The rite and the miracle of the Holy Fire

Floor plan of the complex of the Church of the Resurrection (redrawn after Corbo). The capacity of the church, as cited by Nasir Khusrau in the eleventh century, is approximately 8,000 persons.¹

The Church of the Resurrection and the surrounding area in the old city of Jerusalem.

 

Throughout the long period during which the miracle of the Holy Fire has been recorded, the manner in which the rite is performed has been subjected to an extremely significant change associated with whether or not the patriarch is in the Tomb’s interior.

From the end of the fifteenth century to the present day, the rite has taken place in a specific manner: alone, the Greek patriarch enters the interior chamber of the Holy Sepulchre where, kneeling, he recites a special prayer to Jesus Christ for the coming of the Holy Fire.

One thousand years ago, however, the rite was very different. According to written sources, in the first centuries during which the miracle was recorded – from the ninth to the end of the fifteenth century – at the time when the Holy Fire descended from the heavens, there was no one in the interior of the Holy Sepulchre. The monument’s entrance was sealed with beeswax, in memory of the sealing of the Tomb by the Roman guard,² and the Greek patriarch remained outside the monument near the entrance, where he recited the specific prayers to Jesus Christ pertaining to the descent of the Holy Fire.

The most ancient written attestation to this manner of celebrating the rite dates to around 920 (by Arethas), and all subsequent testimonies up to the year 1480 confirm the exact same procedure. In other words, for approximately six centuries, at the time when the heavenly fire descended and the oil lamp was spontaneously lit in the Tomb’s interior, the monument was vacant and sealed. The patriarch performed the customary prayers outside the Tomb, before the faithful.

 

The Aedicule of the Tomb of Christ, the most sacred monument of the Christian faith (photo: Garo Nalbadian).

When the Holy Fire descended, at once bluish white incandescent light became visible and diffused throughout the area. At the same moment the everburning oil lamp was lit and the Tomb’s interior became awash with light.

This light, according to the testimonies, was immediately visible through the grille or metal grating that stood at the monument’s entrance.

The entrance of the Holy Sepulchre in 1681 in an engraving by the Dutch artist
Cornelis de Bruyn (Reizen, Delft 1698). The grating that was on the two doors
offered the possibility of direct visual contact with the ever-burning oil lamp,
which always stood on the tombstone inside the monument.

 

Inside a completely dark and empty monument, suddenly its interior became awash with light not only from the illumination of the lamp, but also from the light that came from the rock of the Tomb itself. Then, the Muslim commander of the city who held the keys to the monument unlocked the Sepulchre for the patriarch to enter. The patriarch then lit his candles from the lamp and emerged, passing the light to the faithful. Many times it was not the patriarch who entered the Sepulchre but the emir, who was the Muslim governor of Jerusalem.

The specific ritual took place unfailingly for approximately six centuries and left no room for doubt concerning the miracle’s validity. This is why the Muslim residents of the city not only participated in the rite but also transported the Holy Fire to their homes and mosques.

All attestations and narratives we will encounter in the following sections, aside from four dated after 1480, describe a miracle that took place inside a vacant and sealed Tomb.

In the second half of the fifteenth century, around the year 1480, the particular ritual changed and it was decided that the invocation for the descent of the Holy Fire would no longer take place outside the Sepulchre, but in its interior by the patriarch himself, while the Armenian patriarch would be situated in the antechamber of the monument as the sole witness. The oldest attestation to this change is from 1481, by the Franciscan monk PaulWalther and two years later, in 1483, we have a similar testimony from the Swiss chronicler Felix Fabri.

But the essence of the miracle cannot be altered by the presence or absence of the patriarch inside the Holy Sepulchre because the miracle is not limited to the lighting of a single lamp. According to the author’s personal experience, but also the testimonies of thousands of other people, the Holy Fire is diffused inside the church in the form of bluish white incandescence. It illuminates sections of the church, faces of the faithful and saints’ icons, and spontaneously lights some of the lamps and candles held by the faithful.

The fire can take many forms. The Holy Sepulchre frequently appears as if completely engulfed by flames, or as emitting light, whereas at other times flames or balls of fire are seen coming out from the monument and moving through the air. Approximately 25 pilgrims who were witnesses to the ceremony in 1996 assured me that these flames or balls of fire literally moved over their heads, but without burning anyone. Many bent over in reflex in order to avoid them.

