Posts tagged as:

Bulgaria

Thousands of Bulgarians Meet Russian Patriarch in Plovdiv

by OCP April 29, 2012 Featured News

28/4/2012 Thousands of people met the head of the Russian Orthodox Church in the center of Bulgaria’s second largest city of Plovdiv, chanting “Russia” and accompanying clerics in their procession with church banners. Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, who arrived in Bulgaria on a visit on Friday, earlier on Saturday met with President [...]

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Patriarch Kirill plans several trips abroad in 2012

by OCP April 27, 2012 News

Moscow, April 25, Interfax – Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia plans several trips abroad this year, Metropolitan Hilarion, the head of the Synodal Church and Society Department, said at a press conference in Moscow. In particular, the Patriarch plans to go to Bulgaria on April 27-29, to Cyprus in June, to Poland in [...]

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Bulgaria: A Land of Antiquity and Resilient People

by OCP March 28, 2012 News

By Sharon Mitchell The Headliner News 28/3/2012 Bulgaria. Why the interest in this southeastern European country to the extent that someone would write an article about it? My answer is simple: There are many fascinating reasons to learn about this country that is wedged between Greece, Turkey to the south, Romania to the north, Serbia [...]

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Bulgarian Archaeologists Claim Oldest Monastery in Europe

by OCP March 19, 2012 Featured News
The ancient shrine at the St. Athanasius monastery in Bulgaria's Stara Zagora region. Photo by BGNES

19/3/2012 Bulgarian archaeologists have uncovered what they believe is the oldest Christian monastery in Europea near the village of Zlatna Livada in southern Bulgaria. According to latest archaeological research, the St. Athanasius monastery, still functioning near the village, has been founded in 344 by St. Athanasius himself, reports the BGNES agency. Until now, the Candida [...]

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Russian Orthodox Church does not have property in Bulgaria: hieromonk

by OCP March 19, 2012 News

17/3/2012 Sofia. The Russian Orthodox Church does not have property in Bulgaria, hieromonk Zotik Gaevski, a secretary for the Russian Patriarch in Bulgaria, said in an interview with FOCUS News Agency, commenting on recent media reports in Bulgaria that the Russian church wanted to be independent on the Bulgarian territory. Hieromonk Zotik Gaevski vehemently refuted [...]

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Bulgaria, Turkey Move to Mutually Open Cultural Centers

by OCP March 16, 2012 News

13/3/2012 Bulgaria will launch its cultural center in Istanbul, while Turkey will open one in Sofia, it has been made clear. On Tuesday, Bulgaria’s Council of Ministers approved a project for an intergovernmental memorandum with Turkey for the creation of the two cultural centers. The cultural centers will have the status of state cultural institutes [...]

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Bulgarian Orthodox Church marks Day of Saint Theodore of Amasea

by OCP March 5, 2012 News

3/3/2012 Sofia. Bulgarian Orthodox Church marks the Day of Saint Theodore of Amasea. It falls on the first Saturday in the Great Lent and this year it coincides with Bulgaria’s national holiday, 3 March. Churches across the country will hold services. Mounted police officers will participate in horse races, which are traditionally held on the [...]

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Russian Patriarch Arrives in Bulgaria for Easte

by OCP February 27, 2012 News

26/2/2012 The head of the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill is to visit Bulgaria in April around the Easter holiday. The new was announced Saturday by the Bulgarian Holy Synod. While in the country, Kirill will meet with President, Rosen Plevneliev, Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, and the Speaker of the Parliament, Tsetska Tsacheva. He will [...]

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Bulgarian Orthodox Christians celebrate honey, pray for health of bees amid threat of cold

by OCP February 12, 2012 News

11/2/2012 BLAGOEVGRAD, Bulgaria — Orthodox Christians in Bulgaria on Friday observed a holiday traditionally associated here with bees and honey. It was the Day of St. Haralambos, a patron saint of beekeepers, who also is known as “the lord of all illnesses.” Believers pray to him to protect their home and health. Hundreds came to [...]

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Sofia to Fund Repair of Burned Cathedral of Bessarabia Bulgarians

by OCP January 28, 2012 Featured News
Pictured: The fire at the Savior's Transfiguration Cathedral in Bolgrad destroyed its dome. Shapshot from Skat TV

28/1/2012 The Bulgarian government has announced it is going to provide a total of BGN 100 000 for the repair of the burned Orthodox Christian Cathedral in the ethnic Bulgarian-populated town of Bolgrad in Ukraine. The Savior’s Transfiguration Cathedral in Bolgrad, a spiritual center of the historical ethnic Bulgarian community in the southwest of Ukraine, [...]

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Bulgaria’s Holy Synod: God Is Testing Us

by OCP January 23, 2012 News

23/1/20122 These days God is testing us, but our Holy Church will overcome this ordeal, Bulgaria’s Holy Synod says in a statement. It was included in the greetings of the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church for the Saturday celebration of Patriarch Maxim’s name day, read by the Plovdiv Bishop Nicholay. The Holy Mass [...]

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Communist past catches up with bishops

by OCP January 22, 2012 News

22/1/2012 THE ghost of communism has resurfaced in Bulgaria, with 11 of the country’s 15 top bishops exposed as former secret police agents, shaking the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and its image just as it readies to choose a new patriarch. A list published by the parliamentary archives committee has singled out 97-year-old Patriarch Maxim and [...]

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Bulgarian Orthodox Church is not against in vitro fertilisation, Metropolitan says

by OCP January 5, 2012 Featured News

4/1/2012 The Bulgarian Orthodox Church’s governing body, the Holy Synod, does not oppose in vitro fertilisation – in contrast to a December 2011 statement that it did; the misconception was a result of a clerical error in the initial statement. This is according to Lovech Metropolitan Gavril who, however, underlined that the statement was correct [...]

