When the Holy Fire lights up. Holy Fire

For nearly two thousand years, Orthodox Christians have been celebrating their greatest holiday - the Resurrection of Christ (Easter) in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.

Every time, everyone who is inside and nearby the Temple witnesses the descent of the Holy Fire on Easter.

The Holy Fire has been appearing in the temple for more than a millennium. The earliest mentions of the descent of the Holy Fire on the eve of the Resurrection of Christ are found in Gregory of Nyssa, Eusebius and Silvia of Aquitaine and date back to the 4th century. They also contain descriptions of earlier convergences. According to the testimony of the Apostles and Holy Fathers, the uncreated Light illuminated the Holy Sepulcher shortly after the Resurrection of Christ, which one of the Apostles saw: “Peter presented himself to the Sepulcher and the light in vain was horrified in the tomb,” writes St. John of Damascus. Eusebius Pamphilus narrates in his “Church History” that when one day there was not enough lamp oil, Patriarch Narcissus (2nd century) blessed to pour water from the Pool of Siloam into the lamps, and the fire that came down from heaven lit the lamps, which then burned throughout the entire Easter service .

The litany (church ceremony) of the Holy Fire begins approximately one day before the start of Orthodox Easter. Pilgrims begin to gather in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, wanting to see with their own eyes the descent of the Holy Fire. Among those present there are always many heterodox Christians, Muslims, and atheists; the ceremony is monitored by the Jewish police. The temple itself can accommodate up to 10 thousand people, the entire area in front of it and the enfilade of surrounding buildings are also filled with people - the number of people willing is much greater than the capacity of the temple, so it can be difficult for pilgrims.

A lamp filled with oil, but without fire, is placed in the middle of the bed of the Life-Giving Sepulcher. Pieces of cotton wool are laid out throughout the bed, and tape is laid along the edges. Thus prepared, after inspection by the Turkish guards, and now by the Jewish police, the Edicule (Chapel of the Holy Sepulcher) is closed and sealed by the local Muslim key keeper.

Before the descent, the temple begins to be illuminated by bright flashes of the Holy Light, small lightning flashes here and there. In slow motion, it is clearly visible that they come from different places in the temple - from the icon hanging above the Edicule, from the dome of the Temple, from the windows and from other places, and fill everything around with bright light. In addition, here and there, between the columns and walls of the temple, quite visible lightning flashes, which often pass through standing people without any harm.

A moment later, the entire temple turns out to be surrounded by lightning and glare, which snake down its walls and columns, as if flowing down to the foot of the temple and spreading across the square among the pilgrims. At the same time, the candles of those standing in the temple and in the square are lit, and the lamps located on the sides of the Edicule are lit (with the exception of 13 Catholic ones). The temple or its individual places are filled with an unparalleled radiance, which is believed to have first appeared during the Resurrection of Christ. At the same time, the doors of the Tomb open and the Orthodox Patriarch emerges, blessing those gathered and distributing the Holy Fire.

"...The most vivid description dates back to 1892, where a wonderful picture of the ignition of the Holy Fire is given from the words of the Patriarch. He said that sometimes, entering the Edicule, and not having time to read the prayer, he already saw how the marble coffin slab was covered with small multi-colored beads that looked like small pearls. And the stove itself began to emit an even light. The Patriarch swept away these pearls with a piece of cotton wool, which merged like drops of oil. He felt the warmth in the cotton wool, and touched the wick of the candle with it. The wick flared up, like gunpowder - the candle caught fire. On The slab is first covered with cotton wool.According to eyewitnesses, this is sometimes done by non-believers to eliminate doubts on this matter.

There is also other evidence. The Metropolitan of Trans-Jordan, who received the Holy Fire more than once, said that when he entered the Edicule, the lamp standing on the Tomb was burning. And sometimes - no, then he fell and with tears began to ask for mercy from God, and when he rose, the lamp was already burning. From it he lit two bunches of candles, carried them out and gave the fire to the people waiting for him. But he himself never saw the fire light up.

After the Patriarch leaves the Edicule, or rather he is taken to the Altar, the people rush inside the Tomb to venerate. The whole slab is wet, as if it had been wet by rain." Excerpt taken from the book: Holy Fire over the Holy Sepulcher, 1991.

