire to descend in front of the entrance to the shrine, grieving over what had happened.

The Armenian Patriarch prayed for about a day, but no miracle happened. 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 column has survived to this day at the entrance to the Church of the Resurrection of Christ.

Interviewed by Natalya Goroshkova

April 24 is Easter. The culmination of the main Christian holiday will be the convergence of the Holy Fire in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Once again, disputes will arise about what the miraculous fire is, how to explain its occurrence? Atheists are convinced that this is just a hoax. Believers, on the contrary, that this is a real miracle. Who is right?

strange discharge

Quite recently, the press reported that a Russian physicist, an employee of the Kurchatov Institute, Andrey Volkov, attended the ceremony of the convergence of the Holy Fire last year and secretly made some measurements.

According to Volkov, a few minutes before the removal of the Holy Fire from Kuvuklia (the chapel where the miraculous fire lights up), the device that fixes the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation detected a strange long-wave impulse in the temple, which no longer manifested itself. That is, an electrical discharge has occurred.

The physicist came to Jerusalem as an assistant to one of the film crews who received permission to work inside the temple. According to him, it is difficult to judge anything reliably from one measurement, since a series of experiments is needed. But still, “it could also turn out that we detected the cause preceding the appearance of a genuine divine Holy Fire” ...

Today, closer to midnight, a plane with the Holy Fire landed at Vnukovo Airport. According to tradition, the sacred fire from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem was taken to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, and the particles of Fire were delivered to various churches throughout the country.

But what is the Holy Fire - a focus for believers or the True Light - a Russian physicist managed to find out. A scientist from the Institute of Atomic Energy, using high-precision instruments, was able to prove that the Holy Fire actually has a divine origin.

Andrey Volkov, head of the laboratory of ionic systems at the Russian Research Center "Kurchatov Institute", succeeded in what no scientist in the world has been able to do so far: he conducted a scientific experiment in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.

At the moment of the descent of the Holy Fire, the devices recorded a sharp burst of electromagnetic radiation.

Andrey Volkov, a 52-year-old candidate of physical and mathematical sciences, has always been interested in the phenomenon of an unusual self-ignition in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which happens on the eve of Orthodox Easter. This fire appears by itself, in the first seconds it does not burn, believers wash their faces and hands with it, as if with water. Volkov suggested that this flame is a plasma discharge. And the scientist came up with the idea of ​​a bold experiment - to measure electromagnetic radiation in the temple itself during the convergence of the Holy Fire.

I understood that it would not be easy to do this - they might not be allowed to enter the holy place with the equipment, - Andrey Volkov told Your DAY. - And yet I decided to take a chance, since all the devices fit in an ordinary case. In general, I hoped for good luck. And I'm lucky.

Radiation

The scientist set up the instruments: if during the convergence of the Holy Fire there is a jump in electromagnetic fields, the computer will record it. If the flame is a trick that is arranged for believers (such an explanation of the phenomenon is still in use among atheists), then no jump will occur.

Volkov watched as the Patriarch of Jerusalem, having taken off his vestments, entered Kuvuklia (the chapel in the Temple) in one shirt with a bunch of candles. People, frozen, waiting for a miracle. Indeed, according to legend, if the Holy Fire does not come down to people on the eve of Easter, this will be a sign of the approaching end of the world. Andrey Volkov found out that the miracle had happened before anyone else in the temple - his instruments caught a sharp jump!

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, the physicist testifies. - 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!

In fact, can this inexplicable surge of energy be called a message from God?

Many believers think so. This is the materialization of the Divine, a miracle. You won't pick another word. God's plan cannot be squeezed into mathematical formulas. But by this miracle the Lord every year gives us a sign that the Orthodox faith is true!

"Fire Like a Cobra"

An argument in favor of the fact that the Holy Fire has a “natural”, and not a divine origin, is the fact that similar phenomena do occur. Of course, in no case should they be put on a par with the fire in the Temple of the Lord. However, there are some common features.

Let's start with such a sign as suddenness, lack of apparent reason. The same property is characteristic of such a phenomenon as spontaneous combustion, which is not so rare. For example, “Buff-Sad” last month wrote about an abnormal fire on Bolshaya Podgornaya Street that occurred last spring. This is far from an isolated case. And not only for Tomsk. For example, causeless fires are not uncommon in Moscow. The most surprising thing is that this happens especially often on the Garden Ring. Moreover, not only apartments and offices are burning, but even car interiors.

Let's take another sign of the Holy Fire - the property not to burn, at least at first. This already looks like a so-called cold plasma, a low-temperature ionized substance. It seems that such a plasma exists not only in physical laboratories.

Here is a quote from the newspaper "Miner's Territory", Novokuznetsk. A case is described when a firefighter went to a call and saw something completely unusual before his eyes. “Somehow I break into a room, in the middle of which an orange-blue selective column of flame hangs. Fire like a cobra stood upright, as if preparing to jump. I took a step towards the flame, and it was immediately sucked with a whistle into a hole in the floor ... And when we extinguished the barracks on Vera Solomina Street, the fire seemed to be hiding from us, spreading from one wall to another ... ". Note that the flames writhed, "hidden", but did not cause ignition.

Science and myths

There are cases when a mysterious flame or glow, mistaken for miracles, eventually found scientific explanation. According to old beliefs, the lights flickering in the swamps are candles that light the way for lost souls. It is now reliably known that wandering fires are nothing more than combustible swamp gas released from rotting plants. The bluish glow on the masts and frames of ships - the so-called "St. Elmo's fires", observed since the Middle Ages - are caused by lightning discharges in the sea. And what about the northern lights, which in Scandinavian myths is a reflection of the golden shields of the Valkyries? Scientists explain this phenomenon by the interaction of streams of charged particles passing through the upper atmosphere, through magnetic field Earth.

However, some cases still remain a mystery. In 1905, the mysterious lights visited the Welsh preacher Mary Jones. Their appearance ranged from small fireballs, columns of light a meter wide to a faint glow, reminiscent of fireworks disintegrating in the sky. Moreover, some researchers explained the appearance of mysterious lights by the mental overstrain experienced by Jones during the sermons.

We must not guess, but explore

Let us return to where we started, to the miraculous Holy Fire in Jerusalem. It turns out that the Moscow physicist Andrey Volkov was almost outstripped by the Tomsk residents. The year before last, a research group was going to Jerusalem, including the director of the Biolon center Viktor Fefelov and the famous photojournalist Vladimir Kazantsev.

“We wanted to study the Holy Fire with the help of physical instruments,” says Viktor Fefelov. - With the help of Tomsk scientists scientific center we assembled equipment: an automatic spectrophotometer, various other devices for studying electromagnetic waves of the widest range ... Outwardly, everything would look like shooting with an ordinary video camera, in fact, a thorough analysis would be carried out from X-ray and gamma radiation to low-frequency. We quite openly hoped to find an answer - either this is a miracle, or a natural phenomenon or deception.

