The Birth of Christ

Who where the parents of Mother of God? How many steps did she take when she first walked? What did Christ do when she spokw to Him at the wedding at Cana? How is her soul depicted in icons? Children learn about Mary’s life through looking ath the beautiful wall-paintings by Tzortzis from the main church of Dionysiou Monastery on Mount Athos. They also embark on a wonderful journey through the world of Byzantine art. An art that is close to children’s souls, for it does not use shadow, perspective, divisions of time. Dionysiou Monastery kindly gave permission for these wonderful frescoes to be reproduced in the present edition. It is their hope that these icons will speak to the souls of our children.

The descent of the Holy Fire at the tomb of Jesus every Holy Saturday is the only miraculous event in human history which has taken place each year on the same day for more than one and a half millennia. Covering a period of thirteen centuries (4th–16th c.), this book assembles historical accounts of the celebrated event.

Seventy authors—fourteen French, nine Englishmen, seven Byzantine Greeks, six Germans, five Armenians, five Muslim Arabs, four Italians, four Persians, three Russians, three Icelanders, two Egyptians, two Chaldeans, one Syrian, one Moldavian, one Ethiopian, one Belgian, one Austrian and one Swiss—describe the greatest miracle of the Christian world: the Holy Fire (i.e., the Light of the Resurrection of Christ) which appears every Holy Saturday at the tomb of Jesus, a few hours before the celebration of his resurrection.

Furthermore, the scientific measurements that were taken in the tomb of Jesus on Holy Saturday in 2008 by Associate Professor Antrey Volkov, confirm the descent of the Holy Fire and reveal three phenomena, which he himself characterizes as “incredible and entirely inexplicable.”

This book also includes a historical and archeological study concerning the original appearance of Jesus’ tomb and the rock of Golgotha, along with a series of reconstruction drawings of the two locations, as they looked in AD 33.