According to eyewitnesses, the fire does not burn for the first minutes after the descent. Here's what they write:

“Yes, and I, a sinful slave from the Metropolitan’s hands, lit 20 candles in one place and burned my candles with all those candles, and not a single hair curled or burned; and having extinguished all the candles and then lit them from other people, I warmed those candles, so and on the third day I too lit those candles, and then without touching anything, not a single hair was scorched or writhed, and I am damned, not believing that the heavenly fire and the message of God, and so I lit my candles three times and extinguished, and before “The Metropolitan and before all the Greeks said goodbye to the fact that he blasphemed God’s power and called heavenly fire, that the Greeks are doing sorcery, not God’s creation; and the Metropolitan blessed me with all his forgiveness and blessings.” The life and journey to Jerusalem and Egypt of Kazan resident Vasily Yakovlevich Gagara (1634-1637).

"Father Georgy films everything with a video camera, takes photographs. I also take several pictures. We have ten packs of candles prepared with us. I extend my hand with candles to the burning bundles in people’s hands, light them. I scoop up this flame with my palm, it is large, warm, light - light yellow, I hold my hand on fire - it doesn’t burn! I bring it to my face, the flame licks my beard, nose, eyes, I feel only warmth and a gentle touch - it doesn’t burn!!!" Priest from Novosibirsk.

“It’s amazing... At first, the Fire doesn’t burn, it’s just warm. They wash themselves with it, rub it over the face, apply it to the chest - and nothing. There was a case when one nun’s apostolate caught fire, and there was no trace left. Another burned through her cassock. She carried it home with a hole, but when I came, there was no hole.” Archimandrite Bartholomew (Kalugin), monk of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, 1983.

“I try to take Fire in my palm and find that it is material. You can touch it, in your palm it feels like a material substance, it is soft, neither hot nor cold.” Parishioner of the Church of St. Nicholas in Biryulyovo Natalia.

The people who are in the temple at this time are overwhelmed with an indescribable and incomparable in its depth feeling of joy and spiritual peace. According to those who visited the square and the temple itself when the fire descended, the depth of feelings overwhelming the people at that moment was fantastic - eyewitnesses left the temple as if born again, as they themselves say - spiritually cleansed and cleared of sight.

Many non-Orthodox people, when they first hear about the Holy Fire, try to reproach the Orthodox: how do you know that it was given to you? What if he was received by a representative of another Christian denomination? However, attempts to forcefully challenge the right to receive the Holy Fire from representatives of other faiths have happened more than once.

The most significant incident occurred in 1579. The owners of the Temple of the Lord are simultaneously representatives of several Christian Churches. The priests of the Armenian Church, contrary to tradition, managed to bribe Sultan Murat the Truthful and the local mayor to allow them to individually celebrate Easter and receive the Holy Fire. At the call of the Armenian clergy, many of their co-religionists came to Jerusalem from all over the Middle East to celebrate Easter alone. The Orthodox, together with Patriarch Sophrony IV, were removed not only from the edicule, but also from the Temple in general. There, at the entrance to the shrine, they remained to pray for the descent of the Fire, grieving over their separation from Grace. The Armenian Patriarch prayed for about a day, however, despite his prayer efforts, no miracle followed. At one moment, a ray struck from the sky, as usually happens during the descent of Fire, and hit the column at the entrance, next to which the Orthodox Patriarch was located. Splashes of fire splashed out from it in all directions and a candle was lit by the Orthodox Patriarch, who passed on the Holy Fire to his co-religionists. This was the only case in history when the descent took place outside the Temple, actually through the prayers of the Orthodox, and not the Armenian high priest. “Everyone rejoiced, and the Orthodox Arabs began to jump for joy and shout: “You are our one God, Jesus Christ, our one true faith is the faith of Orthodox Christians,” writes monk Parthenius. At the same time, in the enfilades of buildings adjacent to the temple square there were Turkish soldiers. One of them, named Omir (Anvar), seeing what was happening, exclaimed: “One Orthodox faith, I am a Christian" and jumped down onto the stone slabs from a height of about 10 meters. However, the young man did not crash - the slabs under his feet melted like wax, capturing his traces.For the adoption of Christianity, Muslims executed the brave Anwar and tried to scrape off the traces that so clearly testified to the triumph of Orthodoxy, but they failed, and those who come to the Temple can still see them, as well as the dissected column at the door of the temple. The body of the martyr was burned, but the Greeks collected the remains, which until the end of the 19th century were in the convent of Great Panagia, exuding fragrance.