Alas, due to problems with visas, the trip fell through. Although many Tomsk residents provided this or that support: corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Zuev, deputy Nikolai Vyatkin, director of the television studio Elena Ulyanova and others. The researchers also received approval in church circles. Perhaps it will be possible next year.

* * *
Perhaps the answer lies in geophysics? That is, the whole point is the release to the surface of a bunch of tectonic, underground energy in the form of low-frequency electromagnetic radiation, which Volkov was able to fix?

- The Earth is a very large, extremely complex electromagnetic object, - says Viktor Fefelov, - and extremely little studied. It is likely that this phenomenon also has a tectonic contribution. No need to guess, you need to explore.

Indeed, perhaps the Holy Fire is due to many reasons? Edicule is in a unique place, in terms of dynamics tectonic plates. Perhaps the believers who have gathered at the Temple of the Lord also generate energy, which, thanks to a large number of emotionally excited people, is multiplied many times over? Let us recall the case of the preacher Mary Jones mentioned above.

There may be other factors that we don't yet know about.

God gave the whole world a great sign of truth Orthodox faith- The Holy Fire in Jerusalem, which appears from heaven in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher on the last day Holy Week before Easter. Sign God's grace to Orthodox Church- Easter fire in Jerusalem appeared during the life of the first apostles.

Every year, thousands of people come to Jerusalem to be present at the Descent of a bright Light, from which candles sometimes ignite themselves. Millions of viewers around the world are waiting with bated breath for God's miracle.

What is Holy Fire

Holy Fire translated from Greek means the Holy Light that arises over the Holy Sepulcher in different time, but invariably his appearance on Holy Saturday before Easter.

Descent of the Holy Fire in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem

God's Light, taken out of Kuvuklia before the celebration of Easter, is a symbol of the resurrected Jesus Christ for all Christians.

The Apostle Peter was the first to see the non-hand-made Light when he ran into an empty tomb. It was night, but Peter was struck by the bright radiance he saw emanating from the Tomb of Jesus Christ.

The uniqueness of the Holy Fire lies in the fact that in the first minutes after the descent it does not burn.

Many people who are in Jerusalem at this time are truly washed by fire, accepting the grace of the resurrected Son of God.

Descent of the Holy Fire in Jerusalem

Church of the Holy Sepulcher: history and modern style

The territory of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is represented by a whole complex of architectural buildings, which include:

• Golgotha ​​and the place of the Crucifixion;
• Edicule;
• Katholikon - the cathedral, intended for the Jerusalem patriarchs;
• Temple of the Finding of the Life-Giving Cross, located underground;
• Cathedral of Saint Helena;
• monasteries;
• galleries.

God's love united different churches in one territory. The Jerusalem Orthodox Church leads services in its shrines, Golgotha, Edicule and Katholikon. Order of St. Francis possesses a Franciscan church and an altar of nails. The Armenian Apostolic Church presides in the Cathedral of St. Helena, the chapel of the "Three Marys".

The Ethiopian Church conducts services over the grave of St. Joseph and the altar located on west side Edicules. The wall enclosing the Temple from the whole city was built by Sultan Suleiman even before the time when Orthodox Christians appeared there. Calvary - a rock, a place of suffering and the Crucifixion of Jesus, in those old times located outside the city walls.

The Holy Tomb - the cave in which the Savior was buried, is located a few meters from Golgotha. Initially, it had two chambers - the entrance and the burial room itself, in which there was a bed - an arcosolium, a place of ritual burials.

In the fourth century, Equal-to-the-Apostles Helena ordered that two shrines be covered with vaults of the Basilica, which now bears the name of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

Temple of the Thunder of the Lord in Jerusalem

The chapel of Kuvukliy, or in translation - the royal bedchamber, "covers" the burial cave of Jesus. Nowhere else in the world is there such a chapel, Kuvuklia is a unique place on earth that keeps memories of the King of kings, the Lord of lords, who was buried and resurrected in this place.

As in ancient times, there are two chambers in Edicule, in the first one you can see a large bed - arcosolium, the entrance room is known in modern world, like the Angel's Chapel. In the Angel's Chapel, a part of a stone block is kept, which an angel rolled off. It was from this stone that the Angel sitting on it addressed the women who brought the world to the tomb of the Teacher.

Church of the Holy Sepulcher - a modern view of Golgotha

The history of the convergence of the Holy Fire

The history of the Church keeps all the information about the descent of the Holy Fire for several centuries.

• The Jerusalem church, according to the evidence described in the Lectionary, as early as the fifth century began its Sabbath services only after the Evening Light appeared.
• In the ninth century, according to the testimony of the pilgrim Bernard the Monk (867), the appearance of the Holy Light is perceived as a miracle of God. According to the description of the pilgrim, during the morning church service, as soon as, according to the charter of the church, “Lord, have mercy” was pronounced, the lamps located above the Tomb were lit by an angel, without outside help. The Holy Light was transmitted by Patriarch Theodosius, known for his piety, through the bishop to all the people, who carried the Fire to their homes.
• From the tenth to twelfth centuries, much more memories of the spontaneous combustion of candles and lamps over the Holy Sepulcher have been preserved just at the time when the room was completely abandoned by people, they all stand outside the Temple. The Emir of Jerusalem in the tenth century received the Holy Fire, which descended from lightning, standing outside the temple, as reported by Metropolitan Kesari Arfa.
• According to the testimony of the Byzantine cleric Nikita, who visited Jerusalem in 947, the Divine Radiance appeared after long prayers. During the service, the archbishop looked into the Holy Sepulcher several times, but did not find the Radiance there. After that, he stood for several hours with his hands raised high, following the example of Moses in prayer to Jesus Christ, and only at six o'clock in the evening did the Divine Light begin to be seen through the Angel's Chapel.
• For the first time, a description of the Jerusalem miracle in Russian was made by Abbot Daniel in the twelfth century. According to the testimony of the Abbot, at that time there was still no roof over Kuvuklia. All the people present at the morning service stood under open sky from which it suddenly began to rain, lightning shone terribly, illuminating everything around, and the Holy Light came down, from which all the lamps were lit by themselves.
• In 1420, Hierodeacon Zosim, a representative of Sergievsky Posad, wrote about his presence at the invisible lighting of a lamp with many candles, standing in the center of the Temple.
• During his journey to Jerusalem in 1708, Hieromonk Hippolytus was present at the descent of Heavenly Light, but was indignant at the behavior, according to him, of the Urmen heretics. Most likely, these were the Arabs, who are still behaving very loudly in the Temple of the Lord.
• Minister of Education Abraham Norov was present in the chapel, standing in the Angel's Chapel, waiting for a miracle. In 1835, according to his recollections, all the candles were extinguished in the room, only weak illumination came into the Aisle through the cracks from the outside. The entrance to Kuvukliya had no doors, so the minister saw how the Armenian bishop, who was honored to accept the miracle, stood in prayer in front of the absolutely clean surface of the Tomb. Everyone was frozen in unsettling silence both inside and outside the buildings. Literally a few minutes later, a bright light illuminated the chapel, the Metropolitan brought out a flaming bunch of candles, there are 33 of them.
• Archbishop Gabriel, who worked in Jerusalem in 1967-1968 with the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission, shared his impressions. Being directly near the entrance to the Angel's Chapel, after the Patriarch came out with the candles of the Holy Fire, the Russian archbishop literally "dived" to the Coffin and saw the Tongues of Flame on the marble. Blue, heavenly fire literally spilled over the entire surface of the Tomb, Gabriel began to wash himself with it.

