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Exaltation (Elevation) of the Precious Cross

X. «Благодать святого огня» на Живоносном Гробе Господнем в великую субботу

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“The current celebration of St. fire at the Holy Sepulcher, writes the late prof. A.A. Olesnitsky, is distinguished by a highly folk character. It belongs exclusively to Jerusalem and is not repeated anywhere else, just as the festivals of the Old Testament fire were not repeated outside Jerusalem. But in Jerusalem and Palestine this holiday belongs not only to the Orthodox population: all local residents take part in it, not excluding Muslims, especially those who have some kind of property in Palestine. A family hearth is unthinkable without a warming and illuminating element, and this latter emanates for all of Palestine from the Holy Sepulcher. The entire population feels this, and cannot help but feel it, because Palestine feeds almost exclusively on the gifts that are brought to it by the fans of the Holy Sepulcher from Europe. Thus, the holiday of the Holy Sepulcher is a holiday of happiness and prosperity of the country. It is not surprising after this that local residents have a whole range of instructive legends about St. fire and its wonderful properties, that in the circumstances surrounding the consecration of fire, its color, brightness, etc. the people see signs of a happy and unhappy summer, fertility or famine, war or peace - that on the day of the consecration of the fire, countless crowds flock to Jerusalem from surrounding villages and cities, eager to personally read their fate, inscribed on the tablet of the Holy Sepulcher 146.” Litany of Great Saturday, the day of receiving the “grace of the holy fire”, prof. A.A. Olesnitsky calls it “the triumph of the consecration of fire at the Holy Sepulcher,” and the beginning of the appearance of this celebration dates back to the times of the Old Testament, to the construction of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem, when fire fell from the sky onto the prepared sacrifices, which was then constantly supported by the priests. “If the heavenly fire, as a sign of the providential care of the heavenly Father, warmed the Old Testament Jerusalem with its warmth, then it could not go out, says the named professor, for the New Testament Jerusalem and continues to this day to console those who love the city of the Great King and His shrine. Only the fire now has its hearth not among the devastated courtyards of Solomon’s Temple, but in the New Testament sanctuary, in the material ark of the New Testament - the Holy Sepulcher. Just as the Old Testament fire flared up especially on the days of great sacrifices, so the New Testament St. the fire flares up on the day of the great New Testament Sacrifice, when the Church glorifies the red Sun of Truth, which entered the Tomb to shine from it on the luminous day of resurrection. Once upon a time, the festival of fire at the Holy Sepulcher was connected directly with Easter Matins, but due to some disturbances that occurred during this celebration, at the request of the local authorities, it was moved to the previous day.” “In its origins, the New Testament fire festival dates back to the first centuries of Christianity. According to the historian Eusebius, the reason for its establishment was a miracle that occurred under Patriarch Narcissus, when, due to a lack of oil, the water of Siloam poured into the lamps was lit by a wonderful fire that came down from heaven and burned like oil throughout the entire duration of the Easter service" 147 . The ancient Western pilgrim of the 4th century, Silvia of Aquitaine, also testifies to the antiquity of the custom in Jerusalem to maintain an unquenchable fire in the Holy Sepulcher. “At the ninth hour (which is called here licinicon (λυχνικόν), and we call vespers), this pilgrim writes, everyone gathers for the Resurrection, all the lamps and candles are lit and there is a great light. And the fire is not brought from outside, but is supplied from the inside of the cave, where an unquenchable lamp burns day and night, that is, inside the barrier” (Lumen autem de foris non affertur, sed de spelunca interiori eicitur, ubi noctu ac die semper lucerna lucet) 148. The antiquity of this rite can also be evidenced, by the way, by the significant fact that hitherto in all churches of the Orthodox East at Easter Matins, before the beginning of it, the rector of the temple distributes fire to the worshipers, which is kindled from an unquenchable lamp for St. throne. The abbot, dressed in bright vestments, stands at the royal door singing the verse: “Δεῦτε λάβετε φῶς ἐκ τοῦ ἀνέσπερου φωτός - Come receive the light from