The Turkish authorities were very angry with the arrogant Armenians, and at first they even wanted to execute the hierarch, but later they had mercy and decided to edify him about what happened at the Easter ceremony to always follow the Orthodox Patriarch and henceforth not take direct part in receiving the Holy Fire. Although the government has long since changed, the custom continues to this day.

The Holy Fire is the greatest miracle of God for all people. For believers - indescribable bliss and joy in Christ, for non-believers - the opportunity to see and believe!

Since the early Middle Ages, a custom has appeared. according to which, on the eve of Easter, the hierarchs of the Orthodox Church lit a fire in Jerusalem and blessed it in honor of the main holiday of believers. However, from the end of the first millennium, judging by the reports of religious historians of that time, it appeared about the descent of the sacred fire, that is, that the fire on the eve of Easter is given to believers by God. Numerous evidence of the descent of fire dates back to the 10th century, and not only Christian, but also historians wrote about this miracle. Initially, the fire was lit in the morning, and the ritual itself is described in different ways, most often the appearance of lightning is mentioned. Only the place remains unchanged - the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.

Some eyewitnesses of the events of the 10th century wrote that the fire was brought directly by an angel.

Modern ritual of the descent of fire

By the 19th century, the ceremony of the descent of the Holy Fire acquired modern features. It was even enshrined in a special document issued by the government of the Ottoman Empire. This was done to avoid conflict between representatives of various Orthodox Christians, as well as Orthodox Christians and Muslims.

The keys to the Chapel of the Holy Sepulcher have been kept for many generations in one Arab family, whose representative hands over the keys to the patriarch once a year.

The service on the day of the descent of the fire is conducted by the Patriarch of Jerusalem. Clergymen of other Orthodox churches, for example, the Armenian, also have the right to be with him. The priests put on festive white clothes, and then walk around the temple in a procession of the cross, offering prayers. After this, the patriarch, together with a representative of the clergy, can go to the small ancient chapel, over which the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was built. They take candles with them, which will later be lit from the Holy Fire. The Patriarch offers a special prayer directly at the Holy Sepulcher. At this time, believers wait for the descent of fire both in the temple itself and outside it. There is also a television broadcast in many countries, including Russia. After the fire appears, the patriarch lights candles from it, from which, in turn, anyone can light a fire. After the Holy Fire ceremony

A scandal erupted in the Orthodox world on the eve of Easter. The Armenian priest said that the Holy Fire does not descend to people from heaven, but is lit from an ordinary lamp. According to legend, the absence of this miracle foreshadows the imminent end of the world. What is the meaning of the Holy Fire, whether there is a basis for the priest’s words and how representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church reacted to them - in the material “360”.

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The Miracle of the Oil Lamp

The Holy Fire is one of the main miracles for Orthodox Christians, which symbolizes the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is believed that this is a miraculous light, and on the eve of Easter candles and lamps are lit from it in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. This is one of the main Easter ceremonies, for which thousands of pilgrims come to Jerusalem. And so one of the priests declared that the miraculous nature of the Holy Fire is a fiction, and there is nothing mystical in it.

The representative of the Armenian Patriarchate in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Samuil Agoyan, spoke on the Israeli TV channel Hadashot 2, the Israel News website reports. The priest stated that he was in the Edicule three times - that is, the chapel where the Holy Sepulcher is located - during the lighting of the Holy Fire. He saw the patriarchs lighting wax candles from an oil lamp. “God works miracles, but not for the amusement of people,” Agoyan said.

These words outraged a representative of the Coptic Church, who was nearby at the time of the interview. The priest accused Agoyan of lying and demanded to stop filming. The Armenian priest retorted that a representative of the Coptic Church cannot know how the descent of the Holy Fire occurs, because the Copts are not present at this sacrament.

“360” talked with the Archpriest of the Russian Orthodox Church, Father Oleg, who explained that Armenians do not enter the place where the Holy Fire descends. They stand only in the Angel's porch - at the pedestal with part of the sacred stone rolled away by the angel. Representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church are also not present at the lighting of the Holy Fire.

“In general, a miracle is not something decisive in Christianity. A miracle is a crutch for those who doubt. And there is a danger - when people chase miracles, they can run away: when the main miracle worker - the Antichrist - comes, fire will fall from heaven,” the clergyman added.