Litany of the Holy Light

Every year, on Holy Saturday, the entire Christian world, with bated breath, awaits the miracle of the appearance of the Holy Fire. The temple ceremony or litany of the Holy Light begins on Saturday morning. Pilgrims, and among Orthodox Christians there are atheists, Muslims, believers of other faiths, from the early morning take a turn.

In the Temple of the Lord, all the candles are extinguished, this is strictly monitored by representatives of different churches. After verification, Kuvuklia is sealed with a large seal by the keeper of the keys, who is a Muslim.

There are three groups of people whose presence is mandatory in the process of preparing for the descent of the Holy Fire. The Lord chose the Patriarch of the Jerusalem Orthodox Church to be present at the sacrament of the appearance of the Holy Fire.

Important! Only a representative of the Orthodox Church can receive the Holy Light, and this is not the choice of Orthodoxy itself. This is God's choice.

Representatives of the Armenian Church in 1579, by agreement with the mayor, entered the temple, leaving the Orthodox priesthood behind the doors of the temple. For a long time the Armenian representatives prayed, but the Light did not descend. Orthodox priests were also in tremulous prayer. Suddenly, a strong thunder sounded in the Temple, the column standing to the left of the entrance door to Kuvuklia cracked, and Fire appeared from there, lighting the candles at the Orthodox Patriarch.

Traces of this miracle can be seen to this day.

Traces of the Holy Fire in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher

Since that time, no one was willing to challenge the right of the Orthodox Church to receive the Holy Fire. Representatives of various Christian denominations may be present at the appearance of the Grace of God - the descent of God's Fire. They receive the Holy Light from candles lit by the Jerusalem Orthodox Patriarch.

The second group of people, without whose presence the miracle of the descent of Light does not occur, is monasticism, representing the Lavra of St. Savva the Sanctified. This tradition dates back to 614, when 14,000 monks died at the hands of the Persian conquerors. Currently, 14 monks constantly serve in the Lavra.

Many pilgrims are surprised and even outraged by the loud behavior of Arab Christians. The guys sit on top of each other and loudly praise God, dance. The timing of this tradition is not known, but when the Arabs were banned from the Temple during English rule, the Fire did not appear until the Arab youths were allowed to perform their rituals.

Arab Christians Praise God

Despite the weather, even on sunny days, from 9 o'clock in the morning, pilgrims can hear sounds resembling thunder. In some years, around noon, the temple and the courtyard begin to light up with heavenly lightning, which are harbingers of the descent of the Holy Light.

At this time, the prayers of the Arab youth are loudly heard. Close to 13.00, the litany begins, during which the clergy, led by His Beatitude Patriarch of Jerusalem, circle the Kuvukliya three times, stopping in front of its entrance.

The patriarch is exposed to the underwear, sometimes there is a demonstrative search, showing that His Beatitude does not have the means to light a fire.

In the strongest excitement, the Patriarch enters Kuvukliya, kneels down and lifts up a prayer of petition to God, on which it depends whether the Lord will have mercy on His people. The air is saturated with hope and anxiety, and when the excitement reaches its peak, the air is pierced by frequent flashes of heavenly color, the bright Holy Light literally breaks out of Kuvuklia, from 33 candles lit by God himself, transmitted by the Patriarch. Fire spreads in fiery streams throughout the Temple and beyond. People rejoice, dance, sing.

His Beatitude Patriarch of Jerusalem

Many pilgrims testify that at this moment they felt a real purification, like a second birth.

Miracles of the Holy Light

Repeatedly, during their stay in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, after washing with the Holy Light, people receive healing. Surveillance cameras recorded the complete cleansing of the man's face, disfigured by festering wounds that practically “ate” his ear. The miracle of healing consisted in the fact that literally before the eyes of those present, the face was cleansed, and the ear took on its natural form.

The second case of a temple miracle occurred with a man who, after washing, both eyesores disappeared, because of them the man was practically blind.

Bright lightning and the Holy Light did not harm a single person, did not singe a single hair. Only the flowing wax from candles, which is called dew drops, leaves a trace, it cannot be washed off with any powders.

Representatives of various faiths, having received the Holy Fire, rush to deliver it to their countries.

Descent of the Holy Fire in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher

Scientists managed to get to the Holy Sepulcher and conduct research, the result of which shocked believers.

Regardless of whether a person considers himself a believer or not, at least once in his life he was interested in real evidence of the existence of higher powers, which every religion tells about.

In Orthodoxy, one of the testimonies of the miracles indicated in the Bible is the Holy Fire descending on the Holy Sepulcher on the eve of Easter. On Great Saturday, anyone can look at it - just come to the square in front of the Church of the Resurrection. But the longer this tradition exists, the more hypotheses are built by journalists and scientists. All of them refute the divine origin of fire - but can one of them be trusted?

History of the Holy Fire

The convergence of fire can be seen only once a year and in the only place on the planet - the Jerusalem Church of the Resurrection. Its huge complex includes: Calvary, a cave with the Cross of the Lord, a garden where Christ was seen after the resurrection. It was built in the 4th century by Emperor Constantine and the Holy Fire was seen there during the first service on Easter. Around the place where this happened, they built a chapel with the tomb of the Lord - it is called Cuvuklia.

At ten o'clock in the morning of Great Saturday, all candles, lamps and other sources of light are extinguished in the temple every year. The highest church ranks personally monitor this: Kuvuklia passes the last test, after which it is sealed with a large wax seal. From that moment on, the protection of holy places falls on the shoulders of the Israeli police officers (in ancient times, the Janissaries handled their duties Ottoman Empire). They also put an additional seal over the seal of the Patriarch. What is not proof of the miraculous origin of the Holy Fire?

Edicule

At twelve o'clock in the afternoon, a procession of the cross begins to stretch from the courtyard of the Jerusalem Patriarchate to the Holy Sepulcher. It is headed by the patriarch: having bypassed Kuvuklia three times, he stops in front of her doors.

