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 Cyril and St Methodius University in Veliko Tarnovo, and it was through her studies that she met her future husband. He was visiting Veliko Tarnovo with professors from the St. Sergius Institute in Paris at the time. After spending a year specialising in Athens, Elena moved to France, where she currently lives with her husband and their three children – Yoana, Lazar and Daniel. The couple hadn't planned to raise their family in Paris, but they accept this turn in their lives as God's will. 

Is the need for faith, for the Church and for God stronger here, in a predominantly secular and non-Orthodox environment?

'People come seeking many different things, each with their own personal reason. Some families are looking for the Bulgarian community to share what they miss from back home. Others, thank God, are not drawn just by their Bulgarian identity, but also by faith. When we gather together in prayer, we feel like a small community. Though we are far from Bulgaria, everything we do brings us closer to our homeland. It is our faith that unites us.'

When we visited the Bulgarian church in Paris, which is dedicated to Saint Euthymius of Tarnovo, Patriarch of Bulgaria, we were struck by the number of children present. A special corner has been set up for them near the choir area, and that’s where they head straight for when they arrive, joining the other children.

These children are the sons and daughters of close Christian families that we have known for a long time. It's as if they've grown up in the church from day one. We see how they come with more eagerness and curiosity every week, month and year, and how they want to contribute in their own way, whether by singing in the church choir or helping out in the altar in the case of the boys. They show real joy when we include them in Orthodox worship in ways that are accessible and meaningful to them. As parents, we are happy to see their willingness to participate. We tell ourselves, 'This is the church of the next generation.'

These children are a great hope for the future of the Church, the Bulgarian people and humanity because of the grace and faith that ennoble their souls, the moral values by which they are guided, and the Orthodox traditions they will carry into the world. They are and will remain the bearers of Christianity's unchanging truths, preserved in Orthodoxy and passed on through time.

While visiting churches in Paris to venerate various Christian relics and other traditionally Catholic Western countries, we noticed something unusual for Catholic tradition: the presence of icons in their churches. It is interesting to hear Elena's perspective as an iconographer on this Catholic interest in Orthodox iconography.

'It's true that iconography is something new among Catholics; it's something they are discovering and seeking out with great interest.' In Catholic churches, as we know, sculptures, mostly of the Virgin Mary but also of other saints, as well as stained glass windows, are more common. But icons are something they have adopted from the Orthodox world. Many Catholics even wish to learn Orthodox icon painting; they’re interested in it, and various iconography workshops are being organised."