Why the descent of the Holy Fire. Descent of the Holy Fire

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

Strange discharge

Quite recently, a report appeared in the press that a Russian physicist, an employee of the Russian Research Center “Kurchatov Institute” Andrei Volkov last year attended the ceremony of the descent of the Holy Fire and secretly made some measurements.

According to Volkov, a few minutes before the removal of the Holy Fire from the Edicule (the chapel where the miraculous fire lights up), a device recording the spectrum electromagnetic radiation, detected a strange long-wave pulse in the temple, which no longer manifested itself. That is, an electrical discharge 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 required. But still, “it could also turn out that we have detected the reason preceding the appearance of the 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 particles of Fire were delivered to various churches throughout the country.

But what is the Holy Fire - a trick 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 is actually of divine origin.

The head of the laboratory of ion systems at the Kurchatov Institute, Andrei Volkov, succeeded in doing something that no other scientist in the world had ever succeeded in: he conducted a scientific experiment in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.

At the moment of the descent of the Holy Fire, instruments recorded a sharp surge of electromagnetic radiation.

52-year-old candidate of physical and mathematical sciences Andrei Volkov has always been interested in the phenomenon of unusual spontaneous combustion 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 was 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 descent of the Holy Fire.

I understood that it would not be easy to do this - in Holy place with the equipment they might not let us in,” Andrei Volkov told Your Day. - And yet I decided to take a risk, since all the devices fit in a regular case. In general, I hoped for luck. And I was lucky.

Radiation

The scientist set up the instruments: if during the descent 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 (this explanation of the phenomenon is still in use among atheists), then no leap will occur.

Volkov watched as the Patriarch of Jerusalem, having taken off his vestments, wearing only a shirt, entered the Edicule (chapel in the Temple) with a bunch of candles. People froze, waiting for a miracle. After all, according to legend, if the Holy Fire does not descend on people on Easter Eve, it will be a sign of the approaching end of the world. Andrei Volkov found out that the miracle had happened before anyone else who was in the temple - his instruments detected a sharp jump!

During 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, this inexplicable burst of energy can be called a message from God?

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

"Fire like a cobra"

An argument in favor of the fact that the Holy Fire is of “natural” and not divine origin is the fact that similar phenomena do occur. Of course, in no case should they be placed 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, absence apparent reason. The same property is characteristic of such a phenomenon as spontaneous combustion, which is not so rare. For example, last month “Buff Garden” wrote about the anomalous 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 of not burning, at least for the first time. This already looks like the so-called cold plasma, a low-temperature ionized substance. It seems that such plasma exists not only in physics laboratories.

Here is a quote from the newspaper “Shakhtarsky Krai”, Novokuznetsk. A case is described when a firefighter responded to a call and saw something completely unusual before his eyes. “I somehow broke into a room in the middle of which hovered an orange-blue selective column of flame. Fire, like a cobra, stood in a vertical position, as if preparing to jump. I took a step towards the flame, and it was immediately sucked into a hole in the floor with a whistle... And when we extinguished the barracks on Vera Solomina Street, the fire seemed to be hiding from us, spreading from one wall to another...” Notice that the flame wriggled, “hidden,” but did not cause a fire.

Science and myths

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

However, some cases still remain a mystery. In 1905, Welsh preacher Mary Jones was visited by mysterious lights. Their appearance varied 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 stress that Jones experienced during sermons.

We should not guess, but explore

Let us return to where we started, to the wonderful Holy Fire in Jerusalem. It turns out that Moscow physicist Andrei Volkov was almost ahead of Tomsk residents. The year before last I was planning to go to Jerusalem research group, among whom were the director of the Biolon center Viktor Fefelov and the famous photojournalist Vladimir Kazantsev.

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

Unfortunately, due to problems with visas, the trip was canceled. 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, it’s all about the release of a clot of tectonic, underground energy to the surface in the form of low-frequency electromagnetic radiation, which Volkov was able to detect?

“The Earth is a very large, extremely complex electromagnetic object,” says Viktor Fefelov, “and extremely little studied. It is likely that there is a tectonic contribution to this phenomenon. There is no need to guess, we need to explore.

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

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

“Why does the Holy Fire descend only on Orthodox Easter?” - some people are interested. The Easter fire, which is also called the Holy Fire, symbolizes the light of God, enlightening all nations after the Resurrection of Christ.

How and where does it come from? holy fire for Easter? Every year on the eve of Holy Saturday on Orthodox Easter, this fire is lit during a service held in the Church of the Resurrection of Christ in Jerusalem. In 2019, this will happen on April 27.

