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Dear Friend in Christ,

Every Apostolic Church claims to be the true Church and points to miracles to buttress the claim.

I believe the Greek Church is the true Church, as is the Roman Church and the Oriental Churches, and I believe current Catholic thinking reflects this as well.

The Greek Church bears within its pale many miracles through its Icons and Saints.

There is the quite fantastic miracle of the snakes where snakes will crawl to a church in honour of a particular Icon of the Mother of God.

They won't bite anyone during this time of pilgrimage and often wrap themselves around the Bishop's arm and staff when he is preaching!

Lanciano's Eucharistic Miracle also occurred when East and West were One Church.

The Orthodox Church does not allow anyone to enter the Sepulchre Chapel except for the Patriarch and the two Oriental Orthodox Bishops, a Syrian I believe and a Copt.

After the miracle, the entire Church is bathed in light from the Holy Fire of the two criss-crossed candles of the Patriarch.

He then immediately signs an oath that he did not light up the candles himself.

This signature tradition has gone on since the eighth century.

Science should not be allowed to view this or other miracles.

What if God responds to this as to an act of faithlessness and something else happens to punish the people involved, as with the Eucharistic Miracles?

People are generally losing faith in science and modern medicine as it is . . .

And so what if scientists study the Eucharistic Miracles? Will that bring atheists and agnostics to faith? Not too many . . .

As for the issue of a Latin Mass at the sepulchre, I think permission may be granted.

However, the Sepulchre actually belongs to two Orthodox Churches, the Greek and the Oriental Coptic.

The Greeks have most of it, the Chapel is divided into two with the smaller part given to the Copts.

I went to the Coptic side as well and the Coptic priest gently took my mind and placed it on the Sepulchre.

He said, "Touch, touch, Jesus Christ was here!"

I will never forget that!

Alex

Dear OrthoMan:

This might be a minor point, but is it true that the present Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Resurrection), was rebuilt by the Catholic Crusaders after recovering Palestine from the Muslim Turks (who razed it completely to the ground) and turned it over to the Patriarchate of Jerusalem under instructions of the Pope?

[This might be a minor point, but is it true that the present Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Resurrection), was rebuilt by the Catholic Crusaders after recovering Palestine from the Muslim Turks (who razed it completely to the ground) and turned it over to the Patriarchate of Jerusalem under instructions of the Pope?]

No. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre has been destroyed or damaged and repaired many times during it's existence. Including extensive repairs during the Crusades. However, the present structure was designed and repairs were made in 1810 at the expense of the Greeks and Armenians when the church was partially destroyed by fire in 1808. See the following from the 'Catholic Encylopedia' -

The edifice built over the Holy Sepulchre by Constantine was dedicated in 336. The Holy Sepulchre, separated by excavation from the mass of rock, and surmounted by a gilded dome, was in the centre of a rotunda 65 feet in diameter. The basilica, extending eastward from this to a distance of 250 feet, embraced Calvary in its south aisle. An atrium and a propylaeum gave a total length of 475 feet. The magnificent monument was destroyed by fire in 614, during the Persian invasion under Chosroes II.
Two hundred years later new buildings were begun by the Abbot Modestus and finished, in 626, with the aid of the Patriarch of Alexandria, who had sent money and one thousand workmen to Jerusalem. These buildings were destroyed by the Mohammedans in 1010. Smaller churches were erected in 1048, and stood intact until the crusaders partly removed them and partly incorporated them in a magnificent basilica that was completed in 1168. As in the basilica of Constantine, so also in that of the crusaders, a rotunda at the western end rose over the Holy Sepulchre.

{This basilica was partially destroyed by fire in 1808, when the rotunda fell in upon the Sepulchre. A new church designed by the Greek architect, Commenes, and built at the expense of Greeks and Armenians, was dedicated in 1810.}

The dome of its rotunda was rebuilt in 1868, France, Russia, and Turkey defraying the expenses. In the middle of this rotunda is the Tomb of Christ, enclosed by the monument built in 1810 to replace the one destroyed then.

The dome was just replaced a few years ago thru donations by a Roman Catholic from America.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was never turned over to the Orthodox Patriarch by the Pope. This church was never completely his to do so. Up until the Crusade it was under the authority of the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem.

OrthoMan

Dear Friends,

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was indeed destroyed several times. The Saracens rode into it and started desecrating the icons on the walls, but didn't desecrate that of the "3 Wise Men" as they looked like they did!

The Templars marched into the Church when they took Jerusalem "wading through blood."

The Templars were once mounting the walls of Jerusalem in battle when the Saracens doused them with petrol or something.

A flaming bush was catapulted over the wall, hitting the Templars and burning many of them to death.

The Templars then devised a special "Brigade" of knights who would have no other purpose than to watch each other's backs in battle to prevent fire from killing any more knights.

They wore a special Templar Cross that is today worn by all our firefighters!

300 pilgrims to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre were slaughtered by the Saracens on one Easter day and King Baldwin ordered the revival of the Templars to protect the pilgrims etc.

The Templar Knights actually venerated these 300 pilgrims as martyrs in their Order.

Later knights in Portugal (the Order of Christ, right Defreitas?) and other branches that escaped France's persecution of the knights also venerated all the knights killed by the Inquisition, including Jacques de Molay and Geoffroi de Chancey, whose nephew, also a Geoffroi, possessed the Shroud of Turin and several Black Madonnas from Ethiopia.

Alex

[However, the Sepulchre actually belongs to two Orthodox Churches, the Greek and the Oriental Coptic.
Sepulcher and the entrance in the Church belong to muslim.]

The Sepulcher belongs to the Christians. Howeer, the Muslims are the guardians and the keeper of the keys that open and lock the main door every day. In fact, this responsibility has been in one Muslim family for centuries.

OrthoMan

Dear Ioann:

Thanks for posting from Russia.

Can you please direct me to a website for the Holy Fire's miraculous manifestions this Pascha 2002?


AmdG

Dear Ioann,

I thank my dear friend (whose forgiveness I always stand in need of) Orthoman for correcting the record on the ownership issue.

The Latins have their own altar and church as part of the six Churches that span out from the centre that is occupied by the Sepulchre and that is what I was referring to.

The Copts have their own altar, yes. But if you go around the Sepulchre to the back, there is a Coptic stand with a priest and a portion of the Sepulchre is exposed for veneration by the Copts directly.

And I know this because I was there and saw the RC Church and touched and venerated the Sepulchre on both the Greek and Coptic sides.

Alex