New Bulgarian Orthodox Bishop of Toledo Consecrated

Archimandrite Alexander (Golitzin) was consecrated Bishop of Toledo and the Bulgarians today by Metropolitan Jonah (Paffhausen) of Washington and all the serving hierarchs of the American Orthodox Church (with the exception of Bishop Alejo of Mexico City). Axios! The consecration service was well attended, with many clergy and faithful from the Bulgarian Orthodox Diocese of Toledo, the Midwest, and East and West Coasts of the United States in attendance. More here.

St. Parasceva

Joyous feast! Today we celebrate the memory of St. Parasceva, better known in much of the Balkans as Petka, who lived in the 11th century. The Saint was born to a Bulgarian family in Epibata, a Thracian town near Constantinople, and at an early age was inspired by her parents' righteous way of life to serve her Lord with her entire being.

After her parents' death St. Parasceva took up the monastic life, first in nearby Constantinople and then in the region of the Jordan, growing strong in the virtues and in prayer. Years after her arrival in the Holy Land an angel appeared to St. Parasceva and commanded her to return to her hometown, where she lived another two years before falling asleep and being buried in an unmarked grave.

Many years after St. Parasceva's repose the decaying body of a sailor washed up on the nearby shores of the Marmara and was buried on top of her grave, which had been forgotten by the inhabitants of her town. That night the Saint appeared to one of the grave-diggers and a pious townswoman in dreams, commanding them to remove her incorrupt relics from beneath the sailor's tomb.

Thereafter St. Paraceva's fragrant relics were enshrined and venerated by the faithful, first in Epibata and later in Trnovo, Belgrade, and Constantinople before coming to rest in Iasi, where they remain to this day and where the Saint is venerated as the protectress of Moldavia. More on St. Paraceva's life can be found here and here. May her blessing and prayers be with us all!

St. Chryse the Great-Martyr

Joyous feast! St. Chryse the Virgin-Martyr (more commonly known as Zlata) was born in the region between what today are Bulgaria and Serbia during the Turkish Yoke. The Saint possessed a strong character and deep faith, but drew the attention of a Turk because of her great beauty. Having kidnapped her, the Turk attempted to seduce the virgin and convert her to Islam, turning from seduction to threats when St. Chryse remained firm in her faith.

St. Chryse endured six months of threats in the Turk's household. Seeing that his threats had no effect on the Saint, the Turk turned on her family and threatened to murder her and torture them if they did not persuade her to accept Islam. Despite their appeals to convert for appearance's sake, however, St. Chryse remained steadfast in the Orthodox Faith and endured three months of tortures, being beaten and having her skin peeled off her body by her tormenters.

At the last St. Chryse was tied to a tree by the Turks and cut into pieces, her precious relics later being recovered by the area's Christians and buried with reverence. She witnessed to the Orthodox Faith in 1795. May her blessing and prayers be with us all! More on St. Chryse's life can be found here.

St. John of Rila

Joyous feast! Today we commemorate one of the great lights of Bulgarian Orthodoxy, our Holy Father John of Rila. St. John was born in the late 800s in the vicinity of the current Bulgarian capital, Sofia, and at a young age was orphaned and became a cowherd. Even as a youth he worked miracles, once rescuing a calf from the Struma River by causing its waters to part by his prayers.

As a boy the Saint left his village, becoming a monk in an unknown monastery and pursuing a life of extreme asceticism on a hill and then in a cave alongside his nephew St. Luke. After twelve years of laboring in the cave St. John withdrew to the Rila wilderness, where he settled in the hollow of a tree to fast and pray, eating only grass when he needed food until God caused beans to grow nearby for the ascetic to eat.

The Saint was eventually discovered by nearby shepherds when their sheep led them to the monk's tree and soon they began to bring him the sick and possessed, who were healed through St. John's prayers. Fleeing the celebrity he attained through the healings St. John took refuge on a rock crag that was difficult to access, dwelling there for seven years under the open sky.

Despite his flight from the world the reports of St. John's holiness continued to spread, reaching even the Bulgarian imperial court and bringing a number of monks and novices to Rila, where the Saint eventually accepted them as his disciples and allowed them to build a monastery with a church in the cave where he had previously lived.

