Watch the whole process and the Ceremony of Touching the Holy Light in Jerusalem by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Mr. Theofilos, in the Holy Church of the Resurrection, which will take place around 16.30.

The Holy Light will arrive in Athens at approximately 19.30 in the afternoon, on a special Aegean flight.

The temple is already suffocatingly full of devotees from all parts of the world, many of whom spent the night there.

The Greek delegation, led by Deputy Foreign Minister Andreas Katsaniotis, has been in Jerusalem since the afternoon of Good Friday.

This year the Israeli authorities have imposed stricter security measures which caused the reaction of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

The wish conveyed by the Patriarch

Its performance is a prerogative of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, which is repeated every Holy Saturday at noon in the service of the Resurrection, in the Holy Sepulcher of Christ.

The wish that the Patriarch sends before touching over the Holy Sepulcher in memory of the sacrifice and the three-day resurrection of Christ and addressed to God is:

“Therefore, from this light-bearing tomb of yours, carefully and eternally burning light, we reverently spread to those who believe in the true light, and we beseech you, Holy Despot, that it may prove to be a gift of sanctification…”

The Holy Light ceremony takes place at noon on Holy Saturday and consists of six stages:

1. Sealing with soft wax of the door of the sacred Kouvuklio, and seals on it by the porter of the Temple, in memory: “sealing the stone after the guardianship” (Matth. 27,66)
2. Unsealing the door, entering and placing an extinguished candle in the Holy Sepulcher by the Custodian and Abbot of the Church of the Resurrection[5]. Then turn it on.
3. Litany of Patriarch and high priests, three times around the holy Kouvuklio.
4. Entry of the Patriarch and the Armenian priest into the Holy Sepulcher. (In recent years, a representative of the Israeli police also enters)
5. Prayer of the Patriarch for the consecration of the Holy Light. Then taking this from the lighted candle.
6. Distribution of the Holy Light first from the two holes, right (by the Orthodox Patriarch) and left (by the Armenian priest) of the Kouvuklion. Then the exit of the Patriarch and the Armenian priest, and distribution of the Holy Light to the faithful in front of the Kouvuklio.