non-evening Light and, glorify God, risen from the dead" and holding a lit candle, and the bishop Dikiri invites those praying to light their candles from his fire 149. In the practice of the Latin Church, the rite of consecration of wax candles is observed on this day 150, which undoubtedly has some connection with this feast of St. Fire. On Holy Saturday at about 9½ o'clock. In the morning on Patriarchs, the full liturgy of this day is celebrated in the Church of St. kings Constantine and Helena. At this liturgy, the patriarch, all the bishops and clergy, the patriarchs, and those few of the pilgrims who would like to partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ on this day are necessarily present. In the numerous monasteries of the Holy City and in the Church of the Holy Trinity on Russian buildings, the liturgy is also celebrated, since everyone, not only pilgrims-aliens from afar, but even permanent residents of Jerusalem, who have lived for many years and have already seen the ceremony of receiving fire on Holy Saturday, try not to sit at home on this day, but to be sure to be, if not in the Holy Sepulcher Church itself, where they reign stuffiness, crowding and crush from the mass of pilgrims who want to at least from a distance “with one eye” to see something from this unique and unique ceremony, then, in any case, in places close to the Holy Sepulcher Church. The entire area in front of the church, the roofs of the church, the Avraamievsky monastery, the Gethsemane courtyard, the church of St. St. James the Apostle and other neighboring buildings adjacent to it, and on this day, as on Maundy Thursday, they are overflowing with people. Now, however, there is not the crowdedness here that is present on the named day, since most of the pilgrims are inside the church, but in this crowd you can see many curious foreigners of other faiths and even ordinary Muslims. To observe the picture of genuine delight of the diverse and diverse people overflowing the Holy Sepulcher Church on this day, in the first moment after receiving the passionately desired and with great tension of nerves the expected “grace of the holy fire”, its excitement, reaching the point of frenzy, for all believers and non-believers is not only a very interesting, but also a one-of-a-kind spectacle. This picture is difficult to describe with an ordinary pen, but whoever had the chance to see it even just once, it is then deeply imprinted in the memory for life. It is not surprising, therefore, that all travelers who have visited Jerusalem and had the opportunity to spend Holy Saturday here, no matter what religion they belong to, no matter what beliefs they hold, certainly one of the first places in their notes is given to the description of the religious ceremony of this holy day. Unfortunately, we must admit, however, that we have never encountered anyone with an accurate and correct description of the litany itself upon receiving the “grace of the holy fire” 151 . All writers pay attention mainly only to the external pictures of the increased beating of the people's pulse on this significant day, and not to the church rite itself and its statutory sequence. We personally, using the comments of a writer from the Holy Sepulcher clergy (ἁγιοταφίτης) in the magazine “Νέα Σιών” 152, would therefore like to draw the attention of our readers mainly to this church side of the described ceremony, on the one hand, and on the other, to show how far the modern Great Saturday celebration of the Church of Zion has departed from the same deep Christian antiquity of the celebration, set out in the notorious St. Tomb Typikon of 1122, published by Mr. Papadopoulo-Keramevs, with the assistance of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society, and described somewhat differently by our pilgrim of the 12th century. Abbot Danil. Both according to the Typikon and according to our pilgrim, this ritual was part of the rite of the evening Great Saturday service (ὁ ἑσπερινός). “And as it was 8 o’clock in the day,” writes Abbot Daniel, and the evening singing began on the tomb of the priest’s mountain, the faithful, and the monks, and all the clergymen, and the hermits multiplied that byakha... And as the chalice of the honor of the paremia of that Saturday was great, on the first paremia of Isis the bishop and the deacon came from the great altar and came to the door the tomb and looked into the tomb through the sacrum of those doors, and did not see the light in the tomb, and returned again; and as if he had begun to honor the 6th proverb, the same bishop came to the door of the tomb and saw nothing. And then all the people wrote with tears “Kyrie, eleison,” which is “Lord, have mercy.” And as soon as the 9th