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Holy Saturday celebrated by Orthodox Christians

Photo: picture library

In the calendar of the Eastern Orthodox Church it is Holy Saturday today, the final day of the Holy Week before Resurrection Sunday. The liturgy opens in the morning and goes on until night.

Every year on Holy Saturday from the skies above the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, and into the hands of the Patriarch of Jerusalem descends the Holy Fire. The mystery still remains unsolved by atheists. By an old tradition Orthodox Christians receive the Holy Fire and pass it down to the rest of the Christian denominations.

A delegation led by the Bishop Grigoriy Branitski, Vicar of the Bulgarian Patriarch, will bring the Holy Fire from Jerusalem to Bulgaria. It will be taken to all churches of the country.

At 11:30 pm at St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Sofia the pre-Paschal liturgy begins. It will be led by Patriarch Neophyte. Minutes before midnight, with the lights in the cathedral off, His Holiness will take out candles lit from the Jerusalem Fire from the holy alter and will call for everybody to come and take light. After that the Patriarch, the clergy and the congregation will go outside the church where at midnight the Resurrection of Christ will be announced.




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