Holy Fire in Jerusalem

[TER]

I don't suppose anyone had a camera with them and took a picture, did they?

As quoted above:

"The miracle has never been filmed and most probably never will be. Miracles cannot be proved. Faith is required for a miracle to bear fruit in the life of a person and without this act of faith there is no miracle in the strict sense. The true miracle in the Christian tradition has only one purpose: to extend the Grace of God in creation, and God cannot extend his Grace without the faith on behalf of his creatures. Therefore there can be no miracle without faith."

If I showed you a picture of the miracle, and you had no faith, you might still doubt it and say it was special effects, or some kind of an optical illusion, and then your doubt would be even more held against you for your unfaithfulness. God has His reasons for keeping certain things hidden and under a veil of mystery in order that those who are so quick to wrongly discredit don't do worse by their false accusations, even after the proofs they first required never seem to be enough.

If you don't believe, then don't. But, as a Christian, show a little more caution when you voice certain judgments which you may be wrong about, especially with regards to a miracle in the world which has brought many countless people to Christ and strengthened their faith.

[TaftFan]

As quoted above:

"The miracle has never been filmed and most probably never will be. Miracles cannot be proved. Faith is required for a miracle to bear fruit in the life of a person and without this act of faith there is no miracle in the strict sense. The true miracle in the Christian tradition has only one purpose: to extend the Grace of God in creation, and God cannot extend his Grace without the faith on behalf of his creatures. Therefore there can be no miracle without faith."

If I showed you a picture of the miracle, and you had no faith, you might still doubt it and say it was special effects, or some kind of an optical illusion, and then your doubt would be even more held against you for your unfaithfulness. God has His reasons for keeping certain things hidden and under a veil of mystery in order that those who are so quick to wrongly discredit don't do worse by their false accusations, even after the proofs they first required never seem to be enough.

If you don't believe, then don't. But, as a Christian, show a little more caution when you voice certain judgments which you may be wrong about, especially with regards to a miracle in the world which has brought many countless people to Christ and strengthened their faith.

I don't doubt that God performs miracles, but since I have never witnessed this I have reason to be skeptical. My understanding was that it is a literal fire. The fire that consumed Sodom and Gomorrah was literal fire.

[TER]

I don't doubt that God performs miracles, but since I have never witnessed this I have reason to be skeptical. My understanding was that it is a literal fire. The fire that consumed Sodom and Gomorrah was literal fire.

Fire is one of the greatest gifts God has given man, and many cultures and religions have stated as much. Fire is constructive and destructive, harmful and helpful. It is light giving and serves many purposes. It can be used to destroy (as in what you have described above, or in the biblical description of God as being an all-consuming fire.) Fire too can provide light, and warmth, and reveal the divine glory, like the divine fire which extended from Christ in His transfiguration on Mount Tabor. Likewise, on the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came in the form of flames of fire. We should not automatically assume because the miracle involves a flame that it is evil. A first century non-believing Jew may have said as much after hearing about what happened on that day in the Upper Room in Jerusalem.

As for this miracle which goes back many many centuries, it is a literal fire, but according to eyewitnesses, it is of a different consistency than the fire we are used to. For the first half an hour or so, it does not burn like fire normally does. People 'wash' their faces with the flame and their eyelashes and eyebrows do not burn. They run it through their hair and it is a warmth which does not incinerate. But again, these things happen according to the faith of the one doing it. Also, pious peoples candles light on their own while the ritual is occurring, and people fall on their knees and glorify the risen Christ because of such signs. These are miracles that have converted Muslims and Jews to Christ over the centuries, entire households at a time. You too, if you went, might also find your own faith strengthened.

So I say to you, it is okay to disbelieve and be skeptical because it sounds so unbelievable. It is a miracle after all! But understand that many have said such a thing until they themselves witnessed it first hand, because for many if not most people, personal experience is required to believe, not unlike St. Thomas when he doubted the resurrection and needed to see it to believe it.

And Christ said to Him 'blessed are those who have not seen and believed.'

