Τhe Ceremony of the Holy Fire
On Great and Holy Saturday, 29 March / 11 April 2026, the Ceremony of the Holy Fire was held at the Patriarchate.
For this ceremony, its presiding celebrant, His Beatitude our Father and Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos, at the appointed hour, went down the staircase of the Cathedral Church of Saint James and entered the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, past the Holy Deposition, on the right, to conclude at the Holy Altar of the Katholicon.
There, representatives of the other Churches—the Armenians, the Copts, and the Syrians—approached His Beatitude for the blessing, so that they might also receive the Holy Fire.
Thereafter, His Beatitude vested in his hierarchical vestments, and the priests in their sacerdotal vestments, and the Vespers of Great and Holy Saturday commenced, with a procession three times around the Holy Tomb, during which hymns of the Resurrection were chanted.
At the third circuit before the Holy Edicule, His Beatitude removed his hierarchical vestments, remaining only in the sticharion, and entered into the inner chamber of the Holy Tomb. Having prayed, His Beatitude imparted the Light of Christ’s Resurrection from the Holy Tomb, first through the northern opening to the priest of the flock, and thereafter from the entrance of the Edicule.
This was received with joy and exultation by the many faithful, who had gathered within the Church and around the Holy Edicule, relieved by the cessation of the grievous war that had intervened. With great reverence, they touched it to their eyes, lips, and foreheads, and took it also to their homes.
His Beatitude, bearing the bundles of the Holy Fire, entered into the Holy Altar of the Katholikon, where the Elder Sacristan awaited, and thereafter the Patriarchal retinue ascended to the Patriarchate, preceded by the Scouts of the Orthodox Community. The Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great then followed, celebrated by His Eminence Metropolitan Joachim of Helenoupolis.
At the Patriarchate, His Beatitude imparted the Holy Fire to the representative of the Church of Greece, His Eminence Metropolitan Bartholomew of Polyani and Kilkision, who was accompanied by the Exarch of the Holy Sepulchre in Athens, the Reverend Archimandrite Hieronymos, as well as to the representative of the Greek Government, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Loverdos, and to representatives of other Churches, such as that of Poland. He expressed the wish that the Light of the Resurrection may illumine the rulers of the earth unto peace and justice.
From the Chief Secretariat
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