Amid A Ceasefire, Christians Flock To This ‘Holy Fire’ Ceremony Once More
JERUSALEM — With thousands of missiles and rockets fired from Iran and Lebanon killing 19 civilians in Israel since Feb. 28 and debris from intercepted munitions falling by the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the Haram ash-Sharif here, took additional precautions with Easter celebrations.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government erred on the side of caution this Easter — as it did during recent Passover and Ramadan celebrations — in coordination with Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, government forces in charge of protecting civilians greatly reduced public attendance at Catholic and Protestant Easter ceremonies last week.
The Orthodox Passover celebration, following seven days later, was to be similarly limited to a token crowd. Following the signing of a shaky ceasefire in the war between Iran, Israel and the United States, Israeli authorities lifted the restrictions imposed on large public gatherings nearly six weeks ago. Ben-Gurion Airport also reopened to regularly scheduled air traffic.
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As a result, tens of thousands of pilgrims flocked here this past Saturday from across Israel, the West Bank and countries as disparate as Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Serbia and Georgia to witness the “miraculous” Holy Fire ceremony at the venerable 12th-century Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
With thousands of volunteers and officers on hand to control the throngs, worshippers prayed again at the city’s holy sites. About 3,000 Christians holding unlit packages of tapers packed the cavernous basilica built on the site where, according to tradition, Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected nearly 2,000 years ago. This reduced number was due to tightened security measures and regional instability.
Outside the basilica, a well-managed crowd estimated at 15,000 waited patiently behind dozens of police barricades in the alleys of the Old City of Jerusalem’s Christian Quarter. Most held their own tapers, ready to light them as the flame was passed from person-to-person, eventually illuminating the whole crowd. TV screens broadcast the events inside the darkened church.
The flame originated with Theophilos III, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem. At about 2 p.m., the patriarch alone entered the shrine marking Jesus’ burial cave. He carried a bundle of 33 unlit candles symbolizing Jesus’ age when he was executed and resurrected. He then emerged holding the lit tapers, distributing the Holy Fire to the faithful who quickly passed the flame from one torch to the next.
Echoing Moses’ experience encountering a burning bush in Sinai that was not consumed by flames, the legend says many pilgrims bathed in the Holy Fire without getting their skin burned.
Diodoros I, who served as the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem from 1980 until his death in 2000, gave this account of the ceremony:
“I enter the tomb and kneel in holy fear in front of the place where Christ lay after His death and where He rose again from the dead. I find my way through the darkness towards the inner chamber in which I fall on my knees. I say certain prayers that have been handed down to us through the centuries and, having said them, I wait. Sometimes I may wait a few minutes, but normally the miracle happens immediately after I have said the prayers.
“From the core of the very stone on which Jesus lay an indefinable light pours forth. It usually has a blue tint, but the color may change and take many different hues. It cannot be described in human terms. The light rises out of the stone as mist may rise out of a lake — it almost looks as if the stone is covered by a moist cloud, but it is light. This light each year behaves differently. Sometimes it covers just the stone, while other times it gives light to the whole sepulchre, so that people who stand outside the tomb and look into it will see it filled with light. The light does not burn — I have never had my beard burnt in all the sixteen years I have been Patriarch in Jerusalem and have received the Holy Fire. The light is of a different consistency than normal fire that burns in an oil lamp.
“At a certain point the light rises and forms a column in which the fire is of a different nature, so that I am able to light my candles from it. When I thus have received the flame on my candles, I go out and give the fire first to the Armenian Patriarch and then to the Coptic. Hereafter I give the flame to all people present in the Church.”
Outside the church, the well-managed crowd carried lanterns to transport the fire to their homes and churches.
Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Yiannis Loverdos personally led a mission from Athens to bring the flame to his country. Emphasizing the Greek government’s commitment to the Holy Fire tradition, Loverdos told state broadcaster ERT: “Our intention — and my personal goal — is to be there, to attend the Holy Ceremony of the Light, to receive it from the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, and to bring it back to Greece.”
Archimandrite Ioan Meiu, the representative of the Romanian Patriarchate to the Holy Land, said his country sent a delegation to transport the Holy Fire. Speaking on April 8 ahead of the ceasefire agreement, he said: “Thanks to the intervention of the Romanian Embassy in Israel, we have also received a flight corridor from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, departing from Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv on Holy Saturday. With God’s help, we will travel on a special flight from Tel Aviv to Bucharest carrying the Holy Fire.”
Unlike in past years, this Orthodox Easter ceremony was free of violence. In recent years, as documented on YouTube, Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests have scuffled and fought with brooms over the right to clean certain areas of the church, which is today undergoing restoration.
While impressed by the ceremony, Mike Ney – a material science engineer with Boeing Aircraft in Seattle, currently stationed on contract in Tel Aviv – was skeptical of its miraculous nature.
“It’s an easy trick we used to do in [eighth grade] chemistry,” he said. “You mix phosphorus with an organic compound. As the organic solution evaporates, it leaves the phosphorus behind, which spontaneously combusts with water vapor in the air. Imagine that someone in the 13th century didn’t know that. They didn’t know chemistry like we do today. They would have thought it was a miracle.”
Gil Zohar was born in Toronto and moved to Jerusalem in 1982. He is a journalist writing for The Jerusalem Post, Segula magazine and other publications. He’s also a professional tour guide who likes to weave together the Holy Land’s multiple narratives.