hour had passed, I began to sing the passage song “We will sing to the Lord” 153 ... and then suddenly a holy light appeared in the Holy Sepulcher, and a terrible and bright brilliance came out of the Holy Sepulcher of the Lord. And the bishop came with 4 deacons, opened the doors of the tomb 154 and took the light from that prince from Baldwin (Baldwin), and so went into the Tomb and on the reins I lighted the prince first from that holy light... and from this all their candles were lit, and from our candles all the people lit their candles, all over the church they lit their candles from each other... And from that holy light they burn candela in their churches and finish the evening singing at home; and in the great church at the Holy Sepulcher, the priests themselves alone, without people, finish the evening singing” 155. At the present time, receiving the “grace of the holy fire” at the Life-Giving Sepulcher of the Lord has turned into a simple religious rite, or rather into a special litany of the Holy Sepulchre, which no longer stands in any connection with the evening Great Saturday service and to a weak extent, only in some of its details, is reminiscent of this connection in ancient times. This is how it is, “the triumph of the consecration of fire” or, as pilgrims more often call it, “receiving the grace of the holy fire” is now celebrated in the Holy Sepulcher Church. Early in the morning on Holy Saturday, a reinforced outfit of the Turkish army is brought inside the Holy Sepulchre Church, which, according to a long-established custom here, 156 is an integral part of every service of the last days of Passion Week, in view of the huge gathering of people in the church. The troops, in order to maintain the necessary order among the pilgrims and to give a clear path to the patriarch and his clergy, the consuls and their retinues, as well as participants in the litany, are placed in some places of the church in one line, and around the edicule and from this latter along the way to the altar of the Resurrection, even in two rows. Only the paths from the entrance doors to the stone of anointing, from here to the edicule and to the southern door of the altar of the Church of the Resurrection, from the edicule to the altar of the Resurrection Church and to the northern door of its altar are left free from people. The stewards in this case are the patriarchal dragomans (persons appointed to communicate with government officials of the Turkish administration) Greek and Armenian. As for the people who have come to the church again, they are now given the opportunity to fill all the space in it that remains unoccupied and free from visitors, the most zealous and keenly interested in the upcoming unprecedented spectacle, and therefore, since the eve of Saturday, and sometimes even earlier, they have condemned themselves to the feat of stern vigil and true pillar mongering, for fear of losing the convenient position they had acquired through their efforts. By noon, the church is filled to the point of stupefying crowding and, in the literal sense of the word, from top to bottom. The pilgrims and spectators occupy not only the boxes at the top of the rotunda, balconies, places on Golgotha ​​and in the Armenian limit, but even all the cornices on the windows and all the ledges and corners of the walls, apparently completely unsuitable for spectators in normal times. At this time, in all fairness, one can say about the church that there is “no place for an apple to fall.” The northern side of the cuvuklia with a hole through which the Orthodox patriarch gives candles burned in the Holy Sepulcher The behavior of the pilgrims in the church on this day is the same as we saw on the eve of Holy Saturday, with the only difference being that as the hour approaches when the expected church litany is to begin, the agitated masses become more and more nervous, impatient, and show their religious agitation more sharply and indecently. To restrain it at this time, the guardians of the order of words no longer have enough convictions and imperative prohibitions, but they, willy-nilly, often have to resort to physical measures of influence on it that are inappropriate for the holiness of the place and the solemnity of the moment, and sometimes even harsh, including the use of a kurbach or a whip, which is stocked up for this case by the officers of the outfit, kavas and other guardians of order in the church... At about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the Greek patriarch, accompanied by patriarchal clergy and synodal bishops, proceeds to the Holy Sepulcher Church in the usual solemn atmosphere for such occasions. The Patriarch, having passed the Church of the Holy Apostle James, goes straight