“The patriarch dresses in white clothes. With him, at the same time, 12 archimandrites and four deacons put on white vestments. Then clerics in white surplice with 12 banners depicting the Passion of Christ and His glorious Resurrection come out of the altar in pairs, followed by clergy with ripids and a life-giving cross, then 12 priests in pairs, then four deacons also in pairs, the last two of them in front of the patriarch they hold bunches of candles in their hands in a silver stand for the most convenient transfer of the holy fire to the people, and, finally, the patriarch with a rod in right hand. With the blessing of the patriarch, the singers and all the clergy, while singing: “Thy Resurrection, Christ the Savior, the angels sing in heaven, and make us on earth glorify you with a pure heart” go from the Church of the Resurrection to the Kuvuklia and bypass it three times. After the third circumambulation, the patriarch, the clergy and the chanters stop with the banner-bearers and the crusader in front of the holy life-giving tomb and sing the evening hymn: “Quiet Light”, reminiscent of the fact that this litany was once part of the rite of evening worship.

Patriarch and Holy Sepulcher

In the courtyard of the temple, the Patriarch is watched by thousands of eyes of pilgrims-tourists from all over the world - from Russia, Ukraine, Greece, England, Germany. The police officers search the Patriarch, after which he enters Kuvuklia. An Armenian archimandrite remains at the front door in order to offer prayers to Christ for the forgiveness of the sins of the human race.

“The patriarch, having stood at the door of the holy tomb, with the help of the deacons, takes off his miter, sakkos, omophorion and club and remains only in the vestment, stole, belt and handrails. The dragoman then removes the seals and cords from the door of the holy tomb and lets in his patriarch, who has the aforementioned bunches of candles in his hands. One Armenian bishop immediately follows him inside the cuvuklia, dressed in sacred clothes and also holding bunches of candles in his hands for the speedy transfer of the holy fire to the people through the southern opening of the cuvuklia in the chapel of the Angel.

When the Patriarch is alone, behind closed doors, the real sacrament begins. On his knees, the Holy One prays to the Lord for the message of the Holy Fire. His prayers are not heard by people outside the doors of the chapel - but they can see their result! Blue and red flashes appear on the walls, columns and icons of the temple, reminiscent of reflections during fireworks. At the same time, blue lights appear on the marble slab of the Coffin. The clergyman touches one of them with a cotton ball - and the fire spreads to her. The patriarch lights a lampada with a cotton wool and hands it over to the Armenian bishop.

“And all those people in the church and outside the church say nothing else, only: “Lord, have mercy!” they cry unremittingly and shout loudly, so that the whole place buzzes and thunders from the cry of those people. And here tears are shed in streams from faithful people. Even with a stone heart, a person can then shed a tear. Each of the pilgrims, holding in his hand a bunch of 33 candles, according to the number of years of the life of our Savior ... hurries in spiritual joy to kindle them from the primary light, through the clergy deliberately appointed for this from the Orthodox and Armenian clergy, standing near the northern and southern openings of the cuvuklia and the first to receive holy fire from the holy tomb. From the numerous boxes, from the windows and cornices of the walls, similar bunches of wax candles descend on ropes, as the spectators, who occupy their places at the top of the temple, immediately strive to partake of the same grace.

Transfer of the Holy Fire

In the first minutes after receiving fire, you can do anything with it: believers wash themselves with it and touch it with their hands without fear of getting burned. After a few minutes, the fire turns from cold to warm and acquires its usual properties. Several centuries ago, one of the pilgrims wrote:

“He lit 20 candles in one place and burned his brother with all those candles, and not a single hair writhed or burned; and having extinguished all the candles and then kindled them with other people, I kindled those candles, and I also kindled those candles on the third day, and then touching my wife with nothing, I didn’t singe a single hair, nor writhed.

Conditions for the appearance of the sacred fire

Among the Orthodox, there is a belief that in the year when the fire does not light up, the apocalypse will begin. However, this event has already happened once - then a follower of a different confession of Christianity tried to extract the fire.

“The first Latin Patriarch Arnopd of Choquet ordered the expulsion of heretic sects 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 Holy 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 the local Christians of their rights.

Fire under the Latin Patriarch and a crack in the column

In 1578, the clergy from Armenia, who had not heard anything about the attempts of their predecessor, tried to repeat them. They obtained permission to be the first to see the Holy Fire by forbidding the Orthodox Patriarch to enter the church. He, along with other priests, was forced to pray at the gate on the eve of Easter. The henchmen of the Armenian Church did not manage to see the miracle of God. One of the columns of the courtyard, in which the Orthodox prayed, cracked, and a pillar of fire appeared from it. Traces of its convergence can be observed by any tourist today. Believers traditionally leave notes in it with the most cherished requests to God.

A series of mystical events forced Christians to sit down at the negotiating table and decide that it is pleasing to God to transfer the fire into the hands of an Orthodox priest. Well, he, in turn, goes out to the people and gives the sacred flame to the hegumen and the monks of the Lavra of St. Savva the Sanctified, the Armenian Apostolic and Syrian Church. The last to enter the temple must be the local Orthodox Arabs. On Holy Saturday, they appear in the square with songs and dances, and then enter the chapel. In it, they say ancient prayers in Arabic, in which they turn to Christ and Mother of God. This condition is also required for the appearance of fire.
conditions for the appearance of the sacred fire

“There is no evidence of the first performance of this ritual. The Arabs ask the Mother of God to beg the Son to send Fire to George the Victorious, who is especially revered in the Orthodox East. They 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, but to no avail. Then the Patriarch ordered his will to let the Arab youth. After they performed the ritual, the Fire descended"

Were attempts to find a scientific explanation for the Holy Fire successful?

It is impossible to say that the skeptics managed to defeat the believers. Among the many theories that have physical, chemical and even alien justification, only one deserves attention. In 2008, physicist Andrey Volkov managed to get into Kuvuklia with special equipment. There he was able to make the appropriate measurements, but their results were not in favor of science!

“A few minutes before the removal of the Holy Fire from Kuvuklia, a device that fixes the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation detected a strange long-wave impulse in the temple, which no longer manifested itself. I do not want to refute or prove anything, but such scientific result experiment. There was an electric discharge - either lightning struck, or something like a piezo lighter turned on for a moment.

Physicist about blessed fire

The physicist himself did not set the goal of his research to expose the shrine. He was interested in the very process of convergence of fire: the appearance of flashes on the walls and on the lid of the Holy Sepulcher.

« So, it is quite likely that the appearance of Fire is preceded by an electrical discharge, and we, by measuring the electromagnetic spectrum in the temple, tried to catch it.”

This is how Andrei comments on what happened. It turns out that to unravel the mystery of the sacred Holy Fire is beyond the power of modern technology ...