I would only suggest, however, that we should be a little more cautious when in our doubt we publicly slander that which may be the workings of the Holy Spirit and pit ourselves against God because of it. This was Christ's great warning to His disciples when He told them to leave alone those who were working wonders in His Name. He also cautioned those around Him to be careful lest on account of their own preconceived notions, they see the good works in the lives of man made possible by the Holy Spirit and slander it, in effect, blaspheming the Holy Spirit, which He has said to us in no uncertain terms is the unforgivable sin.

[Nang]

Christ said to Him 'blessed are those who have not seen and believed.'

Yes, "blessed are those who have not seen CHRIST, and believed" . .

but this promise does not apply to those who have not seen strange fire, and believed.

[TER]

Mark 9:38-41

Now John answered Him, saying, “Teacher, we saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow us.”

But Jesus said, “Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in My name can soon afterward speak evil of Me. For he who is not against us is on our side. For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in My name, because you belong to Christ, assuredly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.

[Sola_Fide]

Who cares about any of this? They light the stupid flame with a Bic lighter in the back room and call it a "miracle" (which means they are liars).

I'm tired of beating around the bush.

[TER]

Who cares about any of this? They light the stupid flame with a Bic lighter in the back room and call it a "miracle".

I'm tired of beating around the bush.

So they carried Bic lighters in the sixth century?

The civil authorities of the city, whether Muslims in the past or Jews like today, inspect the Sepulcher and the Patriarch who enters into it to recite the prayers, and give their official word that they have found nothing to create a fire or start a flame and then secure the tomb from any tampering or foul play.

You don't think it would have been to their benefit to find a lightening instrument to explain this miracle away which has strengthened the faith of Christians all over the world for centuries? A chance for them to put egg on the face of the Patriarch of Jesuralem and scandalize the oldest Christian Church? And this tradition of the officials inspecting has been going on continuous for centuries, under many different rulers and nations, and way before any matches or Bic lighters were in existence.

And the light from the tomb of Christ is but one of the miraculous things that happens in that holy time within the Church of the Resurrection. People who experience Holy Saturday in the Church of the Resurrection say it forever changes their lives and fills them with more fervent faith and love for Christ then they ever thought possible. These proofs are unmistakable and undeniable.

Again, if you choose to not believe, then don't. Just don't say foolish things like Bic lighters in one breath, and in the same breath slander the Holy Spirit.

[TER]

TEMPERATURE OF HOLY FIRE AROUND 40°C IN FIRST FEW MINUTES

Moscow, September 1, 2016

link

The temperature of the Holy Fire is around forty degrees Celsius for several minutes after its descent, so believers can freely take it in their hands and “wash” their faces in it during this time because it does not burn, Archpriest Gennady Zaridze, Chairman of the Association of Orthodox Christian Scientists and rector of the Church of the Protecting Veil of the Mother of God in the Voronezh region, said in his interview with RIA-Novosti.

“I used a pyrometer and it registered the temperature of the Holy Fire right after its descent: at once I ‘washed’ my face with this Fire (and it did not burn!) and measured its temperature. And it turned out that the average temperature of the Fire that I was holding and the Fire being held by my neighbors was forty-two degrees Celsius. Fifteen minutes later I measured the temperature again and it had reached 320° Celsius by that time,” the archpriest who has been researching miracles using natural-scientific methods for many years related.

Fr. Gennady Zaridze used a pyrometer, which by means of a non-contact infrared thermometer measures the temperature of an object’s surface, for measuring the temperature of the Holy Fire. A silver plate which was five millimeters wide and one millimeter thick was used as an object. As silver is one of the greatest heat conducting metals, when you place a plate in fire it will instantly obtain the temperature of the flame.

Fr. Gennady Zaridze visited the Holy Land in April 2016 for Pascha at the invitation of the St. Andrew Foundation and with the blessing of Metropolitan Sergy of Voronezh and Liski.

“I don’t have the slightest doubt that the Holy Fire is a work of the grace of God. It is a sort of divine mercy on the sinful world designed for preserving and strengthening faith,” the pastor noted in his interview with RIA-Novosti. He added that there were cases of healing miracles during the Holy Fire’s descents.

