Ceremony of the Holy Fire in the Holy Sepulcher church in Jerusalem

Every year the Greek-Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem enters Christ's tomb in the Holy Sepulcher church in Jerusalem with no way to start a fire, prays, and fire miraculously appears which is then distributed to the faithful. For a brief time this fire does not burn.

In this episode I talk with Ghassan Kattoua, who has joined the Holy Fire ceremony every year since he was a child. His family is one of the thirteen families who has the right to carry the banners in the Holy Sepulcher on Holy Saturday. This is not part of the liturgy but of the local tradition. 

This year Holy Saturday is on 11 April 2026. It will be very different from other years, due to the restrictions imposed by the Israeli authorities on the number of people that can gather during the ongoing war with Iran. 

If you want to have an idea of the Holy Fire ceremony you can watch this YouTube video 

Transcript

Start of the interview

Kristel 0:05

Hello and thank you for tuning in again to Stories from Jerusalem Podcast. This week is the Holy Week for the Orthodox in Jerusalem. We have just finished the Easter for the Catholics, and I recorded last week an episode for this week about the Holy Saturday for the Orthodox, also called the Holy Fire, or in Arabic Sabt in-Noor, which means the holy light. This is a yearly ceremony that takes place inside the Holy Sepulchre Church. And in short, what happens is that during the prayer of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch inside the tomb of Jesus, a miraculous flame appears, and this flame lights the bundle of candles that the patriarch is holding, and then he distributes this light to the thousands of worshippers in the church, and this light symbolizes the resurrection of Christ. Now, this year, due to the restrictions because of the war with Iran, it is going to be very different because the Holy Sepulchre Church is technically closed. They are probably going to allow only very few people to be inside the church for the Holy Fire. And that makes the local Christian Palestinians very sad. I was very lucky and blessed to find Ghassan Kattoua available to talk about the Holy Fire ceremony. And in this interview, you will learn more about the Orthodox feast of Holy Saturday or the Holy Fire. So we're sitting here at the Notre Dame Cafe having a cup of coffee, and I have a local who has the experience with Saptenur the Holy Fire. So we're going to be informed by somebody who has been in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, seeing that and knowing everything about what we are curious of. Maybe you want to introduce yourself first and tell us a little bit about your background as a Christian family in Jerusalem.

Ghassan Kattoua 2:26

I am Ghassan Kattoua, I was born in 1960. I am from a Christian family who goes back more than 500 years in Jerusalem. This is as far as we know from the celebrations of the Holy Fire on Sabt in-Noor, because our family is one of the 13 families who has the right to carry the banners in the Holy Sepulchre Church, and we make the three circles around the tomb in front of the patriarch. And after we finished the three circles, the patriarch goes into the holy tomb and he starts the ceremony of getting the holy fire.

Kristel 3:12

Okay, let's start from the beginning. Because I think there are many people who have never heard about Sabt in-Noor, which means the Saturday of Light in Arabic, and what is the holy fire? So tell us from the very beginning. It is the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter in the Orthodox calendar, right? So what is first of all, what is Orthodox Christianity?

Ghassan Kattoua 3:36

There are 13 denominations of Christians in Jerusalem. Some of them are older than the others, like the Orthodox Church. It's supposed to be the first church in Jerusalem, which is Mar Yacoub (Jacob). He was the first Archbishop in Jerusalem, and he is the head of our church, the Orthodox Church. Now there is the Catholic Church, there are the Roman Catholic Church, there are the Syrians, there are the Copts, and there are the Catholic Syrians and the Catholic Copts, and the Anglicans, the Protestants, and the Ethiopians. So all in all, there are 13 denominations of the Christians in Jerusalem or in Palestine in the Holy Land, as in all.

Kristel 4:26

And the Holy Sepulchre Church, what kind of church is that?

Ghassan Kattoua 4:30

It's called the Mother of Churches. It's the first church which was built in the fourth century by Helena and Constantine, who digged for the cross of Jesus Christ, and they found the cross in the location where is the church now. It's the holiest place for Christians because we believe that Jesus Christ was crucified there in the Golgotha, and he was buried in the tomb underneath, and from there he was raised from the tomb and he met his disciples. First he met Maria Magdalena in Mar Yacoub church, next to the Holy Sepulchre Church.

Kristel 5:31

But if we talk about all these different denominations, then the church, is it a Catholic church? Is it an Orthodox church? What is it?

Ghassan Kattoua 5:40

There are three major denominations that they are ruling the church all together the Armenian Orthodox and the Catholic and the Greek Orthodox. And there are two dominations: the Syrians and the Copts, they have the rights. The Copts they have a part, the rear part of the holy tomb, and the Syrians they have small chapels there. So five denominations they are sharing the Holy Sepulchre Church. And the three major ones there are again the Greek Orthodox, the Latin, and the Armenians.

