Miracle of Holy Fire Explained

The Miracle of Holy Fire (or Holy Light) is the most important ritual in Christianity and it happens year after year in the Tomb of Christ, inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

It is an annual celebration of Christ's victory over death and Jesus himself participates.

[chrysostomosvassili]

My Grandmother (God Rest Her Soul) with my Aunty and a group of friends was present at the Orthodox Easter many years ago in Israel, she explained that the Church was so crowded at the Eve of the Orthodox Greek Easter Sunday, that she could not enter the Church, she was one of many thousands who had to worshipped outside the Edicule Church, waiting for the Holy light, she said that what she and many thousands of witnesses like her witnessed that day stayed with her all her remaining life, my Grandmother and and my Aunty said that whilst in wait, a blue light came from the Church and went into the outer area, where this blue light lit the sky and thousands of candles held by thousands of worshippers standing outside the Church, including her candles held by my Grandmother, Aunt and their friends, which they brought with them from the UK to Israel for this event, spontaneously lit by the blue Holy light, which was followed by a warm uplifting spiritual feeling of what she described as having Christ's presence, from which many of the Israeli solders and police who were present for crowed control fell to their knees and others cried, they were all very moved by what they witnessed and probably from whatever they individually had experienced or felt at that given moment. Why does this only happen at the Orthodox Easter and has been happening for over 1, 200 years, without fail, and why has it never happened at any other Easter of any other Christian Denominations? I am genuinely curious to know, after all, a Christian is a Christian, no matter his or her denomination.

I would like to add that I have seen other videos attempting to imply that this is all a hoax and that the Orthodox priest smuggles in some method to ignite the candle or some chemical such as white phosphorus is used which self ignites the candles, which is unstable and cannot be applied to a timer to light all candles at same time of resurrection and most people attending have purchased their candles from a variety of different places, and many bringing the candles with them from their home countries/overseas; all seems very unlikely, however, this has been going on for 1200 years without fail, where such knowledge of self igniting chemicals will not have existed and if they did they will have been applied into war to protect the city from attacks by other religious groups, which never happened and obviously gas lighters will not have existed then to have been hidden to ignite the candle, it will have required an open flame, which could not be hidden, so these types of debunking attempts, I feel have no logical merit or grounds and often applied by those who are very insecure about their own religion or religious views, moreover, how can anyone explain this holy blue light that leaves from the doors of the Church, lights up the night sky with its blue light and ignites the candles of hundreds and thousands of believers who simply lift their candles towards the sky where this blue light brightens the sky and their candles are miraculously lit? there are those who try to argue that the Church sends out a charge of manufactured electricity into the sky which ignites the candles of the believers, which I find absurd, firstly no such technology actually exists today to create such a reaction and if it did it will electrocute and kill all before lighting any candles and secondly no electricity existed 1200 years ago. I am left with no doubt that this is the Holy Light of Christ Resurrection, which leads me back to my original question of why does this only occur within the Orthodox Christian religion and not in any other Christian denominations? in my eyes, mind and heart, a Christian is a Christian, no matter their denomination.

So why is this not present in other Christian denominations, is it because the Orthodox Christian Church celebration of Easter is the correct date and the rest of the Christian denominations apply a a wrong date? or is it due to the secret Orthodox Easter Prayer only known by the Orthodox Patriarch that creates this holy light, or is it because the Orthodox Christians have a belief and faith in the appearance of this Holy light which emanates from such faith and belief?, or is it because the faithful ask God for this holy light and God provides?

In respect to this holy fire from the lit candles does not burn, my Grandmother saw that some people would hold the fire on to their skin and plastic bags and paper and it simply would not burn anything the flame came into contact with and others who attempted the same, it actually did burn them, and anything they put to the candle flame it burnt, she said that she put the flame upon her skin and felt nothing, I would argue that this could be a psychosomatic reaction where the human mind can block out pain, but that did not explain how a normal plastic shopping bag would not burn or her Kleenex tissue paper in her bag would not ignite or any other items she had with her would simply not burn, YET, when the same candle flame was passed to her friend who was standing next to my grandmother, it burnt her friends hand, her friend asked my grandmother to gave her the same tissue paper my grandmother tried to burn, and in her friends hands, the tissue paper immediately burnt, the candle was passed back and forth between them where nothing my grandmother had would burn and anything her friend had would burn. The next day when they asked a priest to explain this, the priest said that the flame cannot burn those who are truly faithful, that was the only explanation given to her. Again, I fail to understand how this is possible, yet it is, it happened, not only to my grandmother and her friend but to many others who were doing the same and experienced the same. So whether we believe this or not, it happened and continues to happen and has been happening for 1200 years, so, not believing it does not stop it from happening.

Orthodox Christian Arabs, Russians, Serbians, Romanians, Armenians, Coptic's, Ukrainians, Egyptians, Greeks, and other denominations such as Roman Catholics and protestant's who were present to witness the Orthodox Easter, all experienced the same and all moved to tears and Christian unity. My family members have been 2-4 times and each time has been a different experience for them. As my late Grandmother said, there are many thousands of people who attend, separating the curious from the serious believers is very difficult and borders upon becoming a mockery of the Holy Church and our faith in Christianity, with many forgetting that this is a Holy celebration, not a circus show for those who want to discredit Christianity or for those who need to witness and see to convince themselves to believe, and my Grandmother (God rest her soul) as usual, was right, I happen to agree her.