 

 

In the second frame, bluish white light appears at the entrance of the Holy Sepulchre and to its right on Holy Saturday 1994; a red arrow marks a round object that appeared suddenly with the light and disappeared immediately afterwards. This specific year there was a complete absence of natural light in the church interior, as the windows of the dome were shut due to restoration works. The incandescent light was recorded at 14:04 , while Patriarch Diodorus I was in the monument’s interior. The Holy Fire emerged from the Sepulchre, and its distribution to the faithful began 16 seconds later. The pictures are three successive frames from an amateur videotape (available on the internet) made by the Greek priest-monk Antonios Stylianakis, who was a child psychiatrist at the time. Each frame has the duration of 1/25 of a second and therefore the incandescence lasted 1/25 of a second.

Certainly, the presence of the Holy Fire is not perceived by all. Many of those present do not experience or see anything special. The testimonies of those who experience the miracle reveal that everyone perceives something different.

At this point it must be made clear that having studied the evidence and been a witness to the events my understanding is that the experience and perception of the Holy Light by some of those present does not only depend on their faith, but is a result of the effect of Divine Providence which for some reason entitles each one to experience something different. Christ may present His luminous glory to an individual regardless of the degree of his or her spiritual progress, even to an unbeliever, for reasons only He knows.

Unfortunately, in our day the artificial lighting in the Church of the Resurrection is so strong and the camera flashes so many that the visibility of the Holy Fire is greatly decreased in comparison with the past. Despite this, some of those present at the rite perceive the distinctive incandescence, while others, obviously fewer, see a bluish light emerge from the Sepulchre and in this way perceive the presence of the divine light more intensely. In our day, the rite begins on the morning of Holy Saturday and is comprised of specific stages.

 

The entrance of the Holy Sepulchre.

 

The antechamber with the Angel’s Stone. It received its name from the rock that blocked the entrance of the Tomb, which was rolled away by the angel. The piece of this rock that remains was placed on the pillar illustrated in the center.

 

The interior chamber of the Holy Sepulchre. Exactly underneath the marble tombstone is the rock on which the body of Jesus was placed.

 

 

In our day, the rite begins on the morning of Holy Saturday and is comprised of specific stages:

1. On the morning of Holy Saturday all lamps inside the Church are extinguished and the Holy Tomb is sealed with beeswax

2. At twelve noon the Greek Orthodox patriarch enters the church and the traditional litany begins, in which there is a procession three times around the Tomb of Christ.

3. After the litany the Tomb is unsealed and the sacristan carries the extinguished ever-burning oil lamp into its interior, which is to be lit by the Holy Fire.

4. Next, the patriarch removes his sacerdotal robe in an expression of humility and reverence before Jesus Christ and remains garbed in a white tunic (stoicharion). He is given four bundles of 33 candles each and he enters the Tomb. He is followed by the Armenian representative, who has the right to be present in the antechamber, from where he observes the patriarch.

Alone inside the main Tomb chamber, the patriarch reads the designated prayer while kneeling and beseeches Jesus Christ to offer the Holy Light as a gift of blessing and sanctification for the people. At almost this exact moment the Holy Fire appears and is diffused inside the church, simultaneously igniting the ever-burning oil lamp in the Tomb interior. The rite is completed with the exit of the patriarch and the distribution of the Holy Flame to the faithful.

 

The holy flame spreads through the crowd.

 

The ever-burning oil lamp

The sacristan of the Holy Tomb shows the extinguished everburning oil lamp to the masses
before carrying it to the monument’s interior. The lamp is extinguished only once annually,
on the morning of Holy Saturday, to be lit shortly afterwards by the Holy Fire.

The ever-burning or literally “unsleeping” oil lamp of the Holy Sepulchre was lit for the first time in 326, the year when the Tomb of Christ was discovered, and since then it has remained lit for seventeen consecutive centuries.

The most ancient attestation on this ever-burning oil lamp is encountered in the chronicle of the pilgrim Egeria, who visited the Tomb of Christ in 381–384. The Spanish (or French) traveler describes the vespers service celebrated around the Tomb, noting the following :

But at four o’clock they have Lychnicon , as they call it, or in our language, Lucernare . All the people congregate once more in the Anastasis [the Church of the Resurrection], and the lamps and candles are all lit, which makes it very bright. The fire is brought not from outside, but from the cave – inside the screen – where a lamp is always burning night and day.³

 

Notes:

1. "At the present day the church is a most spacious building, and is capable of holding 8.000 persons" (Nasir-i-Khusrau, Diary of a journey through Syria and Palestine, trans. Guy le Strange, London 1893).

2. The Tomb was sealed by order of Pontius Pilate, at the request of the Pharisees and Jewish high priests. See Matthew 27: 62–66.

3. Egeria’s travels 47.3; trans. J. Wilkinson, Egeria’s travels, Warminster 1999.