Kristel 6:24

And how do they deal together? Like how do they know when they can have Mass or ceremonies or when they have the different feasts?

Speaker 1 6:34

Okay, they had many fights between them and they solved that during the period of the British mandate, and there was something which is called the Status Quo that everything should be as it was and it should be the same forever. For instance, the Armenians, they open by the way the the keys of the Holy Sepulchre Church, it's with the Muslim family, El Husseini, and there is Joudeh. These two families, one is responsible to keep the key, and the other family is the one to open the doors of the Holy Sepulchre. So for three days during the year, the Armenians they are allowed to open the church which it's on the Good Friday, and I think the Orthodox on the Holy Saturday and the Latin, I think on the Good Friday. So there is something like that between them. I'm not sure of the exact dates when they do open, but I know that one time a year that they opened the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as Christians. And they are dealing always together. Between them they, you know they meet and they speak about any kind of problems that they are now. For instance, when they renovated the holy tomb, so the Catholics they agreed for the renovations, and it was done by a Greek archaeological team. The renovation of the holy tomb. And recently they are renovating all the tiles and the infrastructure, everything by the Latins, which it's supported Italy.

Kristel 8:32

This coming weekend we have the Catholic Easter, so they will have their mass and celebrations, although with the current situation with the war, it seems that it's gonna be extremely limited. But then a week after the Orthodox, how is that possible? Do they use different calendar?

Ghassan Kattoua 8:53

Yes, there are two calendars, but for Easter it has nothing to do with the calendars. There are some calculations that they do. I don't have it right now with me, but I have a book which it says the difference between the two Easters, the two different I will send you a copy. The calendars, it's the Gregorian and the Julian. So the word is following the Gregorian, and for the Orthodox, they are following the Julian calendar. Now the difference between them are 13 days, but in I think in a hundred years it will be fourteen, and in other hundreds it will be fifteen because of some uh I think it's uh forty-eight minutes per year. So every four hundred years there will be three days difference.

Kristel 9:45

So next weekend we have the Orthodox Easter, and then Saturday is the Saturday of the holy fire. Describe for us exactly from the beginning to the end what happens on that day.

Ghassan Kattoua 9:58

This year it will be like 2020 by the COVID so what I learned until now from all kinds of either from the church or from the police that it will be a very limited only for the clergy, not for the layman. So nobody is allowed to enter the Holy Sepulchre Church for the ceremony. It will be very limited for the clergy, the patriarch, and a few archbishops will be with him, and that's it. There will be no celebration as we used to have in the past. In the past I can say that in the Holy Sepulchre Church maybe we had like five thousand people inside or even more. Many pilgrims they were coming from Greece, from Cyprus, from Romania, from Georgia, from Russia, all over the world. And before 1967, I was a kid at that time, but I remember that there were pilgrims coming from Syria, from Lebanon, from Egypt, from Iraq, from all Arab countries who had Christians in them, and they were coming to celebrate the Holy Saturday in Jerusalem, and that day it was called by the Feast of Jerusalem. Muslims, Christians from any denomination, they were coming and celebrating that day.

Kristel 11:34

So what happens in the early morning until the fire? For people who have no clue what holy fire means.

Ghassan Kattoua 11:42

From the early morning, let us say it will start in some Orthodox churches, they have the Holy Mass. The Holy Mass starts like eight o'clock and it ends like ten thirty. So by eleven thirty they start all the priests and the Mukhtar, who is the the chief of the community, they start to go out from the churches to meet in the Christian quarter street, and there are a big celebration there, so all the Shabab (young men) coming from the Christian quarter from the residency where they do live, and they come, you know, like singing and holding one each the other, and they have there are some special songs that they sing it, like Yahad Kulla Sayyman, Holy Virgin Mary, that all what we want is one hour to have the light coming out. So they gather all together with the scouts, and they start marching from El Khankah, which is the Al Khanka Mosque, towards the Holy Sepulchre Church. It takes like you know, walking normally it takes like three minutes, and by Holy Saturday it takes like twenty minutes until we reach the Holy Sepulchre. And as we enter the church, the Shabab they go also with their drums, with their swords, with their candles. They go around the holy tomb and they take their location. There are the banners holder. We wait in the Catholic one in the middle of the Holy Sepulchre Church, waiting for the patriarch to come to start the celebrations. And we are thirteen families from Jerusalem, one more family, which is called Slahit. They are the ones who to receive the holy fire, the first to receive the fire. This is you know it's by tradition. Yeah. So the thirteen families, it's Salman, Ajrab, and Habash, Harami, Katan, Katua, Shamah, Kara, Mahie, Abizachariah, Omansur, Alushiy. These are twelve, and Abi Zahariya they have other banner who they carry just behind the patriarch. So there is a special banner, one which it it should go just behind the patriarch, and all the others they may vary every year. You know, I can carry any one of them who has the icon of one of the saints. These are the banners that they have the saints on them.