through the southern door to the altar of the Church of the Resurrection, where all the Jerusalem clergy have already gathered and are awaiting his arrival. Behind the Orthodox patriarch, the Armenian patriarch with his clergy and, finally, the abun and clergy of the Copts and Jacobites immediately enter the church in the same solemn atmosphere, taking their proper places in the church. A few minutes later, upon arrival at the church, one bishop, a patriarchal dragoman and two clerics separate from the retinue of the Armenian patriarch and two clerics from each religion from the retinue of the Coptic and Jacobite abun, go to the altar of the Church of the Resurrection and kiss the hand of the Orthodox patriarch, as a sign of respect for the Orthodox patriarch and in accordance with the data Omar ibn Khatan and his successors granted privileges to the Greek Orthodox, as the dominant religion in the Holy Sepulcher Church. This, at the same time, lets the Orthodox patriarch know that the time for performing the litany to receive the “grace of the holy fire” has already arrived. The Patriarch dresses in white robes in full rank. From the niches, 12 archimandrites and four deacons simultaneously put on the same vestments. Then clerics in white surplices come out of the altar in pairs with 12 banners depicting the passion of Christ and His glorious Resurrection, followed by clerics with repids and a life-giving cross, then 12 priests in pairs, then four deacons, also in pairs, and the last two of them, in front of the patriarch, hold in their hands in a silver stand bunches of candles for the most convenient transfer of the “holy fire” to the people and, finally, the patriarch with a staff in his right hand. With the blessing of the patriarch, the singers and all the clergy, singing: “Thy Resurrection, O Christ the Savior, the angels are singing in heaven, and grant us on earth to glorify You with a pure heart,” go from the Church of the Resurrection to the Edicule and circle it three times. After the third circumambulation, the patriarch, clergy and choristers stop with the banner bearers and the crusader against St. of the Life-Giving Sepulcher and sing the evening hymn: “Quiet Light,” recalling that this litany was once part of the rite of the evening service 157. Having finished the hymn, the clergy and all those participating in the litany retire to the altar of the Church of the Resurrection, and the patriarch, standing in front of the doors of the Holy Sepulcher, with the help of deacons, takes off his miter, sakkos, omophorion and club and remains only in the vestment, epitrachelion, belt and armbands. Dragoman then removes the seals and cords from the door of the Holy Sepulcher and lets the patriarch inside, who has the aforementioned bunches of candles in his hands. Behind him, one Armenian bishop immediately goes inside the edicule, dressed in sacred clothes and also holding similar bunches of candles in his hands, to quickly transfer the holy fire to the people through the southern hole of the edicule in the chapel of the Angel. Near the holes of the edicule from the outside, on its northern and southern sides, for the same purpose, there are one cleric in a red robe. Plan of the Chapel of the Holy Sepulcher (edicule). 1. A platform connecting the Greek katholikon with the edicule. 2. Benches at the entrance to the chapel. 3. Entrance to the Angel's chapel. 4. The stone rolled away by an Angel from the Holy Sepulcher, serving as a throne. 5. In the Angel's chapel there is a northern hole, into which the patriarch gives lighted candles to the people. 6. The southern hole is for the transfer of fire by the Armenian bishop. 7. Passage to the tomb of the Lord. 8. Bed of the Savior (stone slab). 9. Chapel of the Copts. Upon entering the Holy Sepulcher, its doors immediately close. The Armenian bishop remains in the chapel of the Angel near the mentioned southern hole in it, while the patriarch goes further to the bed of the Savior and, bending his knees, with tears prays to the Lord Savior that He would renew with His ineffable compassion and the light of His knowledge enlighten the pagans who are in darkness, and through His descent into hell, heavenly, earthly and the underworld would be filled with light; so that this distributed light from His luminous Tomb would serve the faithful as a gift of sanctification, healing from illnesses, horror to demons, and so that the Savior would bless and sanctify those who piously touch it, and would grant them to walk in the light of His commandments, as sons of light. The moment of the first appearance of fire in the opening of the chapel of St. An angel and the enthusiastic mood of fans in the Holy Sepulcher Church, restrained by the efforts