It is believed that the day when the Holy Fire does not descend will be the last for the people who are in the temple. The temple itself will be destroyed. According to legend, this will also become one of the signs of the approaching end of the world.

Scandal before Easter

The Russian Orthodox Church considered the statement of the Armenian priest a provocation. Deputy Chairman of the Synodal Department for Church Relations with Society and the Media Vakhtang Kipshidze told “360” that Agoyan’s words are an attempt on Easter.

We deeply regret that during Lent, when many believers belonging to the Orthodox Church in Russia and other countries are preparing to celebrate the great event of Easter, attempts are being made to compromise the spiritual tradition of the Descent of the Holy Fire. We believe that these attempts result in a disruption of the prayer structure that accompanies many believers during Lent

— Vakhtang Kipshidze.

The archpriest of the Church of Theodore the Studite at the Nikitsky Gate, Vsevolod Chaplin, in a conversation with “360”, said that Agoyan succumbed to the provocation of the Israeli TV channel. According to Chaplin, many want to downplay the significance of the Holy Fire. “There are forces in Israel and in the world who would like to belittle the descent of the Holy Fire in every possible way, but, on the other hand, this is not the first time that some people who serve or previously served in Jerusalem say that the fire is lit from a lamp,” - he said.

He called on the Jerusalem Patriarchate to comment on these rumors and give a clear answer where the Holy Fire comes from.

I am convinced that the miracle took place for many centuries, but if what the Armenian cleric said is true, and what I heard regarding the lighting of the Holy Fire from some people who served in Jerusalem is true, then a very serious question arises: did it take away Does our Lord have this miracle, seeing how the world retreats from him. If indeed the Holy Fire does not descend for many years, it means that something is wrong with our world, which means that God’s mercy is being taken away from it.<…>If a miracle is taken away from us, then our world is doomed

- Vsevolod Chaplin.

What is the Holy Fire?

The descent of the Holy Fire takes place on Holy Saturday in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. This is a symbolic image of the passion of Christ, the Burial and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The ceremony is conducted by priests of the Jerusalem Orthodox Church, the Jerusalem Patriarchate of the Armenian Apostolic Church, representatives of the Syrian and Coptic churches.

On the eve of the sacrament, all candles and lamps in the church are extinguished, and shortly before the arrival of the patriarch, the main lamp is brought in. The Holy Fire and 33 candles should burn in it. The number of candles is equal to the age of Christ.

Chairman of the Patriarchal Commission on Family Issues Dmitry Smirnov told “360” how the sacrament of the descent of the Holy Fire occurs and what events accompany it.

Those priests whom I know well, who were there on Holy Saturday, observed the following phenomenon: fire appeared in the atmosphere of the Edicule in the form of lightning and radiance. And we observed the self-lighting of candles. This is not every year, but it was told by those who went to Jerusalem for Easter. The fire was not just local at one point, but throughout the entire temple

— Dmitry Smirnov.

Orthodox Christians come to meet the Holy Fire from all over the world. Near the Edicule, they, together with the clergy, are waiting for the patriarch to come out with fire. Having appeared, he distributes the flame from his candle. It is believed that for the first few minutes the fire does not burn or scorch the hair, so believers seem to wash themselves with it.

Later, the Holy Fire is delivered by plane to Orthodox countries, where it is greeted with honor and used at Easter services.

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...One branch of Christianity considers a certain phenomenon a miracle, but the other does not. For example, the so-called phenomenon of the Holy Fire in Jerusalem today is considered a miracle by only one of the Christian churches - the Russian Orthodox. The rest honestly admit: this is just a ritual, an imitation, and not a miracle. But Orthodox sources continue to write: “One of God’s most remarkable miracles is the descent of the blessed fire onto the Holy Sepulcher of the Lord at the bright Resurrection of Christ in Jerusalem.

Is the Holy Fire a hoax or true?

This obvious miracle has been repeated for many centuries, since ancient times.”
What kind of “obvious miracle” is this? On the eve of Orthodox Easter, in the Jerusalem Church of the Holy Sepulcher, God creates an amazing miracle, accessible to any child - he lights a fire. This fire, however, does not “spontaneously ignite” in everyone’s sight! The principle here is the same as for all other tricks: the disappearance or appearance of an object is not carried out directly in front of the amazed public, but under the cover of a handkerchief or in a dark box, that is, hidden from the audience.

