The Russian space agency sent a special plane to carry out the mission in time for Orthodox Easter Sunday
The Holy Fire was delivered from Jerusalem to Moscow on Holy Saturday and received at Vnukovo Airport before being used in Orthodox Easter services.
The flame is lit annually on the eve of the holiday inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, at the site associated with the burial of Jesus Christ. The ritual takes place in the Kuvuklia, a chapel built over the tomb, where the Patriarch of Jerusalem enters after prayers and distributes the fire to clergy and pilgrims waiting in the darkened church.
A delegation from the St. Andrew the First-Called Foundation transported it to the Russian capital aboard a Roscosmos aircraft after receiving the flame earlier in the day at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The group, led by foundation board chairman Vladimir Yakunin and Metropolitan Feognost, a vicar of Patriarch Kirill, had arrived in Israel on April 10 and departed from Ben Gurion Airport following the ceremony, during which Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem prayed alongside clergy and pilgrims.
At Vnukovo Airport, the fire was received by representatives of multiple dioceses before being taken to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
The relic was used during the Patriarchal night service, with portions later distributed to several dioceses and churches across the capital, including Epiphany Cathedral in Yelokhovo and Znamensky Cathedral on Varvarka Street. The flame will also be delivered to regions across the country, including St. Petersburg, Kazan, Yekaterinburg, and Vladivostok, allowing worshippers to light candles from it throughout Easter week.
Roscosmos chief Dmitry Bakanov said the delivery went ahead despite tensions in the Middle East.
“The situation in the Middle East is not simple, but it was important for us to fulfill the mission of delivering the fire, which millions of Orthodox Christians in our country await for the Bright Easter holiday,” he said.
Orthodox Easter is one of Christianity’s most important holidays and is widely celebrated across Russia.
The tradition of bringing the Holy Fire to modern Russia dates back to the early 1990s and became an annual event in the early 2000s, with the flame transported from Jerusalem on special flights after the ceremony.
In 2026, concerns were raised that the fire might not appear due to restrictions on access to Jerusalem’s Old City and a more limited format for the ceremony. The failure of the ritual is traditionally viewed by some believers as a sign of future misfortune.
This year, Easter coincided with Cosmonautics Day, marked annually on April 12 to commemorate Yuri Gagarin’s first human spaceflight. Patriarch Kirill exchanged greetings with the Russian crew aboard the International Space Station, while Roscosmos cosmonauts also sent holiday messages from orbit.
“Our goal is to ignite in the hearts of millions of Russian boys and girls a love for space,” cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev said.
