Great and Holy Saturday

On the Great Saturday, the Orthodox Church remembers the bodily burial of Jesus Christ and His descent into hell. Having removed from the cross and wrapped in linens with incense, according to the custom of the Jews, Joseph and Nicodemus laid the impeccable Body of the Lord in a new stone coffin in the garden of Joseph, near Calvary. A large stone was put at the door of the coffin.

St. John Chrysostom writes: "Christ was laid in a new tomb in which no one had been laid before, so that the resurrection could not be attributed to someone else, along with Him lying; so that the disciples, at the proximity of this place, could easily come and be the spectators of what happened and that not only they but also the enemies were witnesses of the burial. The fact that the seals were put on the coffin and the guards of the soldiers were attached, this indeed, on their part was a testament to the burial, since Christ wanted his burial to be no less certain than the resurrection. That's why the disciples zealously try to prove that He really died. His resurrection was confirmed by all subsequent time: however, if his death at that time was hidden and did not become fully known, then this could damage the word of the resurrection. "