This church service is conducted by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Armenian, Coptic and Syrian Orthodox clergy. Believers pray, and after a while light appears inside the Edicule, then a bell rings in the temple.

This service is being broadcast on live in many countries, including Russia. Then the fire is delivered by plane to Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Serbia, Greece and other countries.

The Holy Fire is greeted by church leaders and government leaders. After arriving from Jerusalem, it is solemnly carried around Orthodox churches V major cities. The lamps that are lit from this fire are carried home by believers.

Why does the Holy Fire descend only on Orthodox Easter?

In earlier times, before the expulsion of the Crusaders from Jerusalem in 1187, Catholic priests also took “participation in the ceremony of the descent of the Holy Fire and, simultaneously with the Orthodox, conducted their service in the temple.”

A similar ritual still exists in the Roman Catholic Church. In Catholic churches, before the start of services during Easter week, an Easter candle is lit - Paschal. All believers light candles from it.

In Germany, Easter bonfires are lit for the symbolic burning of Judas. This bonfire is also a symbol of the fire by which the Apostle Peter warmed himself, so anyone can warm himself near it.

The first evidence of the appearance of miraculous fire in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher dates back to the 9th century. Many believers believe that this fire, appearing supernaturally, comes down from above.

However official sources churches holding a festive ceremony, this is not confirmed. Catholic Church also does not recognize the miraculous nature of the descent of the Holy Fire.

One of the reasons for believing in the descent of the Holy Fire on Orthodox Easter is the belief in the correctness of the Julian calendar.

IN Orthodox Church Easter is always celebrated after the Jewish Passover, since Jesus Christ was resurrected on the first Sunday after it. According to the Gregorian calendar, adopted in Catholicism, Christian Easter is sometimes celebrated on the same day as the Jewish one or even earlier.

There is no documentary evidence of where and how the Holy Fire descends on Easter. However, many pilgrims who visited the temple in Jerusalem on Easter testified to what was happening on Holy Saturday miraculous phenomena: spontaneous combustion of candles, flashes, lightning, etc. Similar stories have been passed on from mouth to mouth for centuries.

Scientists managed to get to the Holy Sepulcher and conduct research, the results 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 higher powers that every religion talks about.

In Orthodoxy, one of the evidences of miracles indicated in the Bible is the Holy Fire descending on the Holy Sepulcher on the eve of Easter. IN Holy Saturday Anyone can see it - just come to the square in front of the Church of the Resurrection. But the longer this tradition exists, the more hypotheses journalists and scientists build. All of them refute the divine origin of fire - but can you trust at least one of them?

History of the Holy Fire

The descent of fire can be seen only once a year and in the only place on the planet - the Jerusalem Temple of the Resurrection. Its huge complex includes: Golgotha, 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 Holy Sepulcher - it is called Edicule.

At ten o'clock on the morning of Holy Saturday, all candles, lamps and other light sources in the temple are extinguished every year. The highest church dignitaries personally monitor this: the last test is the Edicule, after which it is sealed with a large wax seal. From this moment on, the protection of holy places falls on the shoulders of Israeli police officers (in old times the Janissaries handled their duties Ottoman Empire). They also put an additional seal on top of 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 led by the patriarch: having walked around the Edicule three times, he stops in front of its doors.

“The Patriarch dresses in white robes. With him, 12 archimandrites and four deacons put on white vestments at the same time. Then clerics in white surplices with 12 banners depicting the passion of Christ and His glorious resurrection come out of the altar in pairs, followed by clerics with ripids and a life-giving cross, then 12 priests in pairs, then four deacons, also in pairs, with the last two of them in front of the patriarch holding bunches of candles in their hands in a silver stand for the most convenient transmission of the holy fire to the people, and, finally, the patriarch with a staff in right hand. With the blessing of the patriarch, the singers and all the clergy, singing: “Thy Resurrection, Christ the Savior, the angels sing in heaven, and grant us on earth to glorify You with a pure heart,” go from the Church of the Resurrection to the edicule and circle it three times. After the third circumambulation, the patriarch, clergy and singers stop with the banner bearers and the crusader in front of the holy life-giving tomb and sing the evening hymn: “Quiet Light,” recalling that this litany was once part of the rite of the evening service.”

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 search the Patriarch, after which he enters the Edicule. U entrance doors the Armenian archimandrite remains in order to offer prayers to Christ for the forgiveness of the sins of the human race.

