The Holy Fire

Originally posted (in Greek) By UOJ-Athos

Every year during Great Lent and Holy Week, the devil strives to provoke the faithful. One of his most monotonously repeated provocations is the denial of the great and unique miracle of the Holy Fire, which emanates from the Life-Giving Tomb of our Lord in Jerusalem.

But no matter how much he tries, no matter what methods he uses, the universally acknowledged and unparalleled miracle of the Holy Fire cannot be questioned. The most reliable witness to the Holy Fire is history itself. There are indisputable historical testimonies from the 4th century to our days that confirm it.

In the very interesting publication by architect-engineer Haris Skarlakidis titled “Holy Fire: The Miracle of the Descent of the Resurrection Light at the Tomb of Christ” (Athens, 7th edition, 2021), 85 testimonies from the 4th to the 16th century are recorded, certifying that each year on the Feast of the Resurrection of the Lord, the great and multifaceted miracle of the Holy Fire occurs at the site of the Holy Church of the Resurrection.

I call it multifaceted and multiform because its manifestations are not one-dimensional: In a miraculous way, the central oil lamp of the Holy Sepulchre is lit, and at times other oil lamps in the Church of the Resurrection or the candles held by the faithful are also ignited. In fact, in earlier times before the construction of the Holy Edicule—when the Tomb of the Lord was visible to all the faithful—the miraculous lighting by the Holy Fire was immediately apparent to everyone. Additionally, the Holy Fire often appears throughout the entire Church of the Resurrection in the form of lightning bolts, fireballs, or rays of light. And all these wondrous lightning-like manifestations occurred in earlier times when electricity did not even exist!

Moreover, how can one explain, according to natural laws, the fact that in the first few minutes of its appearance, the Holy Fire illuminates but does not burn? Every year we see many faithful pressing their faces (some with thick beards!) against the flame of the bundle of 33 candles lit by the Holy Fire and not getting burned!

The historical testimonies validating the great miracle of the Holy Fire, cited by H. Skarlakidis in the aforementioned work, come not only from Orthodox Christians or heterodox Christians but also from Muslims, most of whom speak of the event with respect.

Equally striking is the national origin of the 85 authors who testify to the Holy Fire: French (17), English (9), Greek-Byzantines (8), Italians (7), Arab-Muslims (7), Germans (6), Ethiopians (5), Armenians (5), Russians (4), Persians (4), Icelanders (3), Egyptian Copts (2), Iraqis (Chaldeans) (2), and one each from Cyprus, Syria, Moldova, Flanders (Belgium), Austria, and Switzerland!

An indisputable witness to the miracle of the Holy Fire is the column at the main entrance of the Church of the Resurrection, which cracked open in 1579 when the Ottoman authorities did not allow the Orthodox Patriarch to enter the church and instead gave permission to the Armenian (Monophysite) patriarch. At the moment of the Descent of the Holy Fire, it “emerged” from within the column and lit the candles of the Orthodox faithful who had been locked outside the church. A Muslim named Tunor who witnessed the miracle confessed Christ and was martyred for His name.

We conclude our brief reference to the great miracle of the Holy Fire with the testimony of the Persian scholar al-Biruni (973–1048), one of the greatest polymaths of all time, whose written works exceed 150 titles and span every field of knowledge. In his work “Chronology of Ancient Nations” (written around 1000 AD), preserved in five manuscripts and first published in 1878, al-Biruni writes:

“Concerning the Saturday of the Resurrection, there is a story which astonishes the student of natural sciences and whose cause cannot be discovered. If there were not agreement among the opponents [of the miracle] and they had not said that they themselves had seen it, and if even prominent teachers and other people had not written about it in their books, one might have no confidence at all.

I have learned about it from books and heard it from al-Faraj ibn Salih of Baghdad, that in the middle of the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem, there is a tomb of Jesus carved into a rock, which is enclosed by a dome. Above that, there rises a larger dome. Around the rock there are galleries. From there, the Muslims observe. The Christians and anyone else who comes to the tomb on that day supplicate and call upon the Most High God from noon until evening.

The muezzin of the mosque, the chief prayer imam, and the city’s emir also come, and they sit beside the Tomb. They bring lamps with them and place them there while the Tomb is still locked. The Christians, meanwhile, have already extinguished their lamps and torches and wait until they see a pure white fire appear which lights one lamp. From this fire they then light the lamps in their churches and mosques.

A written report is then sent to the Caliph [in Baghdad] stating the exact time the fire descended. From how early or late it appeared—whether near noon or later—they would deduce whether the year would be productive or not.

The one who informed me said that a sultan once replaced the wick of a lamp with a copper wire so that it would not ignite and the miracle would not happen. But when the fire descended, it ignited even the copper. The descent of this heavenly fire, at the same time and place each year, leaves one utterly astonished.”

(G. S. Strohmaier, Al-Biruni, In den Gaerten der Wissenschaft, Leipzig 1988, pp. 125–126; cited in Haris Skarlakidis, Holy Fire: The Miracle of the Descent of the Resurrection Light at the Tomb of Christ, Athens 2021, pp. 61–62).

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