Two high-ranking priests enter a small stone chamber, which is called an edicule. This is a special room inside the temple, like a chapel, where supposedly there is a stone bed on which the body of the crucified Christ lay. Having gone inside, the two priests close the door behind them, and after a while they take out fire from the edicule - a burning lamp and bunches of flaming candles. Crowds of fanatics immediately rush to them to light the candles they brought with them from the Holy Fire. It is believed that this fire does not burn in the first minutes, therefore pilgrims, who had previously languished in anticipation for many hours, “wash” their faces and hands with it.

“Firstly, this fire does not burn, which is proof of a miracle,” hundreds of believers write on dozens of forums. “And secondly, how, if not God’s miracle, can explain that with such crowded people and such an amount of fire, there were never fires in the Temple?”
Doesn’t it burn?.. There were no fires?.. The temple has already burned several times, which is not surprising given such an old building. During one of the fires in the temple, 300 people were burned alive. And another time, due to a fire, the dome of the temple even collapsed, seriously damaging the edicule with the “grave” of Christ.
Nevertheless, the tale that the “miraculous” fire does not burn continues to circulate among believers.

...The technology is simple - you need to move the fire across your face in the area of ​​the chin or move your hand through the flame quickly. This is exactly what pilgrims do, as anyone can be convinced of by watching television footage from the scene of the event. And many of them - those who are not agile enough - end up being burned by a “non-burning” fire! They leave the temple with burns and singed beards. This is what it is - the descent of the Holy Fire!

As a matter of fact, having a head on your shoulders, you wouldn’t have to experiment with setting your own beard on fire. It is already clear that the beard will catch fire, and the fire will burn strongly, since believers light their candles from this fire. And this requires a temperature that is more than enough to ignite the beard!..

Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Descent of the Holy Fire and Paganism

These games with fire in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher bear such a clear trace of paganism that even some Orthodox priests write about it with displeasure.

The Slavs jumped over the fire on the night of Ivan Kupala, it was worshiped and used in rituals by pagans of all countries and peoples, Christians wash their chins with it in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. This reverence for the flame has even penetrated into secular rituals - think of the Eternal Flame in honor of soldiers killed in the war. In its purest form, a rudiment of paganism! And even deeper: a ritual that has come down to this day from the caves of the Cro-Magnons...

A few words must be said about the Jerusalem Church of the Holy Sepulcher itself. Hundreds of years after Christ was crucified, Christian leaders became concerned with the production of various shrines. Since there was no historical evidence of where exactly the body of Christ was transferred after the crucifixion, the churchmen simply designated as such the place where the Church of the Holy Sepulcher now stands. Meanwhile, it was here that the body of Jesus could not be taken, since previously there was a pagan temple of Venus on this place!..
For some time, in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the custom adopted from the pagans of maintaining an unquenchable fire in the cuvuklia was observed, which was then transformed into the “miracle” of its annual “spontaneous generation” on Easter. (In any case, historical evidence from the fourth century conveys to us information about the maintenance of fire, and not its “spontaneous combustion” according to a schedule.)

Holy Fire, scientific explanation
The trouble with Orthodox Christians living in Russia is that they simply are not aware that the “trick” was exposed long ago, by the clergy themselves, and these revelations were published.

In the middle of the 20th century, professor of the Department of the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament and the Department of Hebrew Language, famous Master of Theology and Archpriest Alexander Osipov, having sifted through a huge amount of historical material, showed that there had never been any “miracle of spontaneous combustion.” And there was an ancient symbolic rite of blessing the fire, which the priests lit over the Holy Sepulcher in a cuvuklia.

Around the same time as Osipov, similar work was carried out by Professor N. Uspensky, Master of Theology, Doctor of Church History, honorary member of the Moscow Theological Academy, as well as a member of two Local Councils. He is not the last person in the church and is very respected, awarded a whole bunch of church orders... So, in October 1949, at the Council of the Theological Academy, he gave an extensive scientific report on the history of the Jerusalem fire. In which he stated the fact of deception of the flock and even explained the reasons for the legend of spontaneous combustion:
“We are faced with another question: when do legends about the miraculous origin of the Holy Fire appear and what was the reason for their emergence?.. Obviously, once, without promptly giving an energetic explanation to their flock about the true meaning of the rite of the Holy Fire, in the future they (hierarch -hee. - A.N) were unable to raise this voice in the face of the ever-increasing fanaticism of the dark masses due to objective conditions. If this was not done in a timely manner, then later it became impossible to do without risking personal well-being and, perhaps, the integrity of the shrines themselves. All that remains for them is to perform the ritual and remain silent, consoling themselves with the fact that God “as He knows and is able, He will bring understanding and calm the nations.”

