The Orthodox Church celebrates the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The holiday celebrates the miraculous finding of the cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified. It is one of the 12 major Christian holidays of the year.
When the cross was discovered, it revived a dead boy, and since then Christians believe that if they seek God's mercy on this day, they will be cured of any disease. Folk custom connects the day with the beginning of autumn when the grape harvest begins. In the Rhodopes, thousands of believers gather with a prayer for healing in the area "Krastova gora" (Forest of the Cross) near Asenovgrad the night before the holiday.
For Bulgarians, Krastovden is also connected with the beginning of the last stage of the Ilinden - Preobrazhenie Uprising, when in 1903 the rebellion against the Ottoman rule covered the region of Pirin Macedonia and Serres.
Elena is the wife of Father Ivan Karageorgiev, a Bulgarian Orthodox priest based in Paris. She has lived in the French capital since 2010. Elena grew up in a church-going family, and two of her brothers are priests. She studied iconography at St..
The Troyan Monastery "Dormition of the Mother of God" will donate relics of the patron saints of the town—St. Paraskeva-Petka and St. Panteleimon the Great Martyr—to the St. Paraskeva Petka Church in Troyan , Archimandrite Stefan, deputy abbot of the..
Today, June 7, is one of the special days in the liturgical year, in which we offer prayers for forgiveness of sins and repose of the souls of our deceased loved ones. In the calendar of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, All..
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