“The Patriarch, standing before the doors of the holy tomb, with the help of the deacons, takes off his miter, sakkos, omophorion and club and remains only in the vestment, epitrachelion, belt and armbands. Dragoman then removes the seals and cords from the door of the holy tomb and lets the patriarch inside, who has the aforementioned bundles of candles in his hands. Behind him, one Armenian bishop immediately goes inside the edicule, dressed in sacred robes and also holding bunches of candles in his hands to quickly transfer the holy fire to the people through the southern hole of the edicule in the chapel of the Angel.”

When the Patriarch is alone, for closed doors, the real mystery begins. On his knees, His Holiness 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 observe their result! Blue and red flashes appear on the walls, columns and icons of the temple, reminiscent of reflections during a fireworks display. At the same time, blue lights appear on the marble slab of the Coffin. The priest touches one of them with a cotton ball - and the fire spreads to her. The Patriarch lights the lamp using cotton wool and hands it 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 hums and thunders from the cry of those people. And then tears flow in streams faithful people. Even with a heart of stone, a person can then shed tears. 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 ... hastens in spiritual joy to light them from the primary light, through clergymen from the Orthodox and Armenian clergy specially appointed for this purpose, standing near the northern and southern holes of the edicule and the first to receive holy fire from the holy tomb. From numerous boxes, from windows and wall cornices, similar bundles of wax candles are lowered on ropes, since the spectators occupying 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 whatever you want 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 normal properties. Several centuries ago, one of the pilgrims wrote:

“He lit 20 candles in one place and burned his candle with all those lights, and not a single hair curled or burned; and having extinguished all the candles and then lit them with other people, he lit those candles, and on the third day I lit those candles, and then I touched my wife with nothing, not a single hair was scorched or curled.”

Conditions for the appearance of the sacred fire

There is a belief among Orthodox Christians that in the year when the fire does not ignite, the apocalypse will begin. However, this event already happened once - then a follower of a different denomination of Christianity tried to remove the fire.

“The first Latin Patriarch Harnopid of Choquet ordered the expulsion of the heretical sects from their territory in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, then he began to torture Orthodox monks, trying to find out where they kept the Cross and other relics. A few months later Arnold was succeeded on the throne by Daimbert of Pisa, who went even further. He attempted to expel all local Christians, even Orthodox Christians, from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and admit only Latins there, completely 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 Edicule did not happen until Eastern Christians were invited to participate in this rite. Then King Baldwin I took care of returning their rights to local Christians.”

Fire under the Latin Patriarch and a crack in the column

In 1578, clergy from Armenia, who had not heard anything about the attempts of their predecessor, tried to repeat them. They obtained permission to become the first to see the Holy Fire, prohibiting the Orthodox Patriarch from entering the church. He, along with other priests, was forced to pray at the gate on Easter Eve. See God's miracle for minions Armenian Church It didn't work out that way. One of the columns of the courtyard, in which the Orthodox prayed, cracked, and a pillar of fire emerged from it. Traces of its descent can still be observed by any tourist today. Believers traditionally leave notes in it with their most cherished requests to God.

A series of mystical events forced Christians to sit down at the negotiating table and decide that God wanted 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 abbot and the monks of the Lavra of St. Savva the Sanctified, the Armenian Apostolic and Syrian Church. Local Orthodox Arabs must be the last to enter the temple. On Holy Saturday they appear in the square singing and dancing, and then enter the chapel. In it they say ancient prayers on Arabic, in which they turn to Christ and Mother of God. This condition is also mandatory for the appearance of fire.

“There is no evidence of the first performance of this ritual. The Arabs ask the Mother of God to beg her Son to send Fire to St. George the Victorious, especially revered in the Orthodox East. They literally shout that they are the most eastern, the most Orthodox, living where the sun rises, bringing with them candles to light the Fire. According to oral traditions, 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 with his will to let in the Arab youth. After they performed the ritual, the Fire descended"

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

It is impossible to say that skeptics managed to defeat believers. Among the many theories that have physical, chemical and even alien justification, only one deserves attention. In 2008, physicist Andrei Volkov managed to get into Edicule 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 the Edicule, a device recording the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation detected a strange long-wave pulse in the temple, which no longer appeared. I don’t want to refute or prove anything, but this is the scientific result of the experiment. An electrical discharge occurred - either lightning struck, or something like a piezo lighter turned on for a moment.”

Physicist about the Holy Fire

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

“So, it is 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 Andrey comments on what happened. It turns out that modern technology cannot solve the mystery of the sacred Holy Fire...

