“By mine own will the earth covers me, O Mother, but the gatekeepers of hell tremble as they see me, clothed in the bloodstained garment of vengeance: for on the Cross as God have I struck down mine enemies, and I shall rise again and magnify thee.” But now beholding Thee, my God, a lifeless corpse, I am pierced by the sword of bitter sorrow. “O Son without beginning, in ways surpassing nature was I blessed at Thy strange birth, for I was spared all travail. For I shall rise and shall be glorified, and as God I shall exalt in everlasting glory those who magnify thee with faith and love.” “Weep not for me, O Mother, beholding in the sepulcher the Son whom thou hast conceived without seed in thy womb. The hymnographer of the Church has penetrated the profound mystery, and helps us to understand it through the following poetic dialogue that he has devised between Jesus and His Mother: The day embodies in the fullest possible sense the meaning of xarmolipi – joyful-sadness, which has dominated the celebrations of Great Week. It is the day of watchful expectation, in which mourning is being transformed into joy. Great Saturday is the day between Jesus’ death and His resurrection. It is life-giving, a source of power, victory and liberation. It is not a place of corruption, decay and defeat. On Great Saturday our focus is on the Tomb of Christ. Descending into Hades through the Cross … He loosed the bonds of death” (Liturgy of St. “He (Christ) gave Himself as a ransom to death in which we were held captive, sold under sin. Death, our ultimate enemy, is defeated from within. On Great and Holy Saturday the Church contemplates the mystery of the Lord’s descent into Hades, the place of the dead. The Matins of Holy Saturday is conducted on Friday evening, and while many elements of the service represent mourning at the death and burial of Christ, the service itself is one of watchful expectation. It is the day between the Crucifixion of our Lord and His glorious Resurrection. Since 1983 it is owned by the Holy See.On Great and Holy Saturday the Orthodox Church commemorates the burial of Christ and His descent into Hades. Margaret de Charny deeded the Shroud to the House of Savoy in 1453. In the first half of the 15th century, the knight brought the Holy Shroud to Lirey. After the siege and sack of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204, it is believed that the burial cloth was transported to Greece, where de Charny family was staying. During the 10th century the “Mandylion”, as it was then known, was transferred to Constantinople. There are texts dating back to the 5th and 6th centuries saying that there was a burial shroud in Edessa, Asia Minor upon which a miraculous image of the face of Jesus had been imprinted. There are few historical records for the Holy Shroud. According to Giulio Fanti, this finding contradicts the radiocarbon-dating tests conducted in 1988, which suggested that the Holy Shroud dated from the 14th century. The study found that there was a full correlation between the traces of the elements found in the Holy Shroud and the Byzantine coins. At the same time, the study examined the percentage of these elements in the Byzantine coins that were in circulation between the 11th and 12th centuries. The study, led by Giulio Fanti and Claudio Furlan, using an environmental scanning electron microscope and an X-ray spectrometer, detected electron traces, an alloy of gold and silver with traces of copper.
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