Opponents of believers, confident in the divine nature of the fertile fire, argue that in fact the flame, which annually condescends in Jerusalem, appears thanks to a person. We checked the reliability of this belief.

The special worship, performed in Jerusalem on Great Saturday on the eve of Easter, is one of the most famous and discussed Orthodox rites. It is carried out in Kuvuklia - the chapel in the temple of the Resurrection of Christ, arranged on the site of the cave, where, as it is believed, Jesus Christ was buried. Ceremony Translated live in Russia and other countries, and then fire by aircraft Delivered On Easter services.

According to the orthodox point of view, defended many clergymen, this fire has a supernatural origin, as well as possesses It does not burn unique properties - for example, in the first moments, so that they can be “washed out”. Often the moment of converging of fire from the sky justifies the correctness of the date of celebration of Easter according to the Orthodox calendar or, wider, the truth of Orthodoxy in comparison with other branches of Christianity. On the other hand, in numerous books, articles And Blogs It is argued that fertile fire is lit with the help of a hidden lamp, matches or even a lighter.

To begin with, we note that the name “Blessed Fire” that has established in the Russian language is not a completely accurate translation of the Greek ἅγιο φῶσ (“Holy Light”). This name itself does not indicate the miraculous origin of fire, because in the Christian tradition, different substances and materials (water, oil, salt, wine, bread) are considered saints, which have a very common origin, but are consecrated through involvement in a religious rite. IN prayerThe Patriarch reads in Kuvuklia, there is also no direct mention of the miracle, but, on the contrary, contains an indirect indication that people themselves are performed, symbolically recalling the resurrection of Christ: “We are performing a lighting, depicting your merciful God -earnings.”

The first unambiguous references to the miraculous appearance of fire on the eve of Easter are contained in the travel notes of the Frankish monk Bernard, who visited Jerusalem around 870 (that is, even before Great Shysma 1054, at that time, Western and Eastern Christians celebrated Easter according to the general calendar - Julian). By words The monk, on the morning worship on the Great Saturday, "the angel descends and lights the lamps hanging over the tomb of the Lord." Another, somewhat earlier certificate belongs to the Arab author al-Jahiz (died in 868), which assertedthat this is not a miracle, but the trick of Christian monks who deceived parishioners. In earlier descriptions of Easter service in Jerusalem (including very detailed, like the pilgrim of Egeria, who visited there about 383) there are no references to the annual miracle. But Egeria Describes Daily worship at the coffin of the Lord, during which fire was fired from the cave from the lamp constantly burning there. In the liturgical manuscripts of the IX - XI centuries, describing the Jerusalem worship in detail, also nothing It is not said About the miraculous origin of the fire used in the Great Saturday service, only the lights of lamps or cadillars in a closed temple, without a people, are described.

The most convincing argument in favor of the natural origin of the fertile fire is direct confessions in this at once several representatives of the Jerusalem clergy. One of the first clearly attribute evidence was given in his diary Porfiry (Assumption), the first head of the Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem. IN Records On August 4, 1848, he says that Dionysius, Metropolitan of Bethlehem, shared his secret with him: the fire in Kuvuklia lights from the "lamp hidden behind the moving marble icon resurrection of Christ." Therefore, “the Svyatogrobsk clergy no longer believes in the miraculous phenomenon of fire,” but cannot stop the “pious lies” out of fear that the believers who are waiting for a miracle are “torn to pieces”.

Several such evidence dates back to the XXI century. So, in March 2018, the Armenian priest Samuel Agoyan said in interviewthat, being a participant in the ceremony three times (in 2000-2002), saw how the candles, which the Patriarch carried out from the cuvuklia, were lit from the oil lamp. Another Armenian priest, serving in Jerusalem, Archimandrite Gevonda is also unequivocally notedthat "the fire carried out of the tomb of the Lord by the Armenian and Greek ministers is the usual natural fire, lit in two lamps by the Greek archimandrite in the most common way before the Kuvuklia enters those that will endure the holy light with this fire."

In 2001, Metropolitan Kornilius, the Locumstosis of the Jerusalem Patriarchal throne, in interview The Greek MEGA TV channel said that “prayers [Patriarch] have the power to sanctify natural fire, since there is also a supernatural fire. Here we are talking about natural fire, but the prayers that the Patriarch or the bishop elevate consecrate natural fire, and, therefore, it has grace. This is a natural fire that is lit from an unquenchable lamp, which is stored in the sacristy of the Temple of Resurrection. ”

The most resonance received on the camera confession The Orthodox Archbishop Isidore (Fakitsas) in an interview with the Greek journalist Dimitros Alikakos. In a conversation, the archbishop admits that personally, with the help of a lighter, he lit a lamp in a cuvuklia, from which the fertile fire was then handed out. After the publication of the book of Alikakos, representatives of the Jerusalem Patriarchate filed against him and his publishers the claims in the slander and violation of journalistic standards, but these accusations were Rejected court in Athens.

It is significant that the official representatives of the Jerusalem Patriarchate and other Orthodox churches (including the Russian Orthodox Church) avoid directly calling the rite of the blessed fire by regularly repeating a miracle or unequivocally insist on its supernatural origin. Say, Patriarch Jerusalem Theophilus III in interview 2021 did not say that the fire appears miraculously, but made an emphasis on its spiritual meaning: "The rite of the fertile fire is mainly the anticipation of Christ of the Resurrection ... The fertile fire is a reflection of the world that burns in every heart seeking God." In 2020, the secretary of the Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem Nikon (Golovko) described The rite on Great Saturday as “a worship that will be performed according to the charter of the Jerusalem Church” and added that “it is performed not only here in the Holy Land, but, for example, on Athos”. In 2018, Metropolitan Halarion (Alfeev), at that time the head of the department of external church relations of the Russian Orthodox Church, notedthat “it is absolutely not necessary to believe in the convergence of a fertile fire in order to be an Orthodox Christian,” since this is not said in the symbol of faith. The theme of the fertile fire is extremely careful in the editorship of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' of the Academic “Orthodox Encyclopedia” - say, in the extensive article “Easter"Only links to medieval authors and liturgical texts are given, but nothing is said about the origin of the fire itself.

Often, as an argument in favor of the supernatural origin of the fertile fire, they mention that, at least in the first moments, he does not burn and that they can even “wash” them. “Verified” did not find direct and verified evidence of this. Some clergymen, such as a teacher of the Moscow Theological Academy, priest Alexander Timofeev, They saythat the fire is burning in the same way as any other. About the same experience They tell And some believers. As an explanation why other people do not feel the heat, bring Natural religious ecstasy in such an environment. Experimental studies of the fertile fire, the results of which were published in reviewed scientific journals, as far as is known, was not carried out.

The evidence listed above allow us to consider the rite of converging fire as a worship that arose in Jerusalem around the 9th century and connected primarily with the symbols of the resurrection of Christ as a “light to the world”. The fire, which is then distributed to believers, is lit by people (for example, matches or a lighter), but from the point of view of the Orthodox creed, this does not prevent his veneration of it in a similarity of other consecrated objects.

Photo on the cover: Mar Shaarb Via Wikimedia Commons