The archpriest stated that back in 2008 Andrei Volkov, a scientist from Russia’s National Research Center (Kurchatov Institute), had come to Jerusalem before the descent of the Holy Fire. He brought an instrument with him which registered various spectra of electromagnetic radiation. On that day he was the first person (even before the patriarch went out to the faithful with the Fire) to learn that the Holy Fire had descended because his instruments showed a very strong electrical discharge.

Translated by Dmitry Lapa

Pravoslavie.ru

[TER]

The column that was split by the Holy Fire (1579)

On Holy Saturday 1579, according to the Church chronicles of the city of Jerusalem, the Turkish governors forbad the Greek patriarch and the Orthodox faithful to enter the Church of the Resurrection for the customary rite of the Holy Fire.

The works that make reference to this event do not specify the exact date, but they mention that at the time the patriarch of Jeru salem was Sophronius IV, the patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria and An ti och were, respectively, Jeremiah, Silvester and Joachim, and the sultan of the Ottoman Empire was Murad III.

If we look at the official lists of these four patriarchates we shall find that the four Greek Orthodox patriarchs were indeed in office in the second half of the sixteenth century, and if we examine the exact period of each patriarch’s reign and that of Sultan Murad III, we discover that the only common year in which the leadership of the five men coincided was the year 1579.

The courtyard and entrance of the Church of the Resurrection.

According to written sources, on Holy Saturday of that year, a group of Turkish soldiers forbad the Orthodox entry into the Church of the Resurrection. The crowd of the faithful remained in the church courtyard throughout the entire day, and even after the sun had set.

The Greek Patriarch Sophronius IV was in the first year of his reign. It was the first time he would perform the most important rite of the year, but the Turks deprived him of his legal right. The patriarch stood in prayer at the left side of the church doorway, near a column. And suddenly, when night had already fallen, the column split and the Holy Fire leapt from its interior.
The patriarch immediately lit his candle and passed the Holy Fire to the faithful. Within a few minutes the sacred flame had spread to all those present and the courtyard of the church was illuminated. The awestruck Turkish guards then opened the doors of the church and the patriarch along with the rejoicing faithful poured in towards the Holy Sepulchre.

The split marble column to the left of the main entrance to the Church of the Resurrection, and beside it, the author. The fissure is 1.20 meters high and resembles a flame rising upwards.

The events of that day are recorded in all the so-called Proskynitaria of Jerusalem, guides for pilgrims to the Holy Land. The oldest of these proskynitaria in which the rupture of the column is mentioned is contained in a Greek manuscript found in the Bavarian State Library in Munich. It is the Codex Monacensis Graec. 346, which contains the Proskynitarion of Priest Ananias. The codex was written by the Cretan priest Akakios in 1634 and is a copy of the original work by the priest Ananias which was written in 1608, twenty-nine years after the miracle it describes. This means that Ananias was able to collect information from individuals who actually experienced the events.

An edition of the Bavarian State Library manuscript was first published in the original Greek in 1890 by Papadopoulos-Kerameus in St. Petersburg,¹ together with a Russian translation. According to the account of the Cretan Akakios, the priest Ananias relates the following:

«Έξω δε της Αγίας Πόρτας, πλησίον εις το δυτικόν μέρος, είναι γ΄ κολόναις μαρμαρέναις, και από την μεσινήν κολόναν, λέγουν, ότι ευγήκεν το Άγιον Φως τον παλαιόν καιρόν. Και είναι σχισμένη καμπόσον και φαίνεται έως την σήμερον. Και αυτό το θαύμα το έδειξεν ο θεός τοιουτοτρόπως, επειδή λέγουν, ότι εις τον καιρόν εκείνον δεν άφησαν, εκείνοι οπού όριζαν τον πατριάρχην, να σέβουν [εισέλθουν] μέσα να κάμουν την εορτήν της Λαμπράς, κατά την συνήθειαν. Ο δε πατριάρχης εστάθη έξω με τον λαόν εις την αυλήν Μεγάλω Σαββάτω βραδί λυπημένοι. Και εκρατούσαν και τα κηρία εις τα χέρια τους. Και ο πατριάρχης έστεκε πλησίον εις τον θρόνον της αγίας Ελένης, εις μίαν κολόναν κοντά. Και τότε λέγουν ότι ευγήκε το Άγιον Φως απ’ εκείνην την κολόναν οπού είπαμεν πως είναι σχισμένη καμπόσον, και υπήγε απάνω εις την κολόνα οπού έστεκεν ο πατριάρχης πλησίον. Και τότε άναψε τα κηρία οπού εκράτει ο πατριάρχης και απεκήνα άναψε και ο λαός από τας χείρας του πατριάρχου κατά την συνήθειαν. Τότε λέγει όταν ίδαν αυτό το θαύμα εκείνοι οπού όριζαν, άνοιξαν την αγίαν πόρταν και εσέβηκεν [εισήλθε] ο πατριάρχης με τον λαόν και έκαμαν την εορτήν, κατά το έθος».

