As I write this episode, dear listeners, it is around 6:30 a.m., Eastern Standard Time. This means in Jerusalem it is approximately 1:30 p.m. As I am writing, I am listening to a live feed on the internet from the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which is broadcasting perhaps the most well-known reoccuring miracle and sign in the history of the world: the miracle of the holy fire. I can hear the bell in a church tower in Jerusalem, tolling slowly and continuously. [Bell tolls]

The scene from the Church of the Resurrection, also known as the Church of the Sepulchre because it contains the tomb of Christ, is quite different from other years. Usually the courtyard in front of the church, as well as every square foot inside the church, is packed with Christian pilgrims from all over the world to witness this event. Instead, I see a courtyard that has [fewer] than a dozen people, either reporters and cameramen or policemen. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is closed to the public indefinitely for the first time since 1349, when an outbreak of the Black Death forced the holiest site in Christendom to shutter its massive doors.

Inside the almost completely empty church are a few dozen people, either security or clergy, wearing masks. Other reporters are on the rooftops of the buildings surrounding the courtyard with their cameras poised to record the miraculous visitation of God’s divine energies even during this time of pandemic. There are two representative hierarchs, one Armenian Orthodox and the other Greek Orthodox, standing in the doors of the Holy Sepulchre, which is still sealed closed with beeswax, awaiting the arrival of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem.

What is the miracle of the holy fire? For close to 1700 years, we have recorded accounts of a miracle that happens on the afternoon of Orthodox Christian Holy Saturday. The first of these recorded miracles happened in the year 330 AD, soon after St. Helen had built the first Christian church over the location of both the crucifixion and the resurrection. While he was serving at the altar of the Holy Sepulchre, St. Gregory the Illuminator of Armenia noticed that the vigil lamps which were on the altar but unlit miraculously lit on their own. Over the centuries on this day, God’s divine energies in the form of holy fire have manifested themselves at the location of the tomb of Christ, lighting vigil lamps on the tomb, and even around the entire complex of the church, flaming without burning as did the burning bush on Mount Sinai, sometimes for up to 33 minutes, and being witnessed by countless numbers of pilgrims gathered in the Church of the Resurrection to celebrate Pascha.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, following the liturgical practice that developed in the eighth century, enters into the sealed tomb without any means of lighting a fire on early Saturday afternoon, before the beginning of the vesperal Divine Liturgy of St. Basil, known as the Proti Anastasi. He kneels and prays set prayers until the holy fire arrives. The holy fire which has been seen to appear in many forms, usually as a ball of intense light that flashes and moves very quickly, arises as a bluish white cloud of light from the tomb of Christ itself, and lights the patriarch’s torch or torches of 33 beeswax candles.

Most likely, this is where we have received the practice of the giving of the Paschal light to the faithful from the unsleeping lamp upon the altar, in the middle of the night, during the vigil for Anastasi, although this liturgical tradition we know is only a few centuries old. Indeed, the actual flame from the tomb of the Lord is flown to many Orthodox countries on Holy Saturday afternoon and distributed at their Anastasi services. The holy fire reveals the light of Christ, who has come into the world as the Light of the world. And as we receive this light with faith, we receive Christ himself into our own hearts, confirming our own resurrection in him when he comes again to resurrect all of mankind.

The Holy Sepulchre, or Edicule, is the heart of this most famous of churches in the world. It is made up of two rooms: the antechamber, which is the small room the pilgrims enter first, and a smaller room, which is the tomb itself. The outer room is the location where the angels appeared to the myrrh-bearing women. The square altar table in the middle of the angel’s room is made of the stone that sealed Christ’s tomb.

When the entire Holy Sepulchre was recently renovated, because it was dangerously in disrepair, many miracles happened to the amazement of the scientists who came to test the authenticity of the tomb’s age. They, without any hesitation, concluded that the tomb indeed existed from the time of Christ and had been part of a larger formation of rock that had been removed when the first church was built to honor the holiest spot on earth. Russian scientists have even used heat-recording equipment and have confirmed that for the first few minutes the temperature of the light is around 100° Fahrenheit before it quickly rises to its normal temperature above 200°.

The patriarch has just arrived and entered into the Holy Sepulchre. The trisagion hymn is being chanted melodiously and continuously.

I have spoken with many people over the years who have personally experienced the holy fire. I remember years ago hearing my bishop at that time, Metropolitan Maximos of Pittsburgh, share enthusiastically about his experience of being here for this service. He was standing just outside of the doors of the Holy Sepulchre while the patriarch entered in. As he stood waiting with the crowds, he saw a bluish white ball of light appear in the large dome of the Church of the Resurrection that covers the Holy Sepulchre and the circular area around it. The ball of light went around in the circle within the dome so quickly that it formed a ring of light. It then shot down from the dome like lightning into the tomb. Moments later, the patriarch emerged from the tomb, holding the holy fire. A Catholic priest who was standing next to Metropolitan Maximos put his hand into the flame and held it there. He was not burned. His Eminence put his hand into the flame, which was over a foot high, and he held it in the flame for several seconds. He also was not burned.

On my second pilgrimage to Jerusalem, I met Fr. Theophani, a priest-monk at the Monastery of St. Sava in the Palestinian desert. He was our xenogos, our tour guide for the trip. One night, as we sat around the table after a day of touring, he told a number of us his many experiences with the holy fire. He said that just once, as he was standing in front of the Holy Sepulchre, after the patriarch had entered inside, he saw the holy fire appear as two balls of light with tails that flew back and forth in front of the holy Edicule like kites.

Others have told me that their candles lit spontaneously without being passed from anyone else’s candle, even before the holy fire brought out of the tomb by the patriarch had been passed to anyone around them. Many have shared with me their own account as well, of not being burned by the flame when they first received it, though they held their hands directly in the flame.

As I write, I can hear the bells of the church begin to ring out continuously. [Bells ringing] The holy fire has come. The patriarch has just come out of the sepulcher, holding two torches of 33 candles. He is blessing using the two candles, as an Orthodox bishop usually blesses with the dikera and trikera, and he is passing the light to a few other hierarchs of other churches that are there. Now two deacons walk him, without the usual assistance of Israeli police clearing the crowd surrounding the tomb, to the large Church of the Resurrection, which is adjacent to the tomb. He turns and blesses again.

The agio taphites, the protectors of the holy sites, are taking the light and are lighting all of the vigil lamps within the church with the light. There is joy and perhaps relief on their faces as they see that the light has come, and they hold it high. One priest-monk puts his hand through the fire. It is now 7:00 a.m. A woman reporter, most likely from Romania, is standing in the courtyard outside of the church, holding the light with the candle and reporting live that the light has come.

Thank God! Thank God, he has continued to bless us with the holy fire. He is with us and always shall be.

Without the uproar of the crowd, without the spectacle of the flame being passed throughout the church by those present—but with the ring of the bells and the participation of the patriarch and a dozen or so other agio taphites, the miracle continued and continues to strengthen our faith in the risen Lord and in our hope of his victory over death for us all.

This sign was recorded on Ancient Faith Radio for all of us to believe that Jesus is the Christ and that, believing, we may have life in his name.