From the East to the World on the Holy Saturday
The Light of Christ Overflows on this Divine and Historical Date
What Happens in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre?
Report by Elia Nasrallah
Translated by Mary Yahchouchy
“Light up, O New Jerusalem! the glory of the Lord has shone upon you...” are phrases believers recite and sing with great joy on Holy Saturday, an annual date for a divine phenomenon. A miracle that consolidates and revives Christian faith, glorious light shines from the cradle of Christianity, Jerusalem, specifically from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to pave the beginning of a new Easter from the East, the land where Christ was born, raised, and risen from the dead, to the whole world. “Rejoice now, O Zion, and you O pure mother of God, rejoice in the resurrection of your child.”
This miracle of light happens at the same place and time every year, on the Holy Saturday that precedes Easter Sunday. Usually, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is filled with hundreds of believers from every community who coming from around the world to participate in this historic divine event directly in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, carrying candles with anticipation, but the Coronavirus has prevented this ritual from happening in 2020. Believers in general and Christians in particular, all around the world, remain nailed to their screens, waiting for the emanation of the Holy Light with great longing and joy.
As for the preparations for the emergence of this light in Jerusalem, they begin in the early morning, when the ruling authorities search the holy grave to prove that there is no tool or material that might allow the fire to be lit, then the responsible authorities stamp the tomb with wax and honey, where the responsible authorities share their own stamp.
This blessed day is called the “Saturday of Light” in Arabic because Christ, through His Resurrection, enlightened all those who lived in darkness to carry them from death and despair to life and hope, as the Bible says: "people sitting in darkness saw a great light."
According to tradition, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch enters the Holy City and all the rest of Palestine and Jordan in a procession to the Church of the Resurrection from the inner entrance to the Church of Saint Jacob, accompanied by a group of chief priests, priests and deacons... as the bells ring with grief. After the Patriarch sits on the patriarchal chair, representatives of different churches, such as the Armenians and Copts, come to him and kiss his oath so they can obtain the holy light from his hand. Noting that the tandoor of the Church carries a vessel of oil that remains lit all year long, except on this day, in order to be lit by the reviving light.
Afterwards, the patriarch and the participants make the turn of the holy grave in three waves, carrying banners, crosses and fans. As for the entry to the grave, it takes place after the circulating the grave with certain procedures as the Patriarch takes off his episcopal clothes except for his white shirt. The governor of Jerusalem and the police director then search them to make sure he isn’t hiding any device to ignite the fire with him. The search is followed by silence and anticipation throughout the church, and the Patriarch enters the tomb carrying a bundle of 33 candles yet to be lit by the divine light. The number 33 symbolizes the age of our Lord Jesus Christ.
His Beatitude the Orthodox Patriarch Kyrios Theophilus III narrates on the throne of Jerusalem that he kneels in front of the holy stone where the body of Christ was buried and prays nonstop with piety and fear until the miracle of the outpouring of holy light occurs from within the stone. He describes that this light is initially blue, then changes its colors, and this cannot be explained with human science. It emanates like a cloud from the lake, as he put it, except it’s not a cloud, but a holy light. This light does not burn and appears luminous and tall for candles to be lit. Patriarch Theophilus III gives the light to the Armenian Patriarch, the Copts and all those present as soon as he comes out.
Tails of the holy light in the early first century AD were told by many authors, including Saint John of Damascus and Saint Gregory of Nyssa who explained that after the resurrection of Christ, in the year 34 AD, Peter the Apostle saw the holy light in the Church of the Resurrection. The head of a monastery in Russia, Archimandrite Daniel, also spoke in his diaries, which he wrote between the years 1106 and 1107, what he saw while he was in Jerusalem and described what the Orthodox Patriarch did inside the tomb and after the light emanated...
Communication and Public Relations Department
Sources:
Aljoumhouria newspaper website: https://bit.ly/3np6Pvc
Dr. Joseph Zeitoun website: https://bit.ly/32PmsD1
MTV Lebanon website: https://bit.ly/3sQDI57