Meteorologists Cannot Explain the Miraculous Cloud of Mt. Tabor

January 11, 2011

Interfax

Science cannot explain a mystery of the cloud, that every year descends on Mount Tabor where, according to the Bible, the Transfiguration of the Lord took place.

Sergey Mirov, a participant in the research organized this summer by the working group on miraculous signs at the Synodal Theological Commission, the investigation was conducted by Russian and Israeli meteorologists, the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily writes.

According to him, summing up the results, the experts concluded that fog cannot be generated in such dry air and temperature.

Mirov stressed that the "descending of the blessed cloud" takes place only in the territory of the Orthodox monastery. He said that during the festival service (the miraculous phenomenon happens on the Orthodox feast of Transfiguration) a glaring sphere rushes over believers, then the cloud appears above the cross of the Transfiguration Church, it grows in dimensions and descends on believers, covering them and pouring life-giving moisture over them.

In his turn Pavel Florensky, Russian Academy of Natural Sciences academician and head of the working group on miraculous signs, said that his team examined the appearance of the Holy Fire at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on Easter eve with the help of modern highly accurate equipment.

"The conclusion is simple: the appearance of fire is accompanied with powerful piezoelectrical phenomenon in the church and adjacent territories similar to those that take place during thunderstorms, but there was no thunderstorm... Thus, it means that this event can be considered miraculous," he believes.