And as for the moral aspect of this deception, Uspensky exclaims: “How great and sacred in the Orthodox fatherland is the rumor about the kindling of the Holy Fire, so painful for the eyes and heart is the very sight of it in Jerusalem.”

After listening to Uspensky’s report, the churchmen were indignant: why turn out dirty linen in front of believers? The then Metropolitan of Leningrad, Grigory Chukov, expressed the general opinion: “I know as well as you that this is only a pious legend. Essentially a myth. I know that there are many other myths in the practice of the church. But do not destroy legends and myths. For by crushing them, you can crush faith itself in the trustingly believing hearts of ordinary people.”

Well, what can you say, except that the troublemaker Uspensky is an honest man?.. There are such people among the clergy. And, by the way, a lot! Here are some more examples of priests who came forward to expose deception...

Professor Uspensky’s namesake, Bishop Porfiry, who lived under the Tsar Father, published a book at the end of the 19th century in which he told the following story... This Porfiry, by the way, is also not the last person in the church, it was he who was the organizer of the first Russian mission in Jerusalem . That is, he knew what he was writing about: “In that year, when the famous lord of Syria and Palestine Ibrahim, Pasha of Egypt, was in Jerusalem, it turned out that the fire received from the Holy Sepulcher on Holy Saturday is not a blessed fire, but a kindled one, how every fire is lit. This Pasha decided to make sure whether the fire really suddenly and miraculously appeared on the lid of the Tomb of Christ or was lit by a sulfur match. What did he do? He announced to the patriarch’s governors that he wanted to sit in the edicule itself while receiving the fire and vigilantly watch how he appears, and added that in case of truth, they would be given 5,000 pungs (2,500,000 piastres), and in case of lies, let them give him all the money collected from deceived fans, and that he will publish in all the newspapers of Europe about the vile forgery.
The governor of Petro-Arabia, Misail, and Metropolitan Daniel of Nazareth, and Bishop Dionysius of Philadelphia (currently of Bethlehem) came together to consult what to do. During the minutes of deliberation, Misail admitted that he was lighting a fire in a cuvouklia from a lamp hidden behind a moving marble icon of the Resurrection of Christ, which is near the Holy Sepulcher. 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 pointed out to him that there was no benefit for his lordship to reveal the secrets of Christian worship, and that the Russian Emperor Nicholas will be very dissatisfied with the discovery of these secrets. Ibrahim Pasha, having heard this, waved his hand and fell silent. But from that time on, the Holy Sepulcher clergy no longer believed in the miraculous appearance of fire.
Having told all this, the metropolitan said that the end of (our) pious lies is expected from God alone. As he knows and can, he will calm the peoples who now believe in the fiery miracle of Holy Saturday. But we cannot even begin this revolution in the minds, we will be torn to pieces right at the chapel of the Holy Sepulchre.”

It is not for nothing that, almost literally repeating the thought of ancient Roman pagan thinkers about the benefits of religion for the common people, the Christian bishop Synesius wrote at the beginning of the 5th century: “The people positively demand that they be deceived, otherwise it is impossible to deal with them.” Gregory the Theologian (IV century) echoes him: “You need more fables to impress the crowd: the less they understand, the more they admire. Our fathers and teachers did not always * say what they thought, but what circumstances put into their mouths..."

And a few more words about the moral character of meek Christians. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher belongs in equal shares to a whole bunch of Christian denominations - Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Armenian Gregorian, Syriac, Coptic and Ethiopian churches. And they live in this Temple not at all according to the commandments of Christ, turning the other cheek, but like spiders in a jar. Despite the fact that the premises of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher are clearly divided between different faiths, serious conflicts often break out there. One day, after a huge fight, twelve Coptic monks were taken to the hospital. I wonder if they fought with brass knuckles or lamps?..
Another time, the patriarchs fought right in the edicule, entering there for the “wonderful fire.” One of them began to forcefully take away the burning candles from the other in order to be the first to go out with them and distribute them to the people. As a result of the ensuing brawl, the Jerusalem Patriarch Irenaeus defeated the Armenian Patriarch; the latter’s candles went out during the fight. Then the resourceful Armenian took a lighter from his pocket and lit his candles, after which he took them out of the edicule into the crowd.
Similar ugly scenes have happened before. The same Bishop Porfiry writes how in 1853 “in the Holy Sepulcher Church after mass, first the Syrians and Armenians, and then the Armenians and the Orthodox, fought. The reason for the fight was the disagreement between the Armenians and the Syrians over one cell in the rotunda of the Holy Sepulcher, which the Syrians demanded from the Armenians as their long-standing property, and they did not want to return it.

