A government plane with a delegation of church officials left in the early hours of this Holy Saturday for Israel to pick up the Holy Light and take it to Sofia for the Easter Sunday service at the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, the Bulgarian News Agency told Emil Velinov, of the Protocol Department of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.

The Holy Light was first brought to Sofia from Jerusalem in 2006 and since then this has become a tradition – until the Covid pandemic interrupted it in 2020. Bulgarian priests, led by Metropolitan Kyprian of Stara Zagora, attended the service in the Church of Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, where people from all over the world wait to witness the miracle of the Holy Light. Velinov participates in the mission to Jerusalem.

The delegation attended the Easter service, will take the Holy Light and then return to Sofia at 8 pm today. She will receive logistical support throughout her stay in Israel from the Bulgarian embassy there.

At Sofia airport, priests from the ecclesiastical districts will be waiting for the Holy Light to take it to their parishes. From the airport, the Holy Light will arrive at the chapel of the Synod Palace and from there it will be transferred to the Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky.

Patriarch Neophytos will officiate at the Easter service.