of Turkish soldiers. This moment, after the entry of the Orthodox Patriarch and the Armenian Bishop into the Life-Giving Tomb, when its doors close behind them, is truly breathtaking and unique of its kind. In the church, after the incredible noise and bustle, deathly silence reigns. The thoughts and gaze of those praying rush to penetrate into the hidden depths of this precious Christian Shrine, immersed in darkness, with a hidden, far from vain, desire to at least partially lift for themselves the veil of the mysterious mystery of the appearance of the holy fire on the three-day bed of the Savior... With trembling and bated breath, everyone in the church awaits the longed-for moment of the first appearance of the holy fire from the Holy Sepulchre. In agonizing anticipation, minutes seem like hours to them, and a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes of the above-mentioned fervent prayer of the patriarch at the bed of the Savior even seems like an eternity... Therefore, as soon as, in the midst of this tense silence of the crowd, as if numb in its reverent horror, a deafening peal of “all heavy” sounds will be heard from the bell tower of the Resurrection Church, and from the holes of the northern and southern cuvuklia the first bunches of candles with a brightly blazing fire will appear, which in the blink of an eye spreads like a sea throughout the entire vast space of the church, as if from the breasts of a thousand pilgrims an involuntary enthusiastic cry of joy and genuine delight breaks out... Each of the pilgrims, holding in his hand a bunch of 33 candles 158, according to the number of years of the life of our Savior, hastens in spiritual joy to light them from the primary source of light, which is, first of all, the clergy specially appointed for this - from the Orthodox and Armenian clergy, standing near the northern and southern openings Edicule and the first to receive from the Holy Sepulcher “St. fire". From numerous boxes, from windows and wall cornices, similar bunches of wax candles are lowered on ropes, as the spectators occupying places at the top of the church immediately strive to impart themselves to the same “grace”. Bunches of candles, rising quickly, drench those standing below with hot wax and shower them with fiery sparks falling from their paper wicks. The fire rushes in various directions of the church, falls in cascades and twists in serpentine zigzags. And in an instant, in the language of a church song, “everything was filled with light: heaven and earth and the underworld.” The Church of the Resurrection and its altar are illuminated with incomprehensible speed by the new-found light, which for this purpose is transmitted from the Life-Giving Sepulcher to Fr. skevofylax by the Holy Sepulchre cleric standing at the north window of the edicule. The same can be observed in the places of the Holy Sepulchre, which belong to the Armenians. The delight of the native pilgrims, now no longer restrained by anything or anyone, has no limits. The drawn-out shouting “Kyrie, eleison” gives way to the above-mentioned joyful exclamations about the advantages of the Orthodox faith and various well-wishes addressed to all kinds of persons, to whom popular sympathy is now fully directed. The frantic groan and cries of joy inside the church are transmitted outside to the street crowd standing near the church, and are carried far across the streets and corners of the city. Monks and playful fellah boys, with lanterns specially adapted for this purpose, scatter through different streets to light the fire in churches and houses. The appointed walkers go to Bethlehem and the Lavra of St. Sava the Sanctified, in order to illuminate the inhabitants in these places with new light. St. fire" bonfires in the square in front of the entrance to the Holy Sepulcher Church and along the streets of Jerusalem, and these bonfires burn brightly all evening until Easter Matins, gathering crowds of festively inclined people around them... Upon receiving “grace”, from tenderness and delight, many cry tears of joy, and the natives, the most exalted and excited, “St. “with fire” they scorch their forehead, head, hands, chest, take it into their mouths and even extinguish bunches of candles on their chests... For a long time, however, these candles do not burn in the hands of pilgrims; they are usually quickly extinguished with special paper caps, specially made for this purpose, filled with cotton wool. This is done for the purpose of preserving the candles themselves as a souvenir of their pilgrimage, which, according to popular belief, also have the significance of protective talismans against various diseases and during severe thunderstorms. The church is therefore filled with