Outside the Holy Entrance, near the west side, there are three marble columns, and from the middle column, they say, a Holy Fire emanated in the olden days. And it is quite cracked and visible still to this day. And this miracle God showed in the following manner, as they say that back then those who gave orders to the patriarch did not allow [the Christians] to enter and celebrate the feast of the Resurrection, according to custom. The patriarch was outside with the people in the courtyard in the evening of Holy Saturday, and all were sad, holding the candles in their hands. And the patriarch was standing by the throne of Saint Helena, next to a column. And then they say that the Holy Fire came out of that column we said is still quite ruptured, and went to the column near where the patriarch was standing. Then the patriarch lit his candles from there, and then the people lit their candles from those held by the patriarch, as was the custom. Then, it is said that when those in control saw this miracle they opened the sacred door and the patriarch entered with the people and they celebrated the festal liturgy, according to the custom.

The account of Ananias on the ruptured column in Codex Monacenis Gr. 346, 1634. Illustrated above are folios 83v, 84r, 84v and below are folios 85r, 85v, 86r. Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.

The same narrative, with more information, is included in many other proskynitaria published in subsequent centuries. The oldest edition of these pilgrimage guides, entitled Proskynitarion of the Holy City of Jerusalem, was published in Vienna in 1749 and was written by Symeon, archimandrite and warden of the Holy Sepulchre. The splitting and igniting of the column which took place at nightfall is confirmed by the work.

Symeon the archimandrite writes:

Then the patriarch stood outside in the church courtyard with the people on Holy and Great Saturday at nightfall, praying whole-heartedly and with great sadness to the Lord. And the patriarch went up to the throne of Saint Helena next to a column, praying with the people. O, for the Master’s love of mankind, a column split and the Holy Fire came out, and the patriarch rushed and lit the candles he held in his hands, and from his hands the people lit their candles for sanctification therefrom.²

The account of the split column in the proskynitarion

written by Symeon, published in Vienna, 1749, p. 19.

The Vienna edition also mentions another incident related to an Arab emir named Tunom, who at the time of the miracle was in the church courtyard. When he saw the igniting of the column he realized the truth of the miracle of the Holy Fire and confessed to his co-religionists the power of Jesus Christ. After he quarreled with them, his confession became the cause of the order for his execution, and subsequently for his body to be burnt.³ Today he is venerated as an official holy martyr of the Orthodox Church. His memory is celebrated on 18 April and his relics are kept at the monastery of the Virgin Mary, the Megali Panagia, in Jerusalem.

The holy martyr Tunom and, in the background,

the column which ignited, illustrated in an icon at the
Greek Orthodox monastery of Megali Panagia in Jerusalem.

Another important description of the miraculous splitting of the column is found in the chronicle of Moldavian monk Parthenius Ageev,⁴ who visited Jerusalem in 1845. In the second volume of his Chronicle, Parthenius mentions that the pillar was split and ignited, after it was first hit by lightning:

"This column is honored by Orthodox as well as non-Orthodox, and even by the Armenians. I would like to write a little about this incident, about how the Orthodox Eastern Christians speak of it unanimously and the Turks themselves confirm it. In the wall there is an inscribed marble slab, and they say that this incident is written on it; but we could not read it because it is written in Syriac letters and in the Arabic language; and I only heard about it, but did not read it."And he continues further on with a description of the miracle:

"Already a half hour had passed and more, but still the Holy Fire had not appeared. The day was clear and beautiful. The patriarch sat on the right-hand side. All of a sudden lightning struck and, on the left-hand side, the middle marble column cracked and out of the fissure a flame of fire came forth. The patriarch arose and lit his candles and all the Orthodox Christians lit theirs from his.^"5The account of the Moldavian monk is of great importance because it confirms that the splitting and igniting of the column was recorded on a marble inscription written in Syriac letters. What is of significance for our study is that in both cases – whether the pillar was struck by lightning or cracked and ignited on its own – it is a miracle because the patriarch who was standing next to it lit his candle from the fire that was produced.

If, however, a fire or electrical discharge struck the column with such great force 430 years ago, then the traces should still be visible. The rupture indeed appears to be burned and eroded by the fire; but to what extent can the traces of this erosion be verified and proven scientifically?

On Easter 2008, the cracked column was the subject of Andrey Volkov’s study. The Russian physicist sent high definition photographs of the crack to a scientific expert, Evgeny Michailovich Morozov,⁶ who is considered one of the top researchers in the world in the field of Fracture Mechanics⁷ and Physics of Strength of Materials.

Professor Evgeny Michailovich Morozov and his latest scientific work entitled
Mechanics of Elastic-plastic Fracture,⁸ which presents the findings of contemporary laboratory research concerning the theory of fractures and examines issues of the behaviour of objects that have suffered fractures – from the criteria of their development to more complex problems of Fracture Mechanics.

Вот это совпадение, что именно на Пасху, когда Огонь не сошёл, появилась трещина, – разве не чудо? Можно, конечно, усомниться, мол, всё было подстроено и трещину на колонне сделали искусственным путём. Мы обратились за консультацией к Евгению Михайловичу Морозову – он ведущий специалист в области механики разрушения не только в России, но и в мире, автор более 800 научных работ по этой теме. Евгений Михайлович исследовал предоставленные ему подробные снимки трещины и однозначно заключил, что она могла появиться только в результате электрического разряда, такова её структура. О чём это говорит? Что подделать трещину никак не могли: это ж какой электрогенератор нужно иметь, да ещё в XVI веке, когда о существовании электричества понятия не имели!9

This coincidence, that on exactly the Easter when the Fire did not descend, the fracture appeared – is that not a miracle? Of course one could say that all of this was a setup and that the fracture in the column had been created using artificial means. We turned for information to Evgeny Michailovich Morozov, who is a leading expert in the field of Fracture Mechanics not only in Russia, but in the entire world, and has written more than 800 scientific papers on this subject. Evgeny Michailovich examined the high definition photographs of the fracture and declared explicitly that this could only appear as a result of electrical discharge; such is its structure. What does this mean? That it was completely impossible for anyone to manufacture this fracture: imagine how powerful a transformer one would need, and particularly in the sixteenth century, when people had no idea about the existence of electrical energy!

Undoubtedly, the scientific opinion of Evgeny Morozov carries great weight and confirms the written sources that mention the miraculous splitting of the column. But I wanted a second opinion on the matter and so I turned to one of the leading Greek scientists in the field of Fracture Mechanics, Professor George Α. Papadopoulos¹⁰ of the University of Athens, to whom I sent high definition photographs of the fracture.

Professor George Α. Papadopoulos

Professor Papadopoulos, having examined the photographs, judged that the fracture of the column was indeed caused by an electrical discharge which occurred simultaneously with a seismic wave directed upwards. This combined pressure on the column – electrical discharge plus seismic wave – he believes to be inexplicable and he consequently arrived at the conclusion that “one could only speak of a miracle.”