JERUSALEM, April 7 – RIA Novosti, Anton Skripunov. After several hours of tense waiting at the chapel of the Holy Sepulcher, tens of thousands of people witnessed what they believed was a miracle. A RIA Novosti correspondent was present at the ceremony and saw everything with his own eyes.

Rogues

Getting to church on Holy Saturday is not easy. Usually members of official delegations from different countries peace. Even at the entrance to the old part of the city, Israeli police give them name badges - each year a different design in order to avoid counterfeits.

At the Jaffa and Zion gates stand those who came on their own. In addition to the miracle of the Holy Fire, they hope for one more thing - to get inside the temple. Chernivtsi native Larisa has been able to do this for six years now.

“Every year I get there in different ways. I usually ask some official delegation to take me with them. Sometimes I go through an unreal crush - with people like me,” she opens up.

Screams in the temple

Father Fyodor Konyukhov is wearing a shirt and vest today, not a cassock. This is his first time at the ceremony of the descent of the Holy Fire. This famous traveler, who has faced danger more than once, is clearly worried.

“The land itself is awe-inspiring. When you walk on it, you feel awe,” he admits.

Together with other members of the delegation of the St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation, he quickly walks along the narrow streets of the Armenian Quarter towards the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. More than a hundred Russians came to Jerusalem for the Holy Fire. Members of the delegation will transport the shrine around different cities and countries - including Abkhazia, Italy and Great Britain.

And now part of the delegation, led by the Chairman of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, Vladimir Yakunin, is standing right next to the Edicule - the chapel over the Holy Sepulcher. And the other part of it is waiting nearby, in the Greek part of the temple.

The temple, with a capacity of over ten thousand people, is crowded from 10 o’clock, although the ceremony itself does not begin until two. “I remember a few years ago I saw a pilgrim who stood on a stone bench against the wall on one leg for six hours. Six hours! He, poor thing, kept shifting from foot to foot, but survived,” says Vadim Zelenev, a member of the Russian delegation. It's also very stuffy. And water doesn’t help much. Unlike faith - in the resurrection of the Lord.

"Cheyshmariat ahthga!" - Georgians echo them.

"Christos anestis!" - the Cypriots pick up.

"Adevarat a inviat!" - the Romanians respond.

Arab ringleaders

After a couple of hours, the Easter roll call fades away. There is silence in the temple. Suddenly there is the ringing of tambourines and a rolling ringing crack - like something out of a movie about African tribes. Gradually the sounds intensify and drums join them. Two guys in white T-shirts burst into the temple, one sits on the shoulders of the other and shouts, waving a scarf: “Hey! Hey! Salaam!”

One day, Orthodox Arabs, living mainly in the Palestinian Authority, were not allowed to attend the ceremony. And the Holy Fire... did not appear. “And when they were finally allowed inside the temple and they began to shout, praising the Lord, the fire came down,” says nun Seraphima, a resident of the Gornensky Monastery in Jerusalem.

The Arabs bang drums, shout and wave their arms like rock stars or football fans do to get the crowd going. The legs forget about fatigue and begin to stomp to the beat. And they, without stopping for a minute, first walk around the perimeter of the entire temple, and then around the Edicule.

"We all die!"

The main participant in the ceremony is the Patriarch of Jerusalem. He enters the temple to the sound of sticks held in the hands of Kavas Turks, symbolic guards of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. By the way, an Arab holds the key to the doors to the shrine.

A long procession slowly enters the temple through its Greek part and circles the Edicule three times with prayers and chants. After this, all liturgical clothes are removed from the Patriarch of Jerusalem, leaving him only in a cassock. Then he and the Armenian priest go inside. The priest remains in the Angel's chapel - the room preceding the Holy Sepulcher - only the head of the Jerusalem Orthodox Church can be in front of the stone where the body of Christ lay.

All the lights in the temple go out. A frightening silence sets in, even the Arabs became silent. “I get very scared at such moments. I’m afraid that the fire won’t go away. Do you know what will happen in that case?” — I remember the words of Larisa from Chernivtsi.

According to legend, if the fire does not go down, then everyone present in the temple will die instantly. Believers, knowing this, pray intensely.

Five minutes pass, ten. There is still no fire. The tension is rising. Someone, as if trying to summon him, constantly shouts: “Christ is risen!” And now - a cry of jubilation. The multifaceted crowd of ten thousand shouts with joy and relief: “He has come down! He has come down! Christ has risen!”

After twenty minutes, people begin to put out the candles and disperse from the lamps lit from them. The whole church is in smoke. Pilgrims are organizing a crowd again - they need to have time to bring the fire to their homeland before the start of the Easter service.