Is this all based upon bringing about false beliefs or false prophets? im not sure if I buy into that theory, a holy blue light emanates from Christ tomb and from there it spreads to light other peoples candles, a holy flame that burns some and others does not burn, well, I do not see that as false prophet or promoting false beliefs, because all is shown to emanate from one source, in this case Christ Resurrections, so I do not think false prophets or any form of diversion from Christian belief is being diverted or perverted here, anymore than witnessing tears flowing from Christ or Virgin Mary statues and other miraculous events that take place in the Christian world, which attracts believers, if anything, it reinforces Christian belief and in others it opens up debates, ether way, Christ is on everyone's thoughts and lips.

The fact is that those that do not believe, no amount of explanation will change their minds, and for those who do believe, no explanation is necessary, so I have to conclude by saying, if these things are miracles then we are all truly blessed, if they are not then it is irrelevant, whether the blue holy light is real or not or whether the holy flame does not burn those whos faith is true; what is important to me is that real faith is based just on faith, to truly believe without requiring to see any evidence of the existence of God, that is true faith, and if one can achieve that and be content with that, without needing to see anything that will convince them of their faith, then that person is still truly blessed.

[courtneycourtney]

I am dumbfounded that in my 54 years of life, having been raised to believe in God and the death, burial and resurrection of Christ I never heard of this wonderful miraculous event. Rabbit hole here I come . I have already shared this with my daughter who is away in college getting her degree in history as I don’t want her to not know of this amazing finding . I found it in the oddest way . I was listening to a podcast and the podcaster happen to have lived 5 years in Israel and was trying to pronounce the word The Holy Sepulcher, I looked it up to see how it was pronounced and now after reading I am at your video . Thank you for sharing this, I am absolutely fascinated.

[mskozul]

God bless you and thank you for showing this truth. I am Orthodox and I know that a long time ago. You are very lucky to have chance to see this huge miracle.

[georgepf]

Thanks brother, i never knew this. i am catholic and from India.

Holy Fire, purify me and bless me. strengthen me, help me to be a better person, amen

[jccarcare]

Repent and carry your cross and follow Christ..
Those who repent & accept they all received Jesus Christ in their hearts..seek heavenly kingdom first

[mayembarmadeit]

I'm a proud Eastern Orthodox Christian from Uganda.

[Mayamariamay]

Christian Orthodox for life!!! The only religion in the world in which the fire of Christ truly lights as proof of the righteous religion

[heyfitzpablum]

I'm a senior Orthodox Christian and would love to see this in person some day. Hopefully I will get the chance! Even if I can't watch it from within the Church, I would love to see the excitement outside.

[elizabethmatl]

I can't believe that it took me 52 years to hear about it. Awesome :)

[janettedavis]

I had never heard of this miracle. Maybe all Christians should return to Orthodox Easter and Christmas. One can feel the excitement of the crowd just watching on UTube . I live in Australia and I hope to visit there one day.
Lamb of God Who takes away the sins of the World have mercy on us.

[SuzieQue]

Nope. I’ve been raised Protestant. In the west. I just learned of the holy fire. I’ve felt him come down on me during a church service. This is beautiful.

[mariannelindroos]

Thank you for posting the explanationf this wonderful miracle. I have watched the celebration many times without understanding what is it all about. Last year 2022 my Egyptian christian friend explained it to me for the first time.

[nebojsajokic]

I've had the honour and privilege to have been there and experience the Holy Light in 1995, it is truly Holy ground, 😁❤🙏

[susansuewwilliams]

As a convert to Orthodoxy in 2006, I stumbled upon a YouTube video of the Holy Fire.
In 2023 my Priest at my local Eastern Orthodox church during Holy Week mentioned the Holy Fire for the first time.
It does seem that the Holy Fire is an Holy Orthodox secret between us, the One True Holy Orthodox Church. 2:41

[mariacrisostomo]

Wow... I remember hearing of it, for some reason it was forgotten by me. Truly a great miracle to behold.

[deeanderson]

Thank you Jesus. I just found the Holy Fire ceremony around 1a.m. this morning and watched it for the first time in my life. I made a vow to Jesus to learn about it today. Then I log in to do just that, and found this.
God truly does work wonders in our lives. AMEN 🙏

[norgemetal]

Honestly today is my first time hearing about that. I love this miracle but I had sincere faith that Jesus resurrected before watching this. Jesus tells us that blessed are those who don't see.
For these Bible passages about miracles I don't doubt, but I have a problem for trusting God in the present and future. I have OCD and I try to be in control because of the mind pressure. I know this sickness does not makes us sin, but sometimes it's a temptation to sin.

[tassotasso]

My dream is to go. My parents told me this story from a young age. I am Greek Orthodox and we believe in this

[firyalkazzazi]

Tomorrow May-1st we are excited to witness this miracle again,

[penelopekatis]

thank you Natan for the description, I wish to witness it me too some day. Some Greek people who attended describe it exactly in the same way