On the eve of St Athanasius' Day, one of the churches on the outskirts of Sofia is already preparing to welcome His Holiness the Metropolitan of Sofia and Bulgarian Patriarch Daniil, who this year will celebrate the Divine Liturgy in the church in the village of Gorni Lozen.

"After the service, the hierarch will bless the kolivo (boiled wheat dish), which will be distributed to all devout Christians for health and blessing," says Father Georgi Markov of St Athanasius the Great Church, adding:

"The celebration always begins the day before, on the evening of 17 January. During the evening service on St Anthony's Day, the consecration of the five loaves (petohohliebie) is performed. The blessed bread is then distributed to the faithful. This symbolises Christ feeding 5,000 people with five loaves of bread. In addition, on the day before the feast, the icons are decorated with flowers. The next day, which is the actual feast of St Athanasius, we prepare kolivo - boiled wheat mixed with various fruits. It is decorated with almonds, walnuts, sugar and other adornments to depict the image of St Athanasius the Great," says Father Georgi.

The church of the same name is one of the most beautiful in the Sofia diocese and the only one in the capital and surrounding area dedicated to the saint. But the church is most famous for the relics of St Athanasius. Father Georgi Markov tells us about the events surrounding their transfer:

"Sometimes there is such a flow of people that there is a line of faithful at the gate, waiting to enter the church and venerate the relics. As far as I know, this only happens in our church, in the Diocese of Dorostol, and perhaps in one or two other churches in Bulgaria. I suppose there are not enough large relics to be distributed to all the churches dedicated to St Athanasius. It is a blessing for us that we have a fragment of his relics in the village of Lozen.