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The Great and Holy Saturday: The Epitaphios (The Tomb of Christ)

Published by Pemptousia Partnership on April 30, 2021 Archimandrite Vassilios Papavassiliou The service of Great Saturday is effectively a funeral service for Christ, and yet it is the most colourful service of Holy Week, because we have already begun to celebrate the Resurrection. The Epitaphios which represents the tomb of Christ, is adorned with an array of flowers, and is carried in a solemn and yet joyous procession outside the church. There is on Great Saturday a clear,

The Great and Holy Saturday. Knocking Down the Gates of Hell

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, April 30, 2016 The Swedish Lutheran theologian, Gustav Aulen, publish a seminal work on types of atonement theory in 1930 (Christus Victor). Though time and critique have suggested many subtler treatments of the question, no one has really improved on his insight. Especially valuable was description of the “Classic View” of the atonement. This imagery, very dominant in the writings of the early Fathers and in the liturgical life of the