a suffocating stench and thick smoke. Such unbearable heat reigns in the church that many faint-hearted and sickly pilgrims sometimes become dizzy and faint, so that they are carried dead from the crowd into the fresh air... When the first minutes of popular delight have passed and weakened, a tired and pale patriarch appears from the edicule, holding in his hands a bunch of burning candles lit in the Holy Sepulchre. This moment is eagerly awaited by many, and such frantic screams are again heard in the church, and such excited revival reigns that no human efforts can absolutely restrain them. Fiery enthusiasts, breaking through the chain of soldiers guarding the passages, or even jumping on the shoulders of pilgrims, rush over the heads of the latter to the patriarch to kiss his hand, the edge of the vestment and light their candle from the fire of his candles. And here they are no longer afraid of either the butts of the Turkish soldiers or the kurbach of their officers, with which these latter, without distinguishing between right and wrong, waving right and left, are trying to restore order in the church and save the patriarch, tired of the emotional unrest he has just experienced, from the onslaught of the raging crowd. Often, muscular, strong fellahins directly snatch the patriarch from the hands of the crowd and hastily carry him on their shoulders to the altar. Here the clerics greet the patriarch with the receipt of “grace” and light their candles from his fire, unless they managed to light their candle from the fire of the archimandrite-skeuphylax. Having unmasked himself at the altar, the patriarch, accompanied by his retinue, goes to the patriarchate to rest. The pilgrims quickly leave the church to give themselves a rest from the two-day labor they have endured and to refresh themselves with food... The faces of each of them are lively, joyful, their mood is upbeat and festive. When they meet, they congratulate each other “on the holiday” and “on receiving grace,” carefully carrying the “holy fire” to Russian buildings in a lantern, so that they can then take it to their homeland and light a candle there in the church and thus introduce all their relatives to the same spiritual joy 159. The Ecclesiarchs ventilate the church from stench and smoke, preparing it for the nightly solemn Easter service. The last to leave the church were the exhausted Turkish soldiers in order to have a shift for the upcoming night service, which was as large in number of worshipers as the service of the days just experienced. With the removal of Orthodox pilgrims from the church, the Armenians perform litanies with a circular circumambulation of the edicule, and after them the Copts and Jacobites. In the Church of the Resurrection, the next bishop celebrates the liturgy of St. Basil the Great. This service, due to the absence of worshipers in the church who have retired to rest, is not particularly solemn in Jerusalem, but in the city and monastery churches of the Orthodox East it is furnished with such pomp and such curious details that our Typikon does not know. This service even received here the name “first Resurrection” (ἡ πρώτη ἀνάστασις). The peculiarities of this service fully justify the name given to it. At Vespers, only three paremas are read: the first from the book of Genesis, the second from the book of Exodus and the third from the prophet Daniel. After the verses: “Sing to the Lord,” the apostle reads, and immediately instead of Alleluia they sing the verse: “Arise, O God, judge of the earth.” At this time, the priest, dressed in white robes, opens the royal doors, comes out of the altar, holding a basket of daphnes and fresh flowers in his hands, and, scattering greenery around the church, greets the pilgrims with the words: “Christ is Risen,” to which the latter respond: “Truly He is Risen.” At this time, in the bell tower of the church, a solemn ringing is heard not only “in all the kambans,” but even in the “heavy tree,” in the “beat” and “klenala,” aggravated by blows on copper basins and drums and the firing of guns. When reading the Gospel, the icon of the Resurrection is relied on on the lectern. Instead of “We have seen the true light,” the verse is sung: “Remember, O most kind heart, us, as you remembered the thief in the kingdom of heaven.” The liturgy ends with the exclamation: “Christ is risen from the dead, our true God.” In the evening, the Acts of the Apostles are not read in churches, and pilgrims come straight to Easter Matins, which is preceded by the usual canon of Holy Saturday. Sunday Read 1879 No. 14, p. 154. Sunday Read 1879, no. 14, pp. 153 and 154. Gamurrini. Peregrinat. ad local Sancta. Rom. 1888, page 41, ed. altera; Right Palest. collection vol. VII, c. II, p. 