Kristel 14:52

Where do they keep these banners throughout the year? Are they part of the scout groups or the church, or are they really at home with these families?

Ghassan Kattoua 15:02

No, they are in the church, not with the scouts, not with the families. They are in the church in the it's Knisat Nos id-duniya, the church of the middle of the world. And they are there all the year long. They use them also in special occasions, but on the Holy Saturday, during the year some of the priests they do carry them, but on the Holy Saturday the thirteen families and some of these families like Mashi or Alushige, nobody is coming to carry the banners and even recently Katan, the last I think he just left back to Australia and he is not coming to carry it. And some families they changed the names. So you know, I'm trying to keep the tradition with the old names, and if anybody is coming to carry instead of anyone else, then we will, you know, I'm asking because I feel that I'm I'm the manner keeper. Yeah. You know, I'm doing that since I was like 18 years, so it's like 50 years that I'm distributing the banners. When I was, you know, like a teenager. I was always anxious and to be in the Holy Saturday. But recently I feel very sad on the Holy Saturday, you know, with the closures with everything what's going on.

Kristel 16:38

Yeah, this year is going definitely going to be very different. But I think still a lot of people are like, but what is this holy fire? Because now we the patriarch came, you walked around the tomb. Now what's gonna happen?

Ghassan Kattoua 16:52

The patriarch will do what to our belief that it is it's a super spiritual thing that when the patriarch starts praying, the miracle of the holy fire, it should happen every year with the prayers of the patriarch. And there are proofs that it happened not inside the holy tomb, it has been outside of the Holy Sepulchre because I don't remember which year it exactly there was a fight between Armenians and Orthodox that the Armenians they said that the holy fire come to the Armenians and the Greek Orthodox they said no this miracle it happens for the Greek Orthodox. So the Armenians they were in power at that time, so they try they moved the Orthodox, the Greek Orthodox outside of the church, and the patriarchy started praying outside of the Holy Sepulchre, and all of a sudden the miracle happened, and one of the columns at the left side of the entrance of the Holy Sepulchre, it was cracked and the Holy Fire appeared from there. So it is it's a proof that it is a miracle.

Kristel 18:09

So the miracle is that when the patriarch prays a specific prayer that there will be a light or a fire that he can light his candles on. And then how do they make sure that people don't say oh but he's taking some of a lighter with him or he has matches with him.

Ghassan Kattoua 18:31

People can say whatever they want, but it is a miracle. And I read an article about one of the Muslim caliphs he was in Jerusalem and they said that okay, they made candles instead of using a cotton wick, they put brass brass wick. So brass does not light. But when the patriarch took these candles which they had the brass wick, it lighted. It lighted. So miracle happens and we don't have to that we better not lose our faith.

Kristel 19:12

Yeah, oh absolutely. Especially in these days. But I read somewhere that before the patriarch goes into the tomb that they actually check him. Did you ever see that happen, or is that just something that people write down? That even some of the people from the Muslim families that have the keys and even the Israeli police, that they come and they check around the tomb.

Ghassan Kattoua 19:35

Yes, that's right. The families who have the keys of the Holy Sepulchre also they seal the holy tomb and they put you know like wax on it with a ribbon, and they open it just a few minutes before the patriarch goes in, and he goes in with a white rope, so he has nothing no pockets, nothing in there, just just the rope on him.

Kristel 20:02

Yeah, I saw a picture, so he doesn't wear all the robes that are ceremonial, it's very simple white robe.

Ghassan Kattoua 20:10

Yeah, a very simple white robe, yeah.

Kristel 20:12

And then he comes out, he's holding. I read he's holding two bundles of thirty-three candles because Jesus was thirty-three.

Ghassan Kattoua 20:19

Before going out, before going out, he distributed the holy fire to the Slahit family from the right side of the tomb, and he passed the for the Armenians on the left side before he goes out.

Kristel 20:36

Because there are these holes in the tomb on the side. Oh these yeah, I was always wondering what these are for, but these are used to stick out the candles to give the light before he comes out from the tomb.

Ghassan Kattoua 20:49

Okay, and then so when he gives the light to the let us say to Slahit family, so the priest he takes the light from Slahit and he runs into the church of the Holy Sepulchre, and then going out to Mar Yacoub Church, Saint Jacob Church, and he lights there the oil lamps and the candles, and from there the holy light goes up to the Greek patriarchate, and from there they start to distribute it to all over the old city, and also it goes abroad by special flights from Tel Aviv to Athens to Bucharest to Tbilisi to to to all over the world.

Kristel 21:40

Wow, so the same light that came out from the tomb is now distributed among the Palestinian Christians in Jerusalem, in Bethlehem, around and then also around the world. So as a Christian, you bring this light to your house, then how long does it burn, or when do you decide to put it out, or you wait until the candle is burned down. How does that happen?