Part 1 - Source of the Holy Fire
Orthodox critics of the miraculous appearance of fire

Jerusalem, Saturday eve Orthodox Easter . In the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, a ceremony is held - the Litany of the Holy Fire. The temple is filled with pilgrims, in the middle of the Temple a chapel (Edicule) was built, into which two priests enter (a Greek patriarch and an Armenian archimandrite). After a while, they come out of Kuvukliy with fire, which is passed on to believers (see photo and video section). In the Orthodox environment, belief in the miraculous appearance of fire is widespread and various amazing properties are attributed to it. However, even at the beginning of the last century, even among the Orthodox, there are doubts about the miraculous nature of the origin of fire and the presence of some special properties in it. These doubts were so widespread in society that it allowed the leading orientalist of the last century, IYu Krachkovsky, to conclude in 1915: A. Olesnitsky and A. Dmitrievsky talk about "the celebration of the consecration of fire at the Holy Sepulcher" ”(). The founder of the Russian spiritual mission in Jerusalem, Bishop Porfiry Uspensky, summarizing the consequences of the scandal with the Holy Fire, which led to the recognition of the metropolitan as a forgery, left the following entry in 1848: “But from that time on, the Holy Sepulcher clergy no longer believe in the miraculous phenomenon of fire” (). A student of Professor Dmitrievsky mentioned by Krachkovsky, Honored Professor of the Leningrad Theological Academy, Nikolai Dmitrievich Uspensky, in 1949 delivered an act speech at the annual report of the Council of the Leningrad Theological Academy, in which he described in detail the history of the Holy Fire, and based on the material presented, made the following conclusion: “Obviously, when something, without giving a timely energetic explanation to his flock about the true meaning of the rite of St. fire in the future, they were unable to raise this voice in front of the ever-growing fanaticism of the dark masses due to objective conditions. If this was not done in a timely manner, then later it became impossible, without risk for personal well-being and, perhaps, the integrity of the shrines themselves. It remains for them to perform the ceremony and be silent, consoling themselves with the fact that God “as he knows and can, so he will enlighten and calm the peoples” (). There are quite a lot of those who doubt the miraculous nature of the Holy Fire among modern Orthodox believers. Here we can mention Protodeacon A. Kuraev, who shared his impressions of the meeting of the Russian delegation with: the Greek Patriarch Theophilus in the following words: “His answer about the Holy Fire was no less frank: “This is a ceremony that is a representation, like all other ceremonies Holy Week. Just as once the Easter message from the tomb shone and illuminated the whole world, so now in this ceremony we make a representation of how the message of the resurrection from the cuvuklia spread throughout the world. Neither the word "miracle", nor the word "descent", nor the words "blessed fire" were in his speech. He probably couldn’t have been more frank about the lighter in his pocket "” (), another example is an interview about the Holy Fire of Archimandrite Isidore, head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem, where he in particular recalled the words of the Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne of the Jerusalem Church, Metropolitan Kornily of Petr: “... This is a natural light that is lit from the Inextinguishable Icon Lamp stored in the sacristy of the Church of the Resurrection” (). The now disgraced ROC, Deacon Alexander Musin (Doctor of Historical Sciences, Candidate of Theology), in collaboration with church historian Sergei Bychkov (Doctor of Historical Sciences), published a book : "HOLY FIRE: MYTH OR REALITY?", where they write in particular: "In order to lift the veil over this centuries-old, but by no means pious myth, we decided to publish a short work by the famous St. Petersburg professor Nikolai Dmitrievich Uspensky (1900-1987), dedicated to the history rite of the holy fire of Great Saturday, as well as forgotten article the world-famous orientalist academician Ignatius Yulianovich Krachkovsky (1883-1951) "Holy Fire" based on the story of Al-Biruni and other Muslim writers of the 10th-13th centuries.
A series of works by Protopresbyter of the Patriarchate of Constantinople George Tsetsis is devoted to exposing the myth of the miraculous appearance of the Holy Fire. The patriarch does not pray for a miracle. He only "remembers" the sacrifice and the three-day resurrection of Christ and, turning to Him, says: "Reverently accepting this kindled (*******) fire on Your luminous Tomb, we distribute to those who believe in the true light, and we pray to You that You revealed him with the gift of sanctification." The following happens: the patriarch lights his candle from the inextinguishable lamp, which is located on the Holy Sepulcher. Just like every patriarch and every cleric in the day Happy Easter when it receives the light of Christ from the unquenchable lamp, which is located on the holy throne, symbolizing the Holy Sepulcher "().
The younger generation of theologians is not far behind, in 2008 she was defended graduate work on the Liturgy on the topic “The service of the descent of the blessed fire in Jerusalem”, performed by a 5th year student of the Institute of Theology of the Belarusian State University Zvezdin P., in which he also dispels the myth of the miraculous appearance of fire ().
However, one has only to accept the correctness of the Orthodox figures mentioned here, who have earned honor and respect for their service, Orthodox figures, as one will have to admit that many Greek patriarchs and no less noble Orthodox clergymen hypocritically deceived believers, talking about the miraculous appearance of fire and its unusual properties. This is probably why, in apology articles written by famous Russian theologians, seemingly honored Orthodox figures so often throw mud at them, attributing to them heretical views, a craving for collecting fables to please their own preconceived opinions, and the lack of a scientific approach in their critical works regarding the Holy Fire (8 , ; ).

What arguments do critics of the miraculous nature of the appearance of the Holy Fire give?
Almost all skeptics are confused by the clear definition of the time of receipt of fire and the ability to change this time by order of local authorities.
Due to the constant strife between Christian denominations, in 1852, through the efforts of the authorities, a document appeared, the so-called STATUS-QUO, which thoroughly recorded the sequence of actions of all rituals for all denominations in the city. The service of the Holy Fire is also scheduled by the minute, in particular, to gain fire, the priests who entered the Cuvuklia are given time from 12.55 to 13.10 (). And now, for 8 years of live broadcasts, this time has been impeccably observed. Only in 2002, due to a fight between the patriarch and the archimandrite inside Kuvukliy, the fire began to be distributed much later than a certain time (). Those. the delay was the fault of the priests, and not because of the lack of fire. This fight had serious consequences, for several years now, together with the Armenian archimandrite and the Greek patriarch, the Israeli policeman enters Kuvukliy, vigilantly ensuring that high-ranking clergy do not fight again in this holy and revered place (). Skepticism is also betrayed by another fact related to the time of the appearance of fire, which prof. AA Dmitrievsky, referring to prof. A.A. Olesnitsky, in 1909 he writes: “Once the feast of fire at the Holy Sepulcher was connected directly with Easter matins, but due to some disturbances that occurred during this celebration, at the request of the local authorities, it was postponed to the previous day” (). It turns out that the time of the appearance of a divine miracle can also be determined by the orders of the Islamic administration.
In principle, God is able to fulfill any order of any administration, since He is omnipotent and can do anything and plan His miracles in any way. However, a miracle so clearly defined in time is the only example. Let's say in the gospel example with the pool, to which the apologists of the miracle refer (John 5: 2-4), healings do not occur in a strictly certain time but as the evangelist writes:<…>for the angel of the Lord went down from time to time into the pool and disturbed the water, and whoever entered it first after the disturbance of the water was healed<…>". Also other annual Orthodox miracles, for example, the descent of the Holy Cloud on Mount Tabor on the day of the Transfiguration of the Lord or the appearance poisonous snakes in the Church of the Dormition Holy Mother of God(on the Island of Kefalonia) on the day of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I also do not have a strictly defined time period. By the way, the convergence of the cloud on Mount Tabor and the appearance of poisonous snakes occur in front of people, while the fire arises in Kuvuklia closed from pilgrims. Such accessibility greatly contributes to clarifying the true nature of these phenomena, for example, it turns out that the priests themselves bring snakes and they are completely non-poisonous (). With regard to Mount Tabor, everything is also relatively simple. At this time of the year, fogs form almost daily on the mountain, and pilgrims only witness the birth of such a fog (). The spectacle is really beautiful, and having an increased religiosity, it is easy to attribute miraculous properties to what you see.

