The Holy Fire from Jerusalem will be brought to Moldova this year as well. A delegation of the Moldovan Metropolitan Church led by His Holiness Vladimir will travel to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem on Holy Friday, April 26, to fetch the Holy Fire for the 17th year in a row.

Archbishop Vadim Cheibaș, secretary of the Moldovan Metropolitan Church, has told IPN that the delegation on April 26 will have a meeting with Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem. In the morning of April 27, the Moldovan clerics will go to the Old City of Jerusalem where, by tradition, the Holy Fire starts to burn at the Tomb of the Lord at about 2pm.

The Holy Fire will reach the Metropolitan Cathedral “God’s Birth” in Chisinau in the evening of April 27, between 7pm and 8pm. From there it will be distributed to priests and parishioners who will carry it all over the country.

“For centuries, the Holy Fire is considered a miracle of Orthodoxy. After Savior Jesus Christ was buried, a powerful flame broke through the stone placed on the tomb and since then the Holy Fire annually starts to burn during the Holy Saturday vigil,” it is said on the website of the Moldovan Metropolitan Church.

Easter this year is celebrated on April 28.