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Holy Saturday Holy Saturday is dedicated to the memory of Our Saviour’s entombment and to His descent into Limbo to save the souls of the just and to open for them the gates of heaven. This too is a day of mourning. It is numbered among the fast days, although originally in the East no Saturday was kept as a fast. But the sadness of the day is already lightened by the approaching resurrection. This anticipation of Christ’s victory is already evident in the liturgy. On Holy Saturday the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great is celebrated together with vespers. Instead of the trisagion (since formerly on this occasion the catechumens used to be baptized) another hymn based on Galatians 3:27 is substituted: “All you who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ, alleluia.” The priest begins vespers and the Divine Liturgy in dark vestments, but before the Gospel he changes into white vestments because in the Gospel of the day, Christ’s resurrection is already mentioned. During the Divine Liturgy, instead of the Cherubic Hymn another hymn is sung: “Let all mortal flesh keep silence…” Basil Shereghy |