Ceasefire and the Holy Fire: Gods and their Fires
The Ceasefire and the Holy Fire
The 21 hours of ceasefire-talks from 11 - 12 April 2026 between America and Iran opened a window for the ceremony of the Descend of the Holy Fire to take place at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Old Jerusalem. This is believed to be the site where Christ was crucified and where his tomb - called the Edicule - is situated, thus making it the most holy site to Christians. The Church had been closed for 40 days prior due to war restrictions but was opened on Thursday 9 April 2026 in lieu of the ceasefire. The Holy Fire event on Saturday 11 April 2026 occurred peacefully, in contrast to the previous weekend when on 4 April 2026, Israeli forces assaulted Christian worshippers in the alleys of the Old City in Jerusalem who were on their way to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Despite the ceasefire talks, air strikes between Iran and Israel did not cease. The external war continues and the 4 April-incident stoked internal fires with allegations of discrimination against religious groups in Israel.
Against the backdrop of ominous smoke of missile strikes clouding the skies of the Middle East, chartered flights took off from Israel on Saturday 11 April 2026, to transport the flame of the Holy Light to Orthodox seats over the world, such as Athens, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Georgia, Bulgaria, Romania, Egypt, Cyprus, North Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Belarus, Ukraine and Russia.
A ceasefire was called between Russia and Ukraine lasting 32 hours from Saturday afternoon 11 April to Sunday 12 April 2026, in lieu of the Resurrection ceremonies. Both countries accused each other of over 2,000 violations. Ukraine received its Holy Fire and so did Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the service in Moscow.
The flame of the Holy Fire was flown from Israel to Cyprus, where it was transferred to a Lebanese Army helicopter and flown to the Baabda Palace n in Beirut on 11 April 2026, and the following day news agencies reported 300 people were killed in Lebanon, including Tyre, by Israeli airstrikes. Ceasefire talks are scheduled to commence between Israel and Lebanon in Washington on 14 April 2026.
Will the miracle of Christ’s Fire have any influence on human egos? Pope Leo XIV condemned the war and asks for peace and President Donald Trump announced he doesn’t like a Pope who criticizes the American president.
Historical Holy Site on Fire
After Jerusalem and the Second Temple was destroyed in 70 AD by the Romans, in the second century AD, Emperor Hadrian had a temple for Jupiter, Venus and Minerva erected on top of an empty cave tomb, which he had deliberately filled in, on the site known as Calvary in Jerusalem. It is believed this is the location where Christ was crucified, and the cave is where his body was laid to rest and from there, he was resurrected.
In 326 AD Byzantine Emperor Constantine commissioned the excavation of the cave, the destruction of the Roman temples and the building of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. It was destroyed by a fire in May of 614 AD, when Khosrow II of the Sassanid Empire invaded Jerusalem and captured the True Cross. The church was rebuilt but in 841, 935 and 938 it suffered damage by fire again.
On 18 October 1009, Fatimid caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ordered the complete destruction of the church, including the tomb, with only portions of the northern wall containing the burial bed and the southern wall surviving. This gave rise to a justification for the Christian Crusades. Control of Jerusalem oscillated between the Crusaders, the Islamic caliphs, the Ottomans and the Christians for centuries.
In the 16th century the Franciscans rebuilt the Edicule, erecting a marble construction on top of the remains of Christ’s believed tomb, probably to prevent pilgrims from touching the original rock or taking small pieces as souvenirs. A marble slab was placed over the limestone burial bed where Christ’s body is believed to have lain. Another fire severely damaged the structure again in 1808, causing the dome of the rotunda to collapse and smashing the Edicule’s exterior decoration. The dome was restored by Catholics, Greeks, and Turks in 1868, being made of iron ever since. In 2017, the Franciscan marble slab was removed during excavations and for the first time the original limestone burial bed, said to have held the body of Christ, was exposed. Then it was resealed.
At present, the Church of the Hole Sepulchre is simultaneously the seat of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, and the Catholic Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and it is a UNESCO World Heritage site, included as part of the Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls.
Christ’s Light
The Holy Light refers to a divine light miraculously emitting from the believed tomb of Christ, over the Easter weekend, commemorating his resurrection.
When was the light of Christ’s believed tomb first observed? It is important to remember it occurs only during Easter. In 325 AD, the First Council of Nicaea settled on a common Paschal observance by all Christians on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox. Construction on the Church of the Sepulchre commenced a year later in 326, commissioned by Byzantine Emperor Constantine.
The use of the Paschal candle, to denote the appearance of light out of darkness through the Resurrection, was first recorded about 50 years later in the year 384.
Did the light emit from the tomb of Christ, or the cave where he was believed to have been buried before Christians built a construction over it? Was this light locked inside the cave when Emperor Hadrian commissioned it to be filled and a Roman Temple built on top of it, almost 100 years after the crucifixion of Christ? In the past, a blue light was said to emit within Christ’s tomb, rising from the marble slab covering Christ’s believed stone burial bed. This marble slab was first laid at the site about 1,500 years after Christ’s’ death.
The ceremony celebrating the Miracle of the Holy Fire holds that on the Easter weekend, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem and an Archimandrite of the Armenian Apostolic Church, enter the tomb of Christ with unlit torch lamps and the Holy Spirit miraculously lights the torch lamp, representing the resurrection of Christ.
Can this miracle be a religious scam perpetuated by Orthodox Bishops over centuries, exploiting the naiveté of believers? Does the Holy Fire hold such reverence that it can even halt a war for a few hours of ceasefire talks? Religious history is full of examples where God’s fire halted humans in their folly … temporarily.
