The Harrowing of Hell VIDEO
The Harrowing of Hell VIDEO
Follow @KnightsTempOrgHoly Saturday (Latin: Sabbatum Sanctum), also known as Great and Holy Saturday (also Holy and Great Saturday), the Great Sabbath, Hallelujah Saturday (in Portugal and Brazil), Saturday of the Glory, Sabado de Gloria, and Black Saturday or Easter Eve, and called "Joyous Saturday", "the Saturday of Light", and "Mega Sabbatun" among Coptic Christians, is the final day of Holy Week, between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, when Christians prepare for the latter.
The day commemorates the Harrowing of Hell while Jesus Christ's body lay in the tomb. Christians of the Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Anglican and Reformed denominations begin the celebration of the Easter Vigil service on Holy Saturday, which provides a transition to the season of Eastertide.
The video describes the Catholic view of the Harrowing of Hell:
The Church describes Christ’s descent to the underworld…to the Limbo of the Fathers…as the harrowing of hell. That is the holy raiding of hell…the despoiling of hell. And Our Lord put an immeasurable fear into the devil, his demons, and the damned as they sought to hide from Christ’s Omnipotent Majesty. In short, then, Christ came to conquer hell, not to experience it. Let me repeat that…Christ came to conquer hell, not to experience it. Christ freed individuals from the Limbo of the Fathers. Christ did not suffer hell and its pains in any way. Christ was dashing the gates of Hell, proclaiming His victory, and delivering the righteous ones of the Old Testament!
The richest accounts of the Harrowing of Hell are found in medieval dramatic literature, such as the four great cycles of English Mystery plays which each devote a separate scene to depict it. Christ was portrayed as conquering Satan, and then victoriously leading out Adam and Eve, the prophets, and the patriarchs. The earliest surviving Christian drama probably intended to be performed is the Harrowing of Hell found in the 8th-century Book of Cerne.
The subject is found also in the Cornish Mystery plays and the York and Wakefield cycles. These medieval versions of the story derive from scripture, but the details come from the Gospel of Nicodemus.