Professor Papadopoulos, in response to a related email request from me, states the following:

Dear Mr. Skarlakidis, Thank you for your email dated 31/1/2010. I believe I can be of assistance to your worthy project. For the last thirty-five years I have been working with Experimental Fracture Mechanics at the Physics of Strength of Materials Laboratory of the National University of Athens and I believe wherever there is no scientific explanation, there is a miracle. I have no reason to doubt the Munich Library manuscript dated to 1634 which gives an account of the miraculous manner of the rupture of the column as well as what ensued: that the Greek patriarch used this Fire to light his candle. I do not believe it is possible to doubt a miracle and especially where there are related accounts. By examining the fracture from the photographs, we could conclude that it is a result of combined pressure: a combination of electrical discharge (probably a strong lightning bolt) and a large seismic tremor. The electrical discharge, due to the high momentary temperature, embrittled the material in the column down the length of a narrow area (origin). The surface seismic wave put pressure on the column resulting in torsional oscillation (fatigue). This simultaneous pressure resulted in the fracture beginning at the base of the column and continuing upwards in a zigzag course (as it appears in the photograph the course of the fracture is not linear) along the length of the area made embrittled by the electrical discharge. If the above indeed occurred, in my opinion this simultaneous combined pressure of the column remains inexplicable. Therefore, one could speak only of a miracle. Dear Mr. Skarlakidis I would like to offer my congratulations on your work and I wholeheartedly wish you great success. Regards, George Α. Papadopoulos Professor of Mechanics, Physics of Strength of Materials Laboratory National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

With the miraculous incident of the column that split and ignited we have completed our long journey through the centuries concerning the miracle of the Holy Fire. Our journey began in approximately the year 330, with the account of the lighting of the oil lamp that was placed at the Holy Sepulchre by Saint Gregory the Illuminator and finished in the year 1579 with the incident we have just examined. We have presented forty-three testimonies and each reader is free to assess them according to his or her own judgment.

In a brief overview of these testimonies, three particular characteristics are noteworthy. In all the attestations there is one common parameter: the account of a light, flame, fire, or lightning that descended from the sky before the people, at a time when the ability to reproduce electricity or related phenomena artificially did not exist.

The second important characteristic is the igniting of the ever-burning oil lamp and the illumination of a vacant, dark and sealed Tomb – an event that took place for at least six centuries. The illumination of the Tomb interior certainly did not occur just from the radiance of the ever-burning oil lamp, but primarily from the light that emanated from the actual stone where the body of Jesus had been placed.

The third important characteristic mentioned in many accounts is the synchronization of the two above-mentioned phenomena: both the descent of the heavenly light and the simultaneous igniting of the oil lamp and illumination of the Tomb interior. Such synchronization can only be achieved, both then and now, through divine intervention.

It has already been mentioned that the present work has not included attestations after the year 1579 (even though there are many) since there would have been a glut of information and, besides, the space required to accommodate all modern testimonies would need to be enormous. Furthermore, the structure of the book is clearly historical and strictly oriented to the first centuries in which the miracle was recorded.

Nevertheless, it was deemed necessary to include eleven more recent testimonies of particular interest. The first two come from eyewitnesses: the Moldavian monk Parthenius (1846) and the English archeologist Charles Warren who experienced the miracle in four consecutive years during 1867–1870. Including these two the total number of historical accounts amounts to forty-five.

The next seven attestations come from five Greek patriarchs and two bishops who had led the ceremony and described the miracle exactly as they experienced it in the Holy Sepulchre. In this manner we shall have a more complete picture of exactly what takes place inside the actual monument at the moment when the Holy Fire appears.

A tenth more recent testimony, also of exceptional interest, comes from the only man to experience the miracle inside the Sepulchre, although he had no right to do so. This is the Greek monk Mitrophanis who, on Holy Saturday 1926, hid in the ceiling inside the Holy Sepulchre in order to experience the miracle from up close.

The eleventh and still more recent testimony is the author’s and involves Holy Saturday 2008. Let us begin with this personal testimony.