The version of skeptics about the appearance of fire
From the point of view of skeptics, the Greek patriarch and the Armenian archimandrite light their candles from the inextinguishable lamp, which the keeper of the tomb brings in shortly before the entrance of the patriarch. Perhaps the lampada is not placed on the coffin, but in a niche behind the icon from which the patriarch takes it out, perhaps some other additional manipulations are taking place inside. Unfortunately, we are not allowed to see this.
Let's remember the sequence of actions during the ceremony (link to video).

1. Examine Kuvuklia (two priests and a representative of the authorities).
2. Seal the entrance doors of Kuvuklia with a large wax seal.
3. The keeper of the coffin appears, who brings inside the Coffin a large lampada covered with a cap. The seal is removed in front of him, he enters Kvukliy, and after a few minutes he leaves.
4. A solemn procession appears, led by the Greek patriarch, it circles three times around Kuvukliy. The clothes of patriarchal dignity are removed from the patriarch and he, together with the Armenian archimandrite (and the Israeli policeman), enters the Kuvukliy.
5. After 5-10 minutes, the Greek patriarch and the Armenian archimandrite come out with fire (before that, they managed to distribute fire through the windows of Kuvukliy).

Naturally, a person with a lamp covered with a cap will be of interest to skeptics. By the way, there are air holes in the cap of the lamp, so that a fire can burn in it. Unfortunately, the apologists of the miracle practically do not explain the introduction of this lamp inside the Kuvukliy. They pay attention to the inspection of Kuvukliy by government officials and priests before sealing. Indeed, after examining the fire inside should not be. Then the apologists of the miracle pay attention to the search of the Greek patriarch, before his entrance into Kuvukliy. True, the video clearly shows that only Greek priests take off their clothes from him and at the same time they do not search their patriarch, but this is not important, due to the fact that another representative of the Greek OC had previously entered there to put the lamp on the Sepulcher and no one does not examine.

The words of Patriarch Theophilus about the Holy Fire are interesting:
"Patriarch Theophilus of Jerusalem: This is a very ancient, very special and unique ceremony Jerusalem Church. This ceremony of the Holy Fire takes place only here in Jerusalem. And this happens thanks to the very Tomb of our Lord Jesus Christ. As you know, this ceremony of the Holy Fire is, so to speak, an image (enactment), which represents the first Good News (the first good news), the first Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ (the first resurrection). This is representation- like all sacred ceremonies. Like on Good Friday we have a burial rite, don't we? How do we bury the Lord, etc.
So, this ceremony is taking place in a holy place, and all other Eastern Churches that share the Holy Sepulcher would like to take part in this. Such as Armenians, Copts, Syrians come to us and receive our blessing, because they want to receive the Fire from the patriarch.
Now, the second part of your question is actually about us. It is an experience which, if you like, is analogous to the experience a person has when he receives Holy Communion. What happens there also applies to the Holy Fire ceremony. This means that a certain experience cannot be explained, expressed in words. Therefore, everyone who takes part in this ceremony - priests or laymen, or laywomen - everyone has their own indescribable experience.

The apologist for the miracle did not like such an answer so much that even, in my opinion, a fake interview with Patriarch Theophilos () appeared.

The most important evidence of the miraculous appearance of fire.
Again, I want to draw your attention to the fact that by trusting Orthodox skeptics, we thereby acknowledge the deceit on the part of the Greek patriarchs and a number of prominent Russian Orthodox figures. I will present these testimonies.
- Monk Parthenius, wrote down the stories of those who talked with the Metropolitan of Transjordan (1841-1846 or 1870-1871), in which he talks about the spontaneous combustion of the lamp: "Sometimes I ascend, and it is already burning; then I will soon take it out, and sometimes I will ascend, and the lamp is not yet lit; then I will fall to the ground from fear and with tears I begin to ask for mercy from God. When I get up, the lamp is already burning, and I light two bunches of candles, take them out and serve them "(24).
- Viceroy Peter Meletius, whose words are conveyed to us by the pilgrim Barbara Brun de Saint Hippolyte, traveling around 1859, who left the following entry: "Now grace has already descended on the Savior's Tomb when I ascended Kuvuklia: it is clear that you all prayed earnestly, and God heard your prayers. Sometimes I pray for a long time with tears, and the fire of God did not descend from heaven until two o'clock, but this time I already saw it, as soon as they locked the door behind me "(24).
- Hieromonk Meletius cites the words of Archbishop Misail, who received the fire: “He told me when I entered, inside to St. To the coffin, we see be on the entire roof of the Tomb, shining light, like scattered small beads, in the form of white, blue, alago and other colors, which then copulated blushed, and turned over time into the substance of fire; but this Fire, in the course of time, as soon as you can read slowly forty times "Lord have mercy!" it does not burn even from this fire the prepared candila and candles ”(24).
- Patriarch Diodorus in 1998 say: « I make my way through the darkness into the inner room, and there I fall to my knees. Here I offer special prayers that have come down to us through the centuries and, after reading them, I wait. Sometimes I wait a few minutes, but usually the miracle happens as soon as I say the prayers. From the midst of the very stone on which Jesus lay, an indescribable light pours out. He usually blue tint, but the color may change and acquire a lot different shades. It cannot be described in human words. Light rises from the stone, like fog rising from a lake - it almost looks like the stone is covered by a damp cloud, but it is light. This light behaves differently every year. Sometimes it covers only the stone, and sometimes it fills the entire Kuvukliya, so that if people standing outside looked inside, they would see it filled with light. The light does not burn - I have never burned my beard in all the sixteen years that I was the Patriarch of Jerusalem and received the Holy Fire. A light of a different consistency than an ordinary fire burning in an oil lamp.
“At a certain moment, the light rises and takes the form of a column, in which the fire is of a different nature, so that I can already light candles from it. When I light candles with fire in this way, I go out and pass the fire first to the Armenian Patriarch, and then to the Coptic. Then I pass the fire to all the people present in the temple ”().
- Avraam Sergeevich Norov, former Minister of Public Education in Russia, a famous Russian writer who traveled to Palestine in 1835:
“In the chapel of the Holy Sepulcher, only one of the Greek bishops, the Armenian bishop (who recently received the right to do so), the Russian consul from Jaffa, and we three travelers entered the chapel of the Holy Sepulcher. The doors closed behind us. The never-extinguishing lamps over the Holy Sepulcher had already been extinguished, only a faint 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 bowed before the low entrance. entered the den and knelt before the Holy Sepulcher, 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” (24).
- Bishop Gabriel: “And when on Holy Saturday the Patriarch came out with the Holy Fire, we did not light it, but quickly, together with Vladyka Anthony, dived into the cuvuklia of the Holy Sepulcher. One Greek ran in, Vladyka and I, and we saw blue, heavenly fire in the Holy Sepulcher, we took it with our hands and washed ourselves with it. For some fractions of a second it did not burn, but then it gained strength, and we lit candles ”(24).

Version of the Armenian side
In addition to the Greek patriarch, an Armenian archimandrite enters inside Kuvukliy to light the fire. The priest of the Armenian Church, hegumen of the monastery of the Holy Archangels (AAC), hieromonk Ghevond Hovhannisyan, who has been present at the ceremony of consecrating the fire for 12 years, and is personally acquainted with the priests of the Armenian Apostolic Church, who enter the Kuvuklia to consecrate the fire together with the Greek Patriarch, writes:
“By one in the afternoon, the doors of the Tomb are sealed with wax. Where are 2 priests: an Armenian and a Greek. By two o'clock, the doors are torn off and the Greeks bring in a closed (lit) Lampada and put it on the Coffin. After that, the procession of the Greeks around the Sepulcher begins, on the 3rd circle the Armenian archimandrite joins them and together they move towards the doors. The Greek Patriarch enters first, followed by the Armenian. And both enter the Tomb, where they both kneel down and pray together. After the first candle from a lit lamp, the Greek lights, and then the Armenian. Both go and serve candles to the people through the holes, the Greek comes out of the coffin first, followed by the Armenian, who is carried in his arms to our hegumen's room ”().
In addition, he filmed what was happening in Kuvuklia, immediately after the fire was removed from there. No special, blue fire was recorded on the slab of the coffin. Only burning lamps, contrary to the story of Bishop Gabriel (27, link to video). In his blog, Priest Ghevond cites scans of their journal of the Patriarchate "Zion" N-3 dated 1874, which tells how during the Holy Fire ceremony the Greek patriarch burned his beard, which they were able to quickly put out. This case, as noted in the journal, is the result of superstitious interpretations about fire that the Greeks spread among their flock, and if the Greeks would explain to their own, as the Armenian Patriarch does, then there would be no such cases and temptations that humiliate the Christian faith before believers of other religions... (30).
There is one subtlety that is characteristic of the attitude of the Armenian Church to the Holy Fire. According to the legend: "St. On Great Saturday, Gregory enters the Holy Sepulcher, where he asks the Lord for the Light to descend as a sign of His Resurrection ... The Lord heard his prayers, and in his honor all the lamps and candles are miraculously lit. To this miracle, St. Gregory sings “Luis Zwart” (Quiet Light), which to this day is sung every Saturday in the AAC ... After that, he asks the Lord that every Great Saturday, to the glory of His Resurrection, would light the lamps with an invisible light. A sign that is still taking place to this day, and it is visible only with the eye of faith! (“The Book of Questions” St. Tatevatsi 14-15c). Thus, according to their belief, the first visible kindling of fire was of divine origin, and subsequently, the appearance of fire invisible to the ordinary eye occurs, while the visible fire is kindled from an inextinguishable lamp. This is how priest Ghevond defines this position: “I note that the AAC, in addition to not denying the Miraculous descent of Fire, also cites its own testimonies, but at the same time does not call that which is not a “Miracle”, that is, a miracle. when the Miracle happens, then he boldly speaks about it! The fire lit on the Holy Sepulcher is for us the Holy Fire, for we believe that through the prayer of our St. Gregory the Lusavorich, the Lord to this day every Great Saturday, to the glory of His Resurrection, lights the lamps with the Invisible Light and therefore we do not call - the Holy Fire, but LUYS - LIGHT!" (31).
This subtlety introduces confusion and misunderstanding of what some representatives of the Armenian Church say, for example, the priest Emmanuel in an interview for the film "Secrets of Fire": "It's just that miracle when Jesus, our Lord, is resurrected, and the Light hits right ... You can say he... beat from the Body of the Lord Himself... from the Body of the Lord Himself. That is, he does not descend from top to bottom, as many explain. This is not correct. It beats from the Tomb." I think. The attitude of the Armenian side to the man-made kindling of fire can be understood from the following example. During the 2002 fight in Kuvuklia, the Greek Patriarch succeeded in putting out the candles of the Armenian archimandrite. He, without hesitation, lit them with a lighter, which he told about in an interview: “In this worst situation I had to use my emergency light, a cigarette lighter,” he later admitted” ().

Spontaneous combustion of candles by pilgrims.
Every year there is a lot of evidence of spontaneous combustion of candles in the hands of pilgrims. Thus, it would seem that we have a unique opportunity to show that fire appears not only inside Kuvukliy, but also in the temple, in full view of many video cameras. I carefully watched live video broadcasts provided by NTV for 8 years, watched several Orthodox films about this ceremony, saw live broadcasts made by other television companies and hundreds of videos different quality, but in none of them, I did not find a moment when the candles in the hands of the pilgrims would light up on their own. Everywhere candles ignited from the fire of other candles. My requests to believers to provide a video of spontaneous combustion were also unsuccessful. It remains to state that the stories of the believers are not confirmed by the video materials and agree with the opinion of the guide who led the pilgrimage groups to the ceremony: “In my groups, some standing next to me also said when they arrived home that their candles themselves lit up! If I were next to them I didn’t stand, maybe I would have believed! ”(28).

Scientific proof of the miraculous appearance of fire
At the "Christianity and Science" section of the XVII Christmas Educational Readings on Tuesday in Moscow, the results of a scientific experiment conducted by Russian scientists on Holy Saturday 2008 in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem were announced for the first time.
Head of the sector of the Institute of Atomic Energy named after Kurchatov, Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Andrei Volkov spoke about his own attempt to measure low-frequency long-wave radio signals in the Jerusalem temple during the annual convergence of the Holy Fire.
With the help of specially designed equipment, the scientist made measurements in the temple for almost 6.5 hours of waiting for the fire, and over the next months he was engaged in deciphering them.
A. Volkov considers "an absolute miracle" the difference in the indicators obtained by him on the very day of the convergence of the fire and the day before. In addition, according to him, "an analysis of the cracks on the pillar just before entering the temple really leads to the idea that they could only have appeared as a result of an electrical discharge."
According to A.Volkov, his colleague, the world's leading specialist in fracture mechanics Yevgeny Morozov, also speaks about this.
Considering that "from a strictly scientific point of view, the only measurement made yet does not say anything reliable," A. Volkov at the same time stated that he was fully responsible for the results obtained and was ready to present them.
"But if you ask me as a scientist whether it was or not (a miracle -" IF "), I will say: I don’t know," he added.
In turn, deputy chairman of the commission under the Moscow Patriarchate for the study of miraculous phenomena, teacher at the Russian Orthodox University. John the Evangelist Alexander of Moscow stated that A. Volkov "accomplished a scientific feat by conducting the first ever serious, reliable and responsible scientific measurement of the Holy Fire" (32).

A few comments from my side.

The result of the scientific work should be presented in the form of a scientific article and be reviewed by the relevant experts. A. Volkov did nothing of the kind, and therefore it is difficult to assess the scientific component of his research and consider his work on the nature of the Holy Fire as scientific.
The newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda outlined the following details of the study: “Here is what he said: “A few minutes before the removal of the Holy Fire from Kuvuklia*, a device that fixes the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation detected a strange long-wave impulse in the temple, which no longer manifested itself. I do not want to refute or prove anything, but this is the scientific result of the experiment (...) It took six hours to “catch” the mysterious surge. For a long time, the Jerusalem Patriarch hid in Kuvuklia, the ceremony began ... Yes! A change in the emission spectrum due to an incomprehensible pulse was recorded. It happened in the period from 15 hours 4 minutes to 15 hours 6 minutes - exact time I will not name because of the technological features of the device. One splash and nothing else like it. And soon the Patriarch of Jerusalem appeared with a burning candle...” (34). Knowing the sequence of actions during the ceremony. one can find a completely natural explanation for this result. The temple has a large number of photo and video cameras. They turn on as soon as the fire appears. But at the beginning, the fire is distributed primarily from the windows of Kuvuklia, and after a few minutes the Greek patriarch with lit candles comes out of the gates of Kuvuklia. In other words, the electromagnetic surge observed a few minutes before the patriarch's exit could be due to the beginning of the distribution of fire from the Kuvukliy windows.
Some doubts are caused by the scientific activity of Andrei Alexandrovich Volkov. No scientific articles written by him can be found. You can go to the scientific electronic library and search for authors with the surname Volkov - http://elibrary.ru/authors.asp. Although, I am an unknown scientist, but the search returns five links to my articles. But are there any signs of pseudoscience in the activities of Andrei Volkov? It is written in the KP dossier that he is the head of Nano-Aseptika LLC, as far as I understood his website (when the site was still working), nano-asepsis consists in the fact that the dressing material is covered with nanoparticles and thus it acquires special medicinal properties. However, although the site (in this moment the site is down), the opinion of some experts on the benefits of using a dressing is cited, but there are no imprints for these documents, and there are no references to scientific articles that would confirm the effectiveness of this approach.

Thus, the work of Andrei Volkov, on this moment, does not meet the criteria that determine the scientific character of the study, and the effect found in it can have a completely natural explanation.

Why are the authorities not exposed?
I have already quoted here an entry from the diary of Porfiry Uspensky describing an attempt at such exposure: “This pasha took it into his head to make sure whether the fire on the lid of Christ’s Sepulcher really suddenly and miraculously appears or is lit with a sulfur match. What did he do? He announced to the deputies of the patriarch that he was pleased to sit in the cuvuklia itself while receiving the fire and vigilantly watch how he appeared, and added that in the case of the truth, 5,000 pungs (2,500,000 piastres) would be given to them, and in the case of a lie, let them give him everything money collected from deceived fans, and that he will publish in all the newspapers of Europe about a vile forgery. (2).
Pasha was intimidated by the wrath of the Russian tsar: “After this confession, it was decided to humbly ask Ibrahim not to interfere in religious affairs, and the dragoman of the Holy Sepulcher monastery was sent to him, who made it look to him that there was no use for his lordship to reveal the secrets of Christian worship and that the Russian emperor Nicholas will be very displeased with the discovery of these secrets. (2).
Any action by the Muslim authorities against the Orthodox Church could provoke an international scandal, and far from unfounded, the priests frightened Ibrahim Pasha with the Russian Tsar. A few years later flared up Crimean War between Russia and Turkey, and precisely under the pretext of oppression of the Orthodox in the Holy Land.
On the other hand, they are currently letting an Israeli policeman inside Kuvukliy or they have let the Russian ambassador in, in the testimony I have already cited. There is nothing in the fact that someone else is present inside and observes the miraculous appearance of fire.
However, there is another, very important reason not to expose the falsification with fire. This is income from pilgrims visiting holy places. The income is so huge that in fact the entire population of Jerusalem was fed from them, so prof. Dmitrievsky cites the following observation by Prof. Olesnitsky "On the other hand, in Jerusalem and Palestine this holiday belongs not only to the Orthodox population: all local residents, not excluding Muslims, take part in it. the entire population, and cannot but feel, because Palestine feeds almost exclusively on the gifts that are brought to it by worshipers of the holy sepulcher from Europe.Thus, the feast of the Holy Sepulcher is a feast of the country's happiness and legends about the holy fire and its miraculous properties, and that in the circumstances accompanying the consecration of the fire (in its color, brightness, etc.), the people see signs of a happy or unhappy summer, fertility or famine, war or peace "().
The opinion that Muslims know about the deceit, but use it very profitably, is heard in Islamic revelations of the Holy Fire, for example, al-Jawbari (before 1242)
under the heading "The trick of the monks when lighting a fire in the Church of the Resurrection" says: "Al-Melik al-Mauzzam, the son of al-Melik al-Adil, entered the Church of the Resurrection on the day of the Sabbath of light and said to the monk (attached) to it:" I do not I will leave until I see how this light descends. " The monk said to him: "What is more pleasant for the king: this wealth that flows to you in this way, or acquaintance with this (deed)? If I reveal this secret to you, then the government will lose this money; leave it hidden and receive this great wealth "When the ruler heard this, he understood the hidden essence of the matter and left it in its former position. (...)" ().
As a result, I want to note that it is far from being an atheist and non-believers who are the main critics of the miraculous nature of the Holy Fire or other miracles, but the Orthodox themselves, in this case I only had to collect these critical materials created by believers and present them to the public.