HOLY FIRE

According to written sources, on Holy Saturday that year, a group of Turkish soldiers, after mediation Armenians, prohibited the transit of the Orthodox Church of the Resurrection. The crowd of the faithful remained in the courtyard of the church throughout the day, but even after sundown. Patriarch Sophronius D, which diinye the first year of his tenure, took over for the first time to carry out the most important ceremony of the year, however, the Turks denied him the legal right. The patriarch stood praying in the left part of the gate of the temple, near a column. And suddenly, having already fallen the night, the column ruptured and Holy Fire sprang from the inside. The patriarch immediately lit the candle and conveying the Holy Fire to the believers. Within minutes, the sacred flame spread to all attendees and the churchyard was illuminated. The astonished Turkish guards then opened the gates of the church and the patriarch, with the number of Orthodox, went solemnly to the Holy Sepulchre.