Scientists managed to get to the Holy Sepulcher and conduct research, the result of which shocked believers.
Regardless of whether a person believes himself to be a believer or not, he at least once in his life was interested in real evidence of the existence of higher forces, which each religion tells.
In Orthodoxy, one of the evidences of miracles indicated in the Bible is the Holy Fire that descends on the Holy Sepulcher on the eve of Easter. On Great Saturday, anyone can look at it - it's enough to come to the square in front of the Resurrection Church. But the longer this tradition exists, the more hypotheses journalists and scientists build. All of them refute the divine origin of the fire - but can you trust at least one of them?
The Story of Holy Fire
The convergence of fire can be seen only once a year and in the only place on the planet - the Jerusalem Church of the Resurrection. Its huge-scale 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 IV century by the Emperor Constantine and the Holy Fire there was seen during the first service at Easter. Around the place where it happened, they built a chapel with the coffin of the Lord - it is called Kuvukliya.
At ten o'clock in the morning of the Great Saturday, every year in the temple extinguish all the candles, lamps and other light sources. The highest ecclesiastical dignitaries personally follow this: the last test passes the Cuvuclea, after which it is sealed with a large wax seal. Since that moment, the protection of holy places rests on the shoulders of the Israeli police (in the old days, the Janissaries of the Ottoman Empire consulted their duties). They also put an additional seal on top of the Patriarch's seal. What is not the proof of the miraculous origin of the Holy Fire?
Kuvuklia
At twelve o'clock in the afternoon from the courtyard of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem to the Holy Sepulcher begins the procession of the cross. It is headed by the patriarch: three times having circumvented the Cubiculum, he stops in front of her door.
"The patriarch wears white clothes. With him, at the same time, they wear white garments of 12 archimandrites and four deacons. Then the clerics come out of the altar in pairs of white stoichairs with 12 banners showing the passions of Christ and His glorious resurrection, followed by clerics with ripids and the life-giving cross, then 12 priests in pairs, then four deacons also in pairs, the last two of them before the patriarch They hold a bunch of candles in a silver support for the convenient transfer of holy fire to the people, and finally a patriarch with a baton in his right hand. With the blessing of the patriarch, singers and all the clergy singing: "Your Resurrection, Christ the Savior, the angels sing in heaven, and let us glory to the earth with a pure heart" go from the Resurrection temple to the kuvukliya and triple bypass it. After the third round the patriarch, the clergy and songwriters stop with gonfalons and a crusader against the holy living coffin and sing an evening hymn: "Light is quiet," reminding that this litany was once part of the rite of the evening service. "
Patriarch and Holy Sepulcher
In the courtyard of the temple for the Patriarch watching thousands of eyes of pilgrims from all over the world - from Russia, Ukraine, Greece, England, Germany. The police search the Patriarch, after which he enters the Cuvicle. At the entrance doors remains the Armenian archimandrite in order to offer prayers to Christ for the forgiveness of the sins of the human race.
"The Patriarch, standing in front of the door of the holy grave, with the help of deacons, takes off the miter, saccus, omophorion and club and remains only in the podriznik, epitracheli, belt and bails. Drahoman then removes seals and cords from the door of the holy casket and lets in his patriarch, who has in his hands the mentioned bunches of candles. Behind him, one Armenian bishop, dressed in holy garments, and also having a bunch of candles in his hands for speedy transfer of the holy fire to the people through the southern hole of the kouvoo in the side-chapel of the Angel, immediately goes inside the kouvuklia. "
When the Patriarch remains alone, behind closed doors, the real mystery begins. On His knees, His Holiness prays for the message of the Holy Fire. His prayers are not heard by people outside the door of the chapel - but they can watch their result! On the walls, columns and icons of the temple appear blue and red flashes of flashes, reminiscent of reflections during the fireworks. Simultaneously, blue lights appear on the marble slab of the Coffin. One of them clergymen touches a cotton ball - and the fire spreads over her. The patriarch lights a lamp with a cotton wool and passes it to the Armenian bishop.