Father Fyodor Konyukhov looks tired, but very, very blissful.

“At first it was exciting. And then joyful. This means that the Lord still does not forget about us,” he tells RIA Novosti.

Ben Gurion Airport is ahead. Now the Holy Fire will be delivered to the patriarchal service in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow and to churches in the capital and Moscow region, St. Petersburg, Tula, Yekaterinburg, Tver, Vladimir and other Russian cities. And tens of thousands of Orthodox believers will be able to see this symbolic confirmation that Christ has risen. And testify: “Truly he is risen!”

On the eve of one of the main Christian holidays People from all over the world come to Jerusalem to watch the blessed Easter fire descend. On this day, on Orthodox calendar, pilgrims long to see the miracle of the Lord with their own eyes, wash themselves with the sacred flame and receive God’s blessing.

The Holy Fire is a self-igniting flame on the Holy Sepulcher, which the priests then bring to the people, and the patriarch lights lamps and candles with them, thereby symbolizing the miracle of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and his emergence from the grave. Fire, or Light (as the ceremony participants call it by analogy with the True Light - the risen Savior), appears during a special ritual dedicated to the celebration of Easter.

Jerusalem is famous for the fact that the Holy Fire descends there every year for almost two millennia. This takes place in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a majestic structure built back in the 4th century over the site of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus Christ. Currently, it has been restored and adapted to the needs of modern faiths and magnificent ceremony descent of the holy flame.

Written evidence of self-igniting fire corresponds to the time of construction of the temple - the 4th century, but they also mention convergences that occurred much earlier. According to legend, the Apostles of Christ were the first to see the miraculous light shortly after his resurrection. The next people to whom the Holy Fire appeared were a holy monk and an Orthodox patriarch; this happened in the 1st and 2nd centuries.

The Lord's sign took on a regular character after the construction of the Edicule (a chapel located above the cave where Jesus was buried) and the holding of a special sacrament that facilitated the descent of the fire.

The ceremony preceding the miracle and its appearance

The litany (a ceremony dedicated to the descent of the flame) begins one day before Easter. The most important points controlled by the police and representatives of other faiths. This is done to prevent the fire from being lit manually.

The phenomenon of fire is seen not only by those who are inside the Edicule. Those standing in different corners of the temple can also watch the approaching miracle. Indeed, some time before this, the air begins to sparkle and illuminate with the light of small lightning bolts that do not harm people.

The descending fire does not burn immediately after its appearance, and you can even wash yourself with it before it acquires its usual properties.

Reasons for the miracle to occur only to Orthodox Christians

Many people, and especially representatives of other religious movements, have a question about why the flame descends specifically on. Particular interest in this arose after documented cases where Orthodox Christians were kicked out of the temple and were not allowed to perform the Litany, or restrictions were introduced into the ceremony process. As a result of such actions, the fire either did not go down until the intervention of true believers, or appeared not in its usual place, but where the Orthodox Patriarch prayed with priests and parishioners.

Versions in favor of Orthodoxy.

1. The light descends on the Orthodox, because Orthodoxy stands for “right” and “glory,” that is, the correct glorification of God, the correct faith, for which He rewards Christians.
2. Only old Julian calendar According to which Orthodox Christians pray and celebrate Easter, it is true, which affects the time of the fire.
3. Only the Patriarch and the priests know the sequence of the Litany. Only they believe in the Lord so much that they are worthy for a miracle to appear.

However, the phenomenon of the convergence of fire is also of interest to skeptical people, who have drawn their own conclusions about why only Orthodox priests can receive the flame. They believe that everything can be explained quite simply: only this church considers it necessary to falsify miraculous signs for its own benefit and to obtain more more followers.

Its representatives have many opportunities to simulate the descent of fire: from the simplest (the flame is lit by the Patriarch in the Edicule with his own hand) to more complex ones, for example, secret lamps or proven technical techniques with treated threads stretched across the temple special composition and fire sources connected to them, taken outside the temple. And Jerusalem earns fabulous money from this show every year, and it is in the interests of the government not to interfere with arranging “holy signs” for the gullible people, skeptics believe.

Despite the many observers of the process of the descent of fire and the research of scientists, there is still no consensus on the origin of the holy flame. The reason that fire is only for Orthodox believers has not been solved. And at this time, while the phenomenal phenomenon is being studied, believers every year observe a miracle testifying to the power of the Lord, wash themselves with holy light and rejoice in the Bright Resurrection of Christ.