Crucea.ro

O marturie:

People of all faiths from the world over-Jews, Copts, Armenians, Jacobites, Latins, Moslems, Protestants, etc.-flock every year to the Holy City to witness for themselves this living connection between the earthly and the Heavenly realms, which only takes place according to true ecclesiastical chronology, viz., the Orthodox Church Calendar. Testifying to the uncanny connection between the miracle of the Holy Fire and the Church Calendar, Archimandrite Sergius (Iazadjiev) relates the following:

In August of 1971, Nikolai [now Hieromonk Theophan] and I were coming back from rest and medical treatment at Narechen. Passing through the town of Plovdiv, we called in at the Metochion of Zographou to venerate the tomb of the Holy King Boris [ 906]. Schema-monk Seraphim of Zographou was in attendance at the tomb. He told us that recently (1969-70), under pressure from the Geneva-based World Council of Churches, the Jerusalem Patriarchate had introduced the ‘New Julian’ Calendar (as had the Bulgarian, Macedonian, and other Patriarchates, since there was overwhelming pressure at the time to introduce the New Calendar). That same year, on Great Saturday, when from time immemorial the Holy Fire descends on the Lord’s Sepulchre, this year the Fire did not appear. Shocked, Patriarch Benedict of Jerusalem commanded that the Old Calendar, which had been in use until then, be restored immediately in the jurisdiction of his Patriarchate. The next year, the Holy Fire once again descended on the Lord’s Sepulchre on Great Saturday; the same occurs even until the present.

Cristian Comanescu