Ghassan Kattoua 22:08

We don't turn it off. Now in the churches, now I'm I will talk about Mar Yacoub Church because it's that's my church. So when we light the oil lamps, we try to keep them always, the light on. And if we want to change the wick or to to add oil or to do whatever, so we light a candle from that oil lamp, we keep the candle with the same light, and then we change the wick, we change the oil, we change the oil lamp or whatever, and then we use the same light which is on the candle to light it again. So it does not turn off, we don't turn it off. And if it happens that it turned off in the church, we don't use a lighter or we don't use a match, we go to the Holy Sepulchre Church to take the holy to take the light or we call it light, we don't call it fire because it does not burn. That maybe you see on the TV sometimes that they take with the 33 candles, it comes, you know, in bundle, that they put it on their faces and it does not, and they have beards. It does not burn, it it's light, it is not fire.

Kristel 23:21

That's why you call it in Arabic Sabt in-noor, the Saturday of light, not of Nar, fire. Oh, that's that's really interesting. Sabt in-noor, the the the light. So just I understand that the importance is that it's a miracle, but also is there like what's the symbolism of it in regarding to the story of Jesus' burial and resurrection?

Ghassan Kattoua 23:45

Yes, when Jesus Christ was resurrected, so there was a light at that time. So the guards, the Roman guards, they got you know blind from that light. So this is what it symbolizes.

Kristel 24:03

Do you know how far back does this miracle go? When did people already like write about this? When did they start seeing this?

Ghassan Kattoua 24:11

Since year 400, yeah. Which it's like 1600 years that they are celebrating the same thing. Yeah.

Kristel 24:20

Wow. So this year, because of all the restrictions, are you not gonna be able to go into the church?

Ghassan Kattoua 24:29

I hope I can go to the church. I hope. But we don't know what is going on. You know last Sunday the cardinal Pierre Battista Pizzaballa he was banned to enter the church. But you know, later they started, you know, to give excuses and with about safety and things. Okay, instead of keeping fifteen policemen inside the church, take out fifteen and bring inside fifteen. Because there are already fifteen inside, so we can switch.

Kristel 25:02

Yeah, that would make more sense. Because in order to go according to the traditional ceremony, you would have to go in with the banners and you would have to receive the fire.

Ghassan Kattoua 25:14

Going inside with the banners, it's not part of the liturgy. It is just tradition, which it has been like five hundred years that these families they have the right to go and to to celebrate with the banners.

Kristel 25:32

If you remember how it was in COVID, then how did they during the COVID distribute the light?

Ghassan Kattoua 25:42

They took it from the Holy Sepulchre Church, they went into the Mar Yacoub Church, and from there to the Greek Patriarchate, and from there they gave it to the Scouts, the Orthodox Scouts, and they distributed all over to other cities in the Holy Land, and the Greek delegation, you know, they took it to the airport and some to the other countries.

Kristel 26:12

Yeah. So maybe in this case, this would be like a scenario that will happen again, that it will be distributed without all the people being able to be present. I want to thank you very much because I think this was very enlightening if we speak about light. For most people in the West, I think they did not know about this event. And I would say you can easily find if you go to YouTube some videos. I will post some links in the show notes for some of the videos that you you can watch to see this happening. And I despite everything, I wish you a I don't know how you say do you have a greeting for that? A good Sabt in-noor .

Ghassan Kattoua 26:56

Just Kul sana w intu Salmin. That's it, Nothing special on holy Saturday.

Kristel 27:00

Kul sana w inta salim.

Ghassan Kattoua 27:01

W inti salme and starting from Sunday, we say Al-Masih qam. We don't greet like good morning or something. We we have to greet with Al-Masih qam until the ascension.

Kristel 27:12

Oh, really? And for 40 days.

Ghassan Kattoua 27:15

Until 40 days we say just Al-Masi h qam. And you know the reply is Hakkan qam. Yeah, yeah.

Kristel 27:21

Okay, I will remember that. When I walk through the Christian quarter in Jerusalem, I will say Al-Masih qam. Thank you very much.

Speaker 1 27:28

It's my pleasure. Ahlan wasahlan.

Speaker 27:31

And you listeners, thank you all for tuning in again. I hope you enjoyed listening to this episode. I have two more episodes coming up. I'm in the final process of editing them. These are the Nine Quarters of Jerusalem tour that I did last year with Matthew Teller, the author of the book by that title. I'm gonna upload them in two separate episodes because the whole tour we did took a few hours. I edited it into two episodes of about an hour each. So you can be expecting that coming up very soon. If you want to support me, especially during this time of war where there is very little work in tourism, please do so by going to my Kofi page. I will add the link in the show notes and buy me a cup of coffee or a falafel sandwich. Thank you very much, and I hope you will tune in again next time!