140. Τυπικόν ἐν Κωνσταντινουπόλει 1883 σελ. 384, σημ. 1. Gaeremoniale Romanum s. d. Benedicti XIV p. 185–186. As an example, we can point to an excellent article in general about this rite of the Jerusalem Church by the late professor of the Kyiv Theological Academy A.A. Olesnitsky, published in “Sunday Reading” for 1879. Having had the opportunity to personally see the celebration of receiving the “grace of the holy fire” when he was repeatedly in Jerusalem, the venerable professor surprisingly told his readers completely incorrect information about the religious side of this celebration: According to him, it allegedly consists of several prayers said secretly by the patriarch at the Life-Giving Sepulcher of the Lord and “of the proverbs about the creation of peace and light read loudly during the general lighting of the fire (Let there be Light! And there was light), about the burning of Abraham’s sacrifice and about the burning and fireproof bush” (Sunday Reading, 1879, No. 14, p. 155). But no matter how skillfully the learned professor, a remarkable expert on the Bible, has chosen the proverbs and passages from them that speak about fire, suitable for this church rite, with the exception, of course, of the proverbs from the book of Genesis, which treats the universe, and not the fiery light, however, the liturgist sees in all this only one complete misunderstanding. Firstly, among the 15 proverbs laid down in the service of Vespers on Great Saturday, not only according to the current Typikon, but even according to the ancient St. Tomb, not one of these proverbs was and is not included in the composition of this service. The light is spoken of only in the second proverb from the prophet Isaiah: “Shine, O Jerusalem, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you... Behold, darkness will cover the earth and darkness over the lands... And the kings will come by your light, and the nations by your brightness. Build up your children around, and see your gathered children: behold, all have come “Your sons will fly from afar, and your daughters will rebel against their frames... I will lay you down for everlasting joy, joy from generation to generation.”... Secondly, according to the modern Typikon of the Great Church, in the rite of the evening service of Great Saturday there are only three proverbs: from Genesis, from the prophecy of Jonin and from the prophecy of Danilov (Τυπικόν σελ. 381), and the remaining 12 proverbs are read more often at the beginning of the matins of Great Saturday (σελ. 379) and sometimes in the morning, but before the evening service (σελ. 379, σημ. 47). Thirdly, and finally, the most important thing is that in the litany of “receiving the holy fire,” as can be seen from our description, there are no proverbs at all and it is impossible to indicate a suitable place for them in this litany, which now stands alone among the church services of that day, even in Jerusalem. Νέα Σιών τ. α’, σελ. 385–393, ἐν Ἱεροσολ. 1904. This exact moment of Vespers on Great Saturday is indicated by the appearance of the “holy light” on the Holy Sepulcher and the Holy Sepulcher Typikon of 1122, but at the same time the drawn-out and silent (ἑκτενῶς καί ἀκαταπαύστως) “Lord, have mercy” begins to cry the patriarch, and he is only echoed by the whole people (Ἀνάλεχτα τ. β' σελ. 184 Έν Πετροοζόλεί. 1894). It seems that there is some small inaccuracy in Abbot Danil's reporting of the details of this service. According to the Typicon of 1122, in which the protagonist was an Orthodox patriarch, and not a Latin bishop, as was the case during the prayer service in Jerusalem of our abbot Danil (A. Dmitrievsky. The most ancient patriarchal Typicons of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem and the Great Church of Constantinople. Kyiv. 1907, p. 98, note 2, pp. 101–103), he, according to the Typikon, before receiving the fire, first in the altar, falling on his face with tears and praying for human ignorance, and then he went to the Holy Sepulcher and there, after kneeling three times, he prayed for himself and for the people (Ἀνάλεχτα τ. β', σελ. 184). Right Palest. Collection vol. III, c. III, pp. 133–136. The troops of King Valduiv “pushed the road” and protected our abbot Danil from crowding that day (ibid.). Ά. Παπαδ. Κεραρ.εύ;. ’Ανάλεκτα τ. β', σελ. 179–182. In order not to lose these candles in a crowd of people, they are kept attached to the hand on ribbons. A.F. Pavlova, a tradeswoman of the Simbirsk province, whose pious feat with “holy fire” is described in min. diocesan Ved. 1873 No. 14 (F. M. A. History of the Holy Fire. M. 1883 pp. 89–93) is the only example of this kind. You might be interested in:
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