The Bulgarian Orthodox Church marks today the Dormition of St. John of Rila (Ivan Rilski), patron saint of Bulgaria and the Bulgarian People. St. John of Rila was born around 876 in the village of Skrino located at the foot of the Osogovo Mountain. He was a contemporary of the reign of Knyaz Boris I and his son Vladimir, Tsar Simeon I the Great and his son Tsar Peter I, when Christianity was spreading across Bulgaria.
At the age of 25, St. John of Rila became a priest at St Demetrius monastery located under Ruen peak. After accepting the life of a monk, he left the monastery in order to continue his life in solitude and prayer. Later he settled in Rila and founded the Rila Monastery. He died in 946 and was buried in the small church in the Rila Monastery. St. John of Rila was canonized around 980.
Today, August 28, Bulgarians in many parts of the country celebrate the Assumption of the Theotokos in the old style calendar along with almost the entire Orthodox world. The Assumption of the Theotokos glorifies the immense love of the Mother of..
A Thracian temple from the 3rd century BC, unparalleled in Bulgaria, can turn 10 acres of Plovdiv's South region into an archaeological park. The site is located at the base of the Great Mound, which a team of the Plovdiv-based Regional Archaeological..
After the Liberation of Bulgaria from Ottoman rule, architects from Europe flocked to Sofia, which became the new Bulgarian capital city in 1879, to give it a modern look and functionality. In the end of the 19 th century the first..
26 years ago, on 30 September, at the initiative of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (BOC), a Pan-Orthodox Council was convened in Sofia to resolve the..
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