St. John shepherded the Rila Monastery until his repose on this day in 946 at the age of seventy. Before his death he wrote one of the most celebrated pieces of literature in the old Bulgarian language. Through both his holy life and his prayers St. John did much to strengthen the Orthodox Faith amongst the newly baptized Bulgarians.

St. John's relics remained at the Rila Monastery until their transfer to Sofia in the face of an invasion of Bulgaria by the East Roman Empire. At some point one of the Saint's hands was translated to Russia, to the city of Ryl'sk, which was named after the place of St. John's ascetic struggles, and he soon became as beloved amongst the Russians as he was amongst his native Bulgarians. The main part of the Saint's relics were later translated back to Rila from the new Bulgarian imperial capita, Turnovo, in 1469, where they remain to this day.

More on St. John's life can be found here. May his blessing and prayers be with us all!

Sts. Clement and Naum of Ohrid

Joyous feast! Today we celebrate Saints Clement and Naum of Ohrid, disciples of the Holy Equals-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodius who labored in western Macedonia in what today is the southwestern corner of independent Macedonia. The Saints initially labored in Moravia together with their fellow disciples of the Enlighteners of the Slavs, Sts. Gorazd, Sabbas, and Angelyar. When the competing German missionaries present in Moravia began banning the use of Slavonic in the Mass and other divine services and persecuting the Saints, however, they were scattered.

Several took refuge in the newly enlightened Bulgarian Empire, where they began the work of translating the divine services of the Byzantine Rite into Slavonic. St. Clement eventually settled in the western Macedonian city of Ohrid, where he organized his disciples and students into a renowned school. After his election as Bishop of Velitsa, possibly making him the first ethnic Slav to serve as a hierarch in the Church of Christ, St. Clement was succeeded at the school in Ohrid by St. Naum, who had until then taught in the school he had founded in Preslav.

After several years teaching in Ohrid St. Naum founded the Monastery of Sts. Michael and Gabriel near the city and retired there following its consecration by St. Clement in 905. St. Naum reposed in 910 and was buried in his monastery, which was later rededicated to his holy memory. In the early 900s St. Clement also established a monastery near Ohrid, that of St. Panteleimon, and continued his translation work, also becoming the first author of original works in the Slavonic language. After his falling asleep in 916 St. Clement's relics were likewise buried in the monastery he had founded.

More on Sts. Clement and Naum's lives can be found here and here. May their blessings and prayers be with us all!

St. Boris of Bulgaria

Christ is risen! Joyous feast! Today is also the feast of Tsar St. Boris of the Bulgarians, venerated as 'equal to the Apostles' for his conversion of the Bulgarian nation to Orthodox Christianity and also remembered as Michael after his baptismal name. More on his life can be found here. May his blessing and prayers be with us all!

Constantinople's 'Iron Church' to be Restored

The former seat of the Bulgarian Orthodox exarchs in Constantinople, the 'Iron Church' of St. Stephen, is to be repaired with substantial assistance from the Turkish government. The church served as the first cathedra of the Bulgarian Orthodox first hierarchs when the Church of Bulgaria regained her autocephaly from the Greek-controlled Ecumenical Patriarchate, which had used its influence at the Ottoman court to have it suppressed (as they also had the independent Churches of Ohrid and Serbia abolished). More here.

St. Clement of Ohrid

Joyous feast! St. Clement is one of the great lights of Bulgaria and Macedonia and quite possibly one of the developers of the Cyrillic alphabet. More on his life can be found here. May his blessings and prayers be with us all!

Fourth Diocesan Sobor of the Bulgarian Orthodox Diocese of the OCA

Over the weekend the Bulgarian Orthodox diocese of the American Orthodox Church (OCA) held its fourth diocesan council (собор) at its cathedral in metro Toledo, Ohio, this past weekend. The council was supposed to nominate a candidate for election as Bishop of Toledo and the Bulgarians to succeed Archbishop Kyrill (Yonchev) of Pittsburgh and the Bulgarians, but after a presentation by the episcopal search committee the council gave it more time to enable the candidates under consideration to visit more of the diocese's widely scattered communities. The council was led by Bishop Melchisedek of Pittsburgh, the locum tenens of the diocese, and included a presentation by Fr. Callinic (Berger), an hieromonk of the Romanian Orthodox Episcopate in America (ROEA). The news release from the OCA can be found here.