JERUSALEM: April 20, 2020
The members of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem receive the Holy Fire

In view of the unprecedented quarantine, this Great Saturday, entry into the Holy Sepulcher of Christ in Jerusalem was forbidden. The number of participants of the receiving of the Holy Fire was strictly regulated. Despite the closing of the church, His Beatitude Patriarch Theophilos III received the fire mercifully sent by the Lord into the Holy Kuvuklia.

Nuns of the convents of the Mt of Olives and Gethsemane received the fire at the Tomb of the Mother of God and brought it to their monasteries. The nuns of Ascension Convent headed by Abbess Barbara greeted the Holy Fire at the convent gates and brought it into the church under the singing of "Your Resurrection, o Christ our Savior." The Chief of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem, Archimandrite Roman (Krassovsky), received the Holy Fire at the church entrance and proclaimed "Receive the light from the Unfading Light and praise Christ risen from the dead." Then, Fr Roman and the nuns lit the church's lampadas and circled the Holy Shroud three times while singing "Your Resurrection."

May the Unfading Light of Christ and the prayers of His Most-Pure Mother strengthen us in these difficult and troublesome days.