sacredchad

The Patriarch Diodoros I of Jerusalem himself described what happens: “From the core of the very stone on which Jesus lay an indefinable light pours forth. It usually has a blue tint, but the color may change and take on many different hues. It cannot be described in human terms. The light rises out of the stone as mist may rise out of a lake — it almost looks as if the stone is covered by a moist cloud, but it is light. This light behaves differently each year. Sometimes it covers just the stone, while other times it gives light to the whole sepulchre, so that people who are standing outside the tomb and look into it see the tomb filled with light. The light does not burn — I have never had my beard burnt in all the sixteen years I have been Patriarch in Jerusalem and have received the Holy Fire.” Thousands of pilgrims hold their hands and faces in the flame and report the same thing. It does not burn.