Holy light: The roots of doubt

Two texts written fifty years apart, during the 18th and 19th centuries, dealing with the case of the holy light. Two thinkers with completely different philosophical bases and pursuits. On the one hand, Adamantios Korais, the most emblematic figure of the Neo-Hellenic Enlightenment, and on the other, Neophytos Kausokalyvitis, a monk, one of the founders of the ecclesiastical movement of Kollyvadas. Both reach the same conclusion: The touch of the holy light is not a miracle, it is carried out by human intervention, while a profitable ecclesiastical mechanism has been set up around the whole event, which keeps the Greeks captive to superstition and ignorance.

In our days, with the recent admissions of the Holy Sepulchers having solemnly confirmed Korai and Kausokalyvitis, the value of this book is twofold. On the one hand, he presents us with the roots of questioning the miracle in the pre-revolutionary world of the Greek intellectuals, and on the other, he calls on the modern representatives of the Greek - and theoretically secular - state to rise to the occasion, putting a definitive end to the annual reception of a candle from Israel, with honors of the head of state.