Bachkovo, Plovdiv Province, Bulgaria, October 23, 2023
Photo: istorici.com
A host of bishops, clergy, and faithful laymen gathered at Bulgaria’s Bachkovo Monastery this weekend to celebrate the glorification of the relics of St. Euthymius of Tarnovo, the last Bulgarian Patriarch of the Middle Ages.
The Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Church recently established a new feast in honor of the finding of the relics of the 15th-century Patriarch St. Euthymius, which took place in 1905.
Photo: bg-patriarshia.bg
In its message for the occasion, the Bulgarian Holy Synod recalls:
At the beginning of the last century, towards the end of 1905, a discovery caused an unprecedented revival in our Church life, outbursts of pure joy and enthusiasm, and the universal glorification of God’s name. During excavations in the vestibule of the cathedral of the holy Bachkovo Monastery, carried out at the initiative of the then abbot-hieromonk, and later Archimandrite Paisiy (Pastirev), the grave and relics of the Heavenly patron and prayerful intercessor for the Orthodox Bulgarian family and last Bulgarian patriarch from the Middle Ages—the wondrous and universally revered St. Euthymius of Tarnovo—were discovered and confirmed.
Streams of pilgrims immediately began to flow to the monastery to venerate the newly discovered relics, the Synod writes, and the authenticity of the relics was confirmed by a host of miracles.
Photo: bg-patriarshia.bg
However, angered by such God-pleasing events, the enemy of mankind sowed seeds of doubt in the authenticity of the relics, using ambitious people who thought only of their own aspirations in the Church, the hierarchs write.
This doubt persists to this day, and because of it, disputes continue regarding the authenticity of the holy relics of St. Euthymius of Tarnovo discovered in 1905. Most likely, these disputes and doubts will continue for a long time, hindering our Orthodox Church from doing what it is obligated to do, namely, to officially and definitively proclaim to God’s people, Sister Orthodox Churches, and the whole world the truth that the holy Bachkovo Monastery of the Dormition of the Mother of God became, by God’s providence, the final earthly resting place of our last Tarnovo Patriarch, St. Euthymius, and that his holy relics rest there today for the glorification of God’s holy name and the consolation of all those who resort with faith to his holy prayers before God’s throne.
And further:
Therefore, with an awareness of our duty and responsibility before God and before His wondrous saint, St. Euthymius of Tarnovo, as well as before His people entrusted to him by God, the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church-Bulgarian Patriarchate,today calls for an end to disputes and disagreements, decreeing the establishment of a new feast: the Glorification of the Holy Relics of St. Euthymius, Patriarch of Tarnovo.
Photo: bg-patriarshia.bg
“Let this radiant feast be for the spiritual joy of our holy Church,” the Synod writes.
In this spirit, the new feast, which will be annually commemorated on October 22, was solemnly celebrated at Bachkovo Monastery. The Divine Liturgy was preceded by a procession with the relics of St. Euthymius, which are treasured in the monastery’s St. Nicholas Church. The relics were placed inside the Holy Dormition Cathedral, and His Grace Bishop Gerasim of Melnik, Chief Secretary of the Holy Synod, read out the Synodal message on the establishment of the new feast.
The Liturgy was presided over by His Eminence Metropolitan Gregory of Veliko Tarnovo, together with 17 other hierarchs of the Bulgarian Church, including Bachkovo abbot His Grace Bishop Zion of Velichka, and a host of local and visiting clergy.
The service was broadcast live on the Synod’s Facebook page:
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Photo: johnsanidopoulos.com The life of St. Euthymius of Tarnovo from Britannica reads:
Euthymius of Tarnovo, (c. 1317—c. 1402), Orthodox Patriarch of Tarnovo, near modern Sofia, monastic scholar and linguist whose extensive literary activity spearheaded the late medieval renaissance in Bulgaria and erected the theological and legal bases for the Orthodox Churches of Eastern Europe.
Bulgarian by birth, Euthymius joined the monastery of Kilifarevo, near modern Burgas, Bulgaria, where he became the leading disciple of Theodosius, whom he succeeded as spokesman for hesychasm, the Byzantine movement of contemplative prayer. Characteristic of this school, Euthymius traveled to various monastic communities at Constantinople and Mt. Athos, practicing the ascetic discipline and working in a Greco-Slavic environment as a copyist of manuscripts and a writer. He returned to Bulgaria by 1371 and in 1375 was elected Patriarch of Tarnovo and primate of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church but was forced into exile after the fall of Tarnovo to the Turks in 1393.
During his patriarchate, Euthymius wrote much, including the translation and revision of the liturgical and legal codes of the Orthodox Church into the formal Old Slavonic language, thus instituting a consistent and structured linguistic program based on specific cultural and theological principles. The Slavonic heritage bequeathed by the 9th-century Greek apostles to the Slavs, Sts. Cyril and Methodius, had grown obsolete. The original, single Slavonic tongue had splintered into distinct languages and dialects. Church Slavonic, however, had retained the grammatical and syntactical structