Altar fire unquenched = Spirit remaining on Christ; ash by sanctified only

Palladius: We were saying; for I will remember.

Cyril: See then that fire having come down from heaven upon the altar does not allow ending, nor as it were to stand off having been quenched, but both to be through all for it, and unceasingly to dwell-in. And the Baptizer John also has witnessed concerning Christ: ‘That I have beheld the Spirit coming down from heaven in form of a dove, and it remained upon him. And I,’ (John 1:32–33) he says, ‘did not know him; but the one who sent me to baptize, he himself said to me: Upon whomsoever you should see the Spirit coming down from heaven, and remaining upon him, this one is the one baptizing in the holy Spirit.’ (John 1:26–27) So then the holy Spirit was being typed as still in shadows, coming down in form of fire upon Christ, and always remaining upon him. For unrested and wholly unending is the fire of the altar. And that the Spirit is likened to the nature of fire, the blessed Baptizer also certifies you saying to the Jewish crowds: ‘I baptize in water, but in midst of you has stood one whom you do not know, the one coming behind me, of whom I am not worthy that I should loose the strap of his sandal.’ (Matthew 3:11) And he said that ‘He himself will baptize you in holy Spirit and fire.’ (Malachi 3:2–3) For we have been baptized not into sensible fire, but in holy Spirit, melting out after the manner of fire the pollution in souls; therefore also it has been written concerning Christ that ‘Behold he goes in as fire of a furnace, and as herb of washers; and he will sit melting and cleansing, as the silver and as the gold.’ (Romans 12:1) So then unquenchable is the fire of the altar. For the holy Spirit has remained in Christ, though by nature existing in him, inasmuch as he is thought and is God. And law also said the fire is own of the altar. For even if the Only-begotten has become human, and according at least to the fitting shape for humanity is also said to have come into sharing of Spirit; yet still of him and in him, and truly own is the Spirit. And if somehow someone should choose to lead the word upon this also upon each of those sanctified through faith in Christ, so as somehow already for him also to be thought a divine altar; beneficial is the word; for it is fitting that sacred men, and those having dedicated their own life to Christ, be seen hot and boiling with the Spirit, and this through all, not being carried down unto cooling through worldly pleasures, but rather rekindling the mind in sanctification unto God-love and desire of virtue. For this is the manner of the rational worship. So then this is the word of the altar. And he further orders something useful also for the history. For the ash must be carried out, he says, not by another of the aliens, or being from another tribe, but rather through ministry of those sanctified. And observe how the law leaves nothing of the things come unto divine liturgy to be thought short, nor as it were unworthy of priestly self-working, so as to yield to another not sacred; for the holy things are not walkable for the unclean. And untouched also is the divine (Leviticus 6:10–11)