"And those people all say nothing else in the church and outside the church, only:" Lord, have mercy! "Cry out unflaggingly and shout loudly, so that all the place is roaring and rumbling from the cry of those people. And here the tears are shed by the 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 our Savior's life ... hastens in spiritual spirits to kindle them from the primary light, through deliberately appointed clergymen from the Orthodox and Armenian clergy standing near the northern and southern holes of the kuvuklia and the first to receive from the holy grave holy fire. Of the numerous lodges, similar tufts of wax candles come down from the windows and cornices of the walls, as the spectators taking places at the top of the temple aspire to immediately join the same grace. "
Transfer of Holy Fire
In the first minutes after receiving fire, you can do anything with it: believers wash their hands and touch it with their hands without fear of getting burned. A few minutes later, the fire from the cold becomes warm and acquires the usual properties. A few centuries ago, one of the pilgrims wrote:
"Twenty candles burned in one place, and burned all those candles with their own candles, and not a single vowel croaked or sang; and extinguishing all the luminosity and then roasting in other people, those sunshine freshened, so also in the third those luminaries were warmed up, and I touched anything to my wife, did not sing a single vial, nor mourn. "
Conditions for the appearance of sacred fire
Among the Orthodox there is a belief that in the year when the fire does not light up, the apocalypse will begin. However, this event already happened once - then the fire tried to extract a follower of another denomination of Christianity.
"The first Latin patriarch Arnoped of Choquet ordered the expulsion of heretical sects from the boundaries that belonged to them in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, then he began to torture Orthodox monks, seeking where they kept the Cross and other relics. A few months later, Arnold succeeded Dimebert from Pisa, who went even further. He tried to expel all local Christians, even Orthodox, from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and allow only Latins there, generally depriving the rest of the church buildings in or near Jerusalem. Soon God's retribution burst: in 1101, on Holy Saturday, there was no miracle of the descent of the Holy Fire in Kuvuklia, until Eastern Christians were invited to participate in this rite. Then King Baldwin I took care of returning local Christians their rights. "
The fire under the Latin patriarch and the crack in the column
In 1578, clergymen 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, forbidding the Orthodox Patriarch to enter the church. He, along with other priests, was forced to pray at the gate on the eve of Easter. It was not possible to see the miracle of God's followers of the Armenian church. One of the pillars of the courtyard, in which Orthodox prayers were offered, cracked, and a pillar of fire appeared from it. Traces of his convergence and today can be observed by any tourist. Believers traditionally leave in her notes with the most cherished requests to God.
A series of mystical events forced Christians to sit down at the negotiating table and decide that God wants 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 monks of the Monastery of Saint Savva the Sanctified, the Armenian Apostolic and Syrian churches. The last to enter the temple must be the local Orthodox Arabs. On Great Saturday they appear on the square with songs and dances, and then enter the chapel. In it, they pronounce ancient prayers in Arabic, in which they address Christ and the Mother of God. This condition is also mandatory for the appearance of fire.
"There is no evidence of the first commencement of this ritual. The Arabs ask the Mother of God to beg the Son for sending down Fire, for George the Victorious, especially revered in the Orthodox East. They literally cry out that they are the most oriental, the most Orthodox, living where the sun rises, bringing candles with them to burn the Fire. According to oral traditions, during the years of British rule over Jerusalem (1918-1947), the English governor tried to forbid once "savage" dances. The Patriarch of Jerusalem prayed for two hours, but to no avail. Then the Patriarch ordered his will to let the Arab youth. After the performance of the ritual, the Fire is gone. "
Have you succeeded in trying to find a scientific explanation for the Blessed Fire?
It is impossible to say that the skeptics managed to defeat the believers. Among the many theories that have a physical, chemical and even extraterrestrial justification, only one deserves attention. In 2008, physicist Andrei Volkov managed to get into Kuvukliya with special equipment. There he was able to make appropriate measurements, but their results were not in favor of science!
"A few minutes before the removal of the Holy Fire from Kuvuklia, the device that fixes the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation, caught a strange long-wave pulse in the temple, which was no longer manifested. I do not want to deny or prove anything, but this is the scientific result of the experiment. There was an electrical discharge - either the lightning struck, or something like a piezo light was switched on for a moment. "
The physicist on the blessed fire
The physicist did not set himself the aim of his investigation to expose the shrine. He was interested in the very process of convergence of fire: the appearance of flares on the walls and on the lid of the Holy Sepulcher.
"So, it is likely that the appearance of Fire is preceded by an electric discharge, and we, measuring the electromagnetic spectrum in the temple, tried to catch it."
Andrei comments on the incident. It turns out, to solve the mystery of the sacred Blessed Fire is beyond the power of modern technology ...