The Armenians, not recognizing who was whose, hit two or three of our people, and that’s why the fight became a general one. No one was killed. Armenian monks took part in the general dump. One of them threw a bench at the Orthodox Christians from above the rotunda. But, fortunately, they noticed her and parted. She fell to the floor. They immediately broke it into pieces and began to beat the Armenians with them...”
In the “Notes of a Pilgrim of 1869” we read: “Before the evening of Good Friday, a terrible fight took place between Armenians and Greeks in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. A Greek monk was filling a lamp in the rotunda of the Holy Sepulcher on the border of the temple between Orthodox and Armenians; the staircase stood on the Armenian half; she was pulled out from under the monk, and he fell unconscious on the floor; The Greeks and Arabs who were here stood up for him, and a fight began; the Armenians, who in all likelihood deliberately started it, had sticks and even stones with which they threw at the Greeks, and many Armenians from nearby monasteries came running to help.”

Holy people! And the people believe that their conscience will not allow them to deceive pilgrims by producing a fake miracle!..
What kind of fables people have come up with around the ritual of self-ignition of the “holy fire”! If you talk to a believer, you may hear, for example, that the patriarch who enters the edicule is undressed and searched beforehand so that he does not carry a lighter with him. The edicule itself is also searched. And not just anyone, but... the police!

All this is the wildest nonsense. Nobody searches anyone, of course. Just imagine: the naked patriarch is being harassed, forced, like in prison, to bend over and spread his buttocks! The police have nothing else to do!.. To be convinced of the delusion of these tales, you don’t even have to go to Jerusalem. Just watch the video of the ceremony...

But 99% of Russian Orthodox Christians were not at the ceremony and did not bother to watch it in the recording. But they are happy to tell each other stories about the search and so on.

will the holy fire go away-the essence of the Orthodox “miracle”
As I said above, only the Russian Orthodox Church still maintains the flame of deception in its parishioners, seriously speaking about the miracle of the descent of the Holy Fire.
Neither Catholics, nor even Armenian and Greek Orthodox believe that the fire is lit by the Lord. And by the way, the representative of the Armenian church is just one of those two people who are included in the edicule. So, Armenian priests, who take their flock more seriously than Russians, do not talk about miracles. On the contrary, they directly assert that fire does not descend from heaven in the most miraculous way, but is lit from a lamp previously brought into the cuvouklia near the Holy Sepulcher.

As recently as 2008, answering questions from Russian journalists, Patriarch Theophilus of Jerusalem finally put an end to this issue, saying that the descent of fire is just an ordinary church ceremony, a performance the same as any other: “ A representation of how the news of the resurrection from the Edicule spread throughout the world.”
This confession caused a huge scandal. Not in the world, of course, where no one believes in the miracle of spontaneous combustion, but in one sixth of the Orthodox part of the world. Our church hierarchs themselves know everything about the deception of believers, but from the rostrum they are forced to defend the lies.

Not all, really. Theophilus of Jerusalem was actually supported by the famous Russian Orthodox publicist Andrei Kuraev, who was present at Theophilus’ press conference and heard the truth with his own ears. It was his principled position that served as the source of the scandal. The fact is that a delegation of journalists was taken to Jerusalem by the Apostle Andrew the First-Called Foundation, headed by the head of RAO Russian Railways, Vladimir Yakunin. He is a very religious person, so the foundation carries out a lot of extremely expensive events. I hope not with public money...
So, Yakunin was extremely outraged by Kuraev’s position. He even publicly called on the church authorities to roughly punish the deacon so that he would no longer dare to speak the truth.
After this, some publications published fake interviews with Theophilus, in which he allegedly confirmed the “miraculousness” of fire. The journalist who made them pulled legends from the Internet, put them in Theophilus’s mouth and obscured his real answer as much as possible. Subsequently, the fake was exposed, but how can this shake the true faith?
Do you know why this belief in the miracle of the descent of fire without matches is so valuable for Orthodox Christians? Including because this is one of the main reasons to brag to Catholics! If you take a couple of days and surf Orthodox websites, you will see that among the believers themselves it periodically flashes: “Our Orthodox faith is the truest. Only we have such a miracle as the descent of the Holy Fire! Not given to Catholics. Thus, the Lord shows the holiness of Orthodoxy and the heresy of Catholicism.” The Orthodox do not realize that Catholics also have their own miracles, and no worse.
All this Orthodox boasting reminds me of a kindergarten, doesn’t it? And what a piece of glass I have!.. But my mother loves me more!..
...It would seem that now, after numerous revelations and confessions by Christian hierarchs of the highest level, the issue of the Jerusalem “miracle” is closed once and for all. There is nothing more to discuss there. But no! Every year, NTV, RTR and Channel One show reports from Jerusalem before Easter, in which correspondents quite seriously tell people about this “miracle”.

