And just as it happens when a fearsome, irresistible, and all‑powerful royal military formation appears, horror together with dread and turmoil and painful fear seizes the enemies of the unconquerable General, so it happened suddenly, the moment Christ appeared so strangely in the netherworld of Hades.

From above, a mighty flash of lightning blinded the faces of Hades’ hostile powers, and at the same time thunderous military voices were heard, commanding: “Lift up the gates—not merely open them, but tear them out from their foundations; remove them completely from their place, so that they can never again be shut.”

“Lift up your gates, O you rulers—not because our Lord is unable to open them (He who, whenever He wills, commands and enters even when the doors are shut), but He commands you, like runaway slaves, to raise and carry these everlasting gates.

Therefore He does not command your crowds, but you who present yourselves as their leaders: ‘Lift up the gates, O you rulers.’

From now on you will no longer be rulers over anyone, although you wickedly exercised dominion over those who until now have fallen asleep.

You will no longer be rulers over them, nor over others, nor even over yourselves.
Lift up the gates, for Christ has come—the heavenly Door.

Make way for Him who has set His foot within the prison of Hades.”

And as soon as the angelic hosts cried out, at that very moment the gates opened!

At that very moment the chains and bars were shattered.

The keys fell, and the foundations of the prison were shaken.

The hostile powers turned to a disorderly flight—one pushed another, one became entangled in another’s feet, and each shouted to the one beside him to flee quickly.

They shuddered, were shaken, lost their senses, were thrown into confusion; their color changed; they were afraid; they halted in astonishment—astonished and terrified.

And while these things were taking place in Hades and everything was quaking, and the Lord was drawing near to reach the farthest depths, Adam—the first-created and first-formed and first to die—who was bound fast and deeper than all, heard the footsteps of the Lord as He came to the prisoners, and at once recognized His voice as He walked within the prison.

Then he turned to all those held with him for ages and cried out:

“O my friends! I hear approaching us the sound of Someone’s footsteps.
If He has truly deemed us worthy for Him to come even here, then we are free!
If we see Him among us, we have been saved from Hades!”

And as Adam was saying these things to his fellow condemned, the Lord entered, holding the victorious weapon of the Cross.

As soon as Adam beheld Him, he struck his breast in joyful amazement and cried out to all those who had slept for ages:

“May my Lord be with you all!”

And Christ answered Adam: “And with your spirit.”

Then He takes him by the hand, raises him up, and says to him:

“Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light!

I am God, who for your sake became your son—now having as my own both you and your descendants—and by my divine authority I grant freedom and say to the prisoners: ‘Come out.’

You, Adam, I command: rise from your eternal sleep.

I did not form you so that you should remain imprisoned in Hades.

Rise from the dead, for I am the life of mortals.”

(St. Epiphanius, Archbishop of Cyprus: “Homily on the Life‑Bearing Burial and on the Lord’s Descent into Hades, wondrously accomplished”)