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Left-wing intellectuals petition against ‘smear campaign’ against Bulgarian Orthodox Church

by OCP January 4, 2012 Featured News

3/1/2012 A group of left-wing intellectuals, in an open letter to Bulgarian Orthodox Church head Patriarch Maxim, have spoken out against what they call a smear campaign against the church. The group, which includes writers and academics – several of them former members of the Bulgarian Communist Party and some of them identified by the [...]

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Armenian church opens in Bulgaria

by OCP December 21, 2011 News

21/12/2011 The Saint Stepanos Armenian Church of Pazardzhik, Bulgaria, officially opened Monday. Father Abgar Hovakimian, Locum Tenens of the Armenian Apostolic Church’s Diocese of Bulgaria, celebrated a Holy Mass at the Church. Armenia’s Ambassador to Bulgaria, Arsen Shoyan, chair members of Armenian Apostolic Church Committee in Bulgaria, Mayor of Pazardzhik, and Armenian benefactors also attended [...]

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For 30 Pieces of Silver

by OCP December 15, 2011 News

Maria Guineva 14/12/2011 The Bulgarian Orthodox Church recently stirred new outrage when Varna Bishop Kiril showed up for mass in a sparkling 2012 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid. Bulgarian Orthodoxy, severely crippled by 45 years of Communist rule, is known for its high-ranking clergy flashing expensive vehicles, watches, gold chains, walking around with burly body guards, indulging [...]

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Communique of the Archbishopric of Ohrid

by OCP December 13, 2011 News

Serbian Church- Autonomous Archbishopric of Ohrid 13/12/2-11 On 12th December 2011, in attempt to enter the F.Y.R. Macedonia, on the border-crossing Medzitlija, on the border with Greece, the Archbishop of Ohrid and Metropolitan of Skopje kyr kyr Jovan was arrested and taken to the “Idrizovo” prison, near Skopje. Upon the false accusations by the schismatic [...]

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Alfa, Macedonia: Bulgaria makes priests policemen who struggle with Macedonian Orthodox Church

by OCP December 10, 2011 Featured News

FOCUS News Agency Southeast Europe and Balkans 9/12/2011 Skopje. The Bulgarian church was full of informers, comments the Macedonian television station Alfa. Emigrants’ newspaper Bulgaria Today published an article by Georgi Hristov, the author of the book “The Church in America,” who claims that the Bulgarian secret police recruited priests in order to prevent the [...]

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Mystery Surrounds Varna Bishop Limo Scandal

by OCP December 9, 2011 News

8/12/2011 The Varna and Preslav Bishopric are denying information that the Bishop of Varna and Veliki Preslav, Kiril, has resigned from his post a day after he startled his congregation with a 2012 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid. Speaking for the Bulgarian National Radio, BNR, Kiril informed that he had quit his job late Wednesday, citing “dissatisfaction [...]

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Bulgaria’s Lincoln-Driving Bishop Resigns after Scandal

by OCP December 8, 2011 News
Bishop Kiril is serving part of his flock on St. Nikola's Day (above), while the rest of his flock is being startled by the "Lincoln" waiting for him outside (below). Photos by BGNES

7/12/2011 The Bishop of Varna and Veliki Preslav, Kiril, has resigned from his post a day after he startled his congregation with a 2012 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid. Kiril quit his job late Wednesday, citing “dissatisfaction with the management of the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church” as the reasons for his resignation. However, many [...]

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The Sofia, Bulgaria, Podvorie of the Russian Orthodox Church Prayerfully Commemorates Archbishop Seraphim (Sobolev)

by OCP December 5, 2011 News

On December 1, 2011, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, a commemorative Liturgy for Archbishop Seraphim (Sobolev) of Bochugarsk was celebrated at St Nicholas Church (a podvorie, or metochion, of the Moscow Patriarchate) in Sofia, Bulgaria. The service was led by His Eminence Archbishop Aleksii of Kostroma and [...]

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Archaeology: Remains of medieval church discovered in Bulgaria’s Sozopol

by OCP December 3, 2011 News

1/12/2011 Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a medieval church, said to date from some time in the 12th to 14th centuries, and the front gate of the ancient city on the location of today’s Sozopol, on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. The north wall and the apse of the church are just metres from [...]

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Top Bulgarian Landmark Honors Patron Saint

by OCP November 23, 2011 News

23/11/2011 The world-famous St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, which is the landmark not only of Sofia but of all of Bulgaria, is marking Wednesday the day of its patron – the Pious Prince St. Alexander Nevsky. The temple is the largest Eastern Orthodox cathedral on the Balkan peninsula. It holds, according to estimates, anywhere between 5 [...]

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Bulgaria’s Patriarch Maxim to Be Named Honorary Sofia Citizen

by OCP November 23, 2011 News

22/11/2011 Bulgaria’s 97-year-old Patriarch Maxim will be declared an honorary citizen of the country’s capital Sofia, it was made clear on Monday. The Patriarch’s honorary citizenship has been proposed by Mayor Yordanka Fandakova and Municipal Council chairman Andrey Ivanov, as well as other local officials, and is intended to mark Maxim’s 40th anniversary as head [...]

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Bulgaria’s Top Landmark ‘St. Alexander Nevsky’ Falling Apart, Without Owner

by OCP November 19, 2011 Featured News

18/11/2011 The world-famous St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, which is the landmark not only of Sofia but of all of Bulgaria, has got no owner to take care of it. The largest Bulgarian Orthodox and one of the largest Eastern Orthodox Cathedrals in the world is without a title deed, and at the same time is [...]

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