Holy Fire, exposed

While writing this book, I visited Kyiv and did not fail to visit the main attraction of the city - the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. There, in underground corridors, the relics of Christian saints rest in special coffins covered with glass.

Everyone knows that some Christians are very fond of drying and dismembering the corpses of respected people, and then touring with the dried pieces throughout the country and giving the believers to kiss these pieces of corpses.

So the believers with candles wander through the narrow tunnels of the Lavra and fall to the relics, trying to kiss everything.

The spectacle is shocking and quite sickening. By God, the Kiev Sewerage Museum looks neater!..
Imagine glass stained by thousands of hands and lips, covered with a layer of dirt and sebum, which, lined up one after another, is kissed by fanatics in turn.
This is how European cities died out from the plague in the Middle Ages...

The first written evidence of the descent of the “Holy Light,” as it was then called, into the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem dates back to the 9th century. It is lit in the Edicule, a small temple built on the site where Jesus was buried when he was taken down from the cross, and where he was miraculously resurrected. In the presence of Orthodox hierarchs, who, for the sake of the purity of the experiment, even undress in advance. Moreover, in the first minutes the fire does not burn, they even wash their faces with it.

Of course, skeptics are trying to prove that priests carry matches under their clothes. And scientists are looking for a scientific explanation for the miracle. Abbess Georgia (Shchukina), abbess of the Gornensky Monastery, one of the most famous pilgrimage sites in Jerusalem, says she has met a huge number of such science enthusiasts. Someone, for example, measured the combustion temperature of the divine fiery essence transmitted from candle to candle and found out that it was no more than 40 degrees. Essentially, it is plasma, not fire. This state of matter, by the way, cannot be achieved without laboratory conditions.

An employee of the Kurchatov Institute (Moscow) with an oscilloscope was unofficially present at one of the ceremonies. And a few minutes before the fire descended, with a device that recorded the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation, he registered a single discharge. The strange long-wave impulse did not occur again. That scientist still doesn’t know what the cause of the discharge was. And others involved in physical problems recalled: such discharges occur at the site of faults in tectonic plates. By the way, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher stands on one of them. So science has not registered any matches in the hands of priests.

As reported by the Federal News Agency, chemists have proposed several ways to create fire without matches. The simplest method is to mix concentrated sulfuric acid with potassium permanganate powder. If this mixture is applied to a flammable object, say a piece of paper, it will immediately catch fire. Part of the resulting slurry is applied with a wooden or glass stick to any hot object, be it a sheet of paper or natural fabric. This item will instantly ignite once applied. They also managed to find an answer to the question of why the Holy Fire does not burn the hands of believers, as the media write. This effect can be achieved by mixing boric acid, ethyl alcohol and a drop of concentrated sulfuric acid. If you set fire, for example, to a linen thread soaked in such a solution, a flame will appear that will burn, but not burn: the process of burning boric acid ester occurs at a low temperature. But there is a catch: thousands of believers come to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher with their candles, which are not soaked in anything. And the flame from these candles, according to their testimony, really doesn’t burn!

By the way, the nuns of the Gornensky monastery said that once the fire descended not in the edicule, but directly on the stone gate to the temple. Then, as they say, the usual order of “making” fire was disrupted: excessively religious leaders drove away a crowd of Arab teenagers who were greeting the fire with singing, dancing and drums. So the divine fire, whatever its nature, is the same for everyone. And its descent every year gives us hope for another 365 days of human existence.