Notes:
1. Προσκυνητάριον της Ιερουσαλήμ και των Λοιπών Αγίων Τόπων, 1608–1634[Proskynitarion of Jerusalem and the Οther Ηoly places, 1608–1634], ed. Α. Papadopoulos-Kerameus, with Russian trans. by G.S. Destounis, St. Petersburg 1890, p. 17.
2. Symeon, Προσκυνητάριον Αγίας Πόλεως Ιερουσαλήμ [Proskynitarion of the Holy City of Jerusalem], Vienna 1749, p. 19.
3. In the 1749 Vienna edition, p. 20, the following is noted concerning the Arab Tunom: “There are also some pins nailed into the ground, in front of the threshold of the sacred doorway from that time in the memory of the actual miracle, which they say were thrust by an emir, who seeing that magnificent miracle immediately believed in Christ, and exclaiming one is the faith of the Christians, and thrust those nails one by one in the stone, like in soft wax, and so he bore witness and surrendered to the fire.” The incident with the nails is also briefly mentioned in theMunich manuscript (fol. 87r) as follows: “There are also some pins nailed into the ground in front of the sacred door; they say they were thrust in from that time.”
4. Monk Parthenius (1807–1878) was born in Jassy in Moldavia (today Romania).
5. Monk Parthenius, “Holy Week and Pascha in Jerusalem,” Orthodox Life 34 (1984), pp. 28–29.
6. Professor Evgeny Morozov, born in 1927, is a graduate of the Moscow Aircraft Institute. He holds a doctorate in engineering sciences and is Professor of Physics of Strength at theMoscow Institute of Physical Engineering. He has developed mathematical equations computer programs (CAE) and specialized theories related to the characteristics of materials tolerance to the formation of fractures and the limits of materials tolerance. His academic and research career began in 1951 and he has received many distinctions and awards.
7. Fracture Mechanics is the science concerned with the study of fractures and the formation of ruptures in materials. It uses methods of analytical mechanics in order to calculate the force exercised during the formation of a fracture, as well as with experimental methods that calculate the tolerance of a material to fracture and its rupture.
8. The book was written by Morozov and Vladimir Parton and is entitled, Mechanics of Elasticplastic Fracture, Special problems of Fracture Mechanics, Moscow 2007.
9. Vera, 21 April 2009.
10. George Α. Papadopoulos is Professor of Materials Mechanics at the National Technical University of Athens and has written many papers and scientific articles on the field of Fracture Mechanics. See G.A. Papadopoulos, Fracture Mechanics: The Experimental Method of Caustics and the Det.- criterion of Fracture, London 1993.

[TER]

HOLY FIRE TO BE DELIVERED TO AMERICA FOR FIRST TIME

The Holy Fire, which descends every year on the eve of the Orthodox feast of Pascha in Jerusalem, will be delivered to the various corners of the Earth, with the support of the Russian St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation, including, for the first time this year, to the United States of America.

“It is planned to deliver this sacred blessing for the first time to the US, and we’ve already received permission to transport the lampadas with the Holy Fire on board a plane,” the foundation’s press service reported to Interfax-Religion today. The Holy Fire is being brought to the US by the initiative of parishioners of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.

Since 2003 the Holy Fire has then been taken to various countries as part of the St. Andrew’s Foundation’s “Pray for Peace for Jerusalem” program, in which Orthodox believers from Russia, Israel, Serbia, Romania, Poland, the Czech Republic, the USA, and other nations have joined the foundation’s delegates and the patriarch of Jerusalem to pray for peace in the Holy City.

The Holy Fire is traditionally brought to the Paschal service at Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow and from there throughout Russia. In 2016, the fire was taken to 53 Russian and 11 international cities.

As previously reported, the Holy Fire will also be delivered to London for the first time.

14 / 04 / 2017

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The Holy Light has descended once again!

Glory to God!

Christ is Risen!

See link for video: http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2017...28MYSTAGOGY%29

[heavenlyboy34]

Воистину воскресь!

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During the recent renovation of the Holy Sepulcher, in the burial tomb of Christ, the slab of stone which Christ was laid upon by St. Nicodemus was revealed for the first time in many many centuries, perhaps to be covered up for another thousand years.

Here is a picture of it. And like the myrrhbearing woman witnessed 2000 years ago, the stone is found to be bare, for He is risen from the dead!

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Holy Fire appeared in Jerusalem today from the burial stone of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Plenty of videos online to those who want to learn more.

The video in the post above is from last year’s miracle celebration. From people I know who have attended, they confirm that the Holy Fire, while warm, doesn’t not behave like normal fire for the first 20-30 minutes and does not burn.