Every year, on the eve of Easter, a miraculous event takes place at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem—the descent of the Holy Fire. This phenomenon holds great significance for Orthodox believers, but what does it entail, and where does the fire come from?
The Holy Fire descends in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Great Saturday, the eve of Easter. This fire is brought out from the Lord’s Tomb during a special liturgy. “The bringing out of the fire from the Kuvuklija (a chapel inside the church, from the Greek word for ‘rest’ or ‘dormition’) symbolizes the exit from the Tomb of the ‘True Light’, that is, the resurrected Jesus Christ, and is considered a miracle,” comments Father Sergey (Khameshin), rector of the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy.
The Holy Fire serves as a symbol of Easter and faith for millions of Orthodox Christians worldwide. According to documentary sources, the first records of the Holy Fire’s descent date back to the 4th century.
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“Queen Helena, the mother of Roman Emperor Constantine I, made a pilgrimage to Palestine. Legend has it that the Holy Spirit led her to the site where Christ’s tomb was located, where the Cross had once stood. Constantine I began constructing a church on the site, which later became a magnificent basilica and a symbol of the Roman Empire’s adoption of Christianity,” explains Vitaly Makarov, deputy general director of the Herzl Center for Repatriation. “To build this temple complex, it was first necessary to destroy the Temple of Aphrodite (Venus), which was believed to have been built by pagans intentionally over the site of Christ’s burial to erase any traces of the Christian God.”
According to the expert, the Byzantine church built by Constantine I was consecrated in 335 and named “Anastasis” (Resurrection). The building was severely damaged during the Persian invasion in 614 and later completely destroyed in 1009 by the Egyptian Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah. The latter, as the story goes, was outraged by the Christians’ ceremony of the Holy Fire, which he considered to be a fraud. In 1048, a large rotunda surrounding the tomb was rebuilt, and a hundred years later, the Crusaders erected a majestic Romanesque-style church and renamed the site the “Lord’s Tomb”.
One legend says that the Holy Fire appeared as a result of Saint Gregory’s prayer in the 4th century. According to this legend, Saint Gregory prayed at Christ’s tomb during Easter and suddenly saw a bright light, which was recognized as a miracle and became a symbol of the resurrection of life and hope. Another legend claims that the Holy Fire appears thanks to an angel who descends to Christ’s tomb and ignites the sacred fire.
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“On Saturday afternoon, on the eve of Easter, a blue-colored light begins to emanate from the stone slab where Christ’s body once lay. The light rises, forming a column – a pillar of fire. Two candles are lit from this fire, and then hundreds of others. Before this, a ritual takes place, initiated by representatives of the Armenian Church, who open the doors to the temple. The Armenian Patriarch then arrives, not participating directly in the liturgy but attending the ceremony alongside representatives of other confessions,” explains Vitaly Makarov.
