The Shepherd, April 2008
But now to return to the services in the Church of the Resurrection. Having reviled the Armenians, the Arabs reviled the Latins, saying that they do not believe in grace, and do not receive the Holy Fire from the Grave of the Lord, but they start their own fire. And we saw their ungodliness from what had happened the week before. On the sixth Sunday of the Fast we prepared for Communion. On the eve of Lazarus Saturday we went to spend the night in the church at the Holy Sepulchre in order to receive the Holy Mysteries. In the evening they read Compline on Golgotha; then we wanted to read the rule of preparation for Holy Communion. But the Latins had begun a procession: for them it was Holy Saturday, and they were going to Golgotha with their cross. We wanted to wait until they passed by; but our Orthodox people, Russians and Greeks, were also standing on Golgotha to watch their procession and rites. There were very few of us; there were no more than fifty Greeks, counting the chanters. But there were more than five hundred Latins, and they also had with them about fifty soldiers. When they came to Golgotha, the Latins first chanted and read at their own place; then they went over to our place, where the Cross of Christ had stood. Our monks took down all the lamps which could possibly interfere with them and carried away the candle stands, and thus cleared the area. There remained only a covering on the Holy Table. The Latins set up their cross behind our Holy Table and said that we should take the covering off the Holy Table. The Greeks refused, saying, “We cannot do this, for the covering is never taken off, and the firman does not allow it; but you spread your own cloth on top;” when the Latins tried to take the covering off by force, the Greeks did not let them. Then the Latin archbishop came and scandalously grabbed the covering off the Holy Table. There were two consuls standing by: a Russian and a Greek. Immediately the Greeks made an uproar and dashed out into the corridor and brought many pieces of wood from the kitchen, and a fight began on Golgotha. The Greeks were beating them with pieces of wood, and the Latins hitting back with candles, but afterwards they also brought pieces of wood. The Turks rushed in to break it up, but their guns had been taken away; and they ran to save the Holy Sepulchre and the Church of the Resurrection, for at that time, since it was towards Palm Sunday, everything was ornamented with silver and gold. We did not know where to run and we froze from fear. The Russian consul was saving his own people and conducting them to the trapeza. We, about twenty of us, went to the Church of the Resurrection and from fear did not know where to go, whether into the altar or even under the Holy Table!
Noise, shouting, cries rose to heaven, especially on Golgotha. All the Christians were sounding alarms — the Orthodox on all the semantra, but also the Armenians, Latins, and Copts. The soldiers were standing around the Holy Sepulchre, hand to hand, with their weapons too, and so that there would not be any theft, they stood by the gates of the Church of the Resurrection. The fight had spread all over the church. They threw the Latin Patriarch down from Golgotha; it was good that he fell on the people, or else he would have been killed. Metropolitan Meletius began admonishing them to stop the fight, but they said to him, “You stand in your own place, Vladyka, but we will die for our Faith here; for there are few of us and many heretics.” Unable to do anything the bishop sat down with the Turks. The fight continued for more than an hour, until the Turkish army and the Pasha himself came. Then they separated them one by one and locked them up in the guest houses. We, the few Russians, went away to the Church of the Mother of God. The soldiers wanted to take us and shut us up also, but we said that we were Muscovites and they left us alone. Then for an hour they had a council: the Archbishop, the Pasha, and the consul were discussing the matter. At that time I was able to read the rule for preparation for Holy Communion. After the meeting the Pasha, Archbishop, and consuls each went home. The Latins began their procession again, and finished on the Grave of Christ; then the soldiers drove them all out and they went away themselves. They locked the gates of the church and sent everyone away. And again they began beating the semantra for Matins.
We had Matins in the Church of the Resurrection and had Liturgy on the Grave of Christ, and I was deemed worthy to be a partaker of the Holy Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ. But Mount Golgotha was all covered with blood; and during the whole of Matins two men were washing it with water. Three people were killed. I have not seen such terror since the day I was born.
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