The Holy Fire from Jerusalem arrived at...
A special flight with a delegation of Russian religious, government and public figures landed at 22:30 Moscow time, where it was greeted by hundreds of believers.
The Holy Fire that is lit every year at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem on the day preceding Orthodox Easter is believed by Orthodox Christians to be a miracle.
From Moscow the Holy Fire, which pilgrims say does not burn in the first minutes after it has been lit, is "distributed" among churches in containers similar to those used to transport the Olympic flame.
This year it will be taken to the Voskresensky Monastery for the first time. The Moscow Region monastery, better known as the New Jerusalem, was founded by Patriarch Nikon in 1656 in accordance with a popular sentiment that Moscow was the Third Rome, the last stronghold of Orthodox Christianity.
Every Orthodox church in Russia holds Paschal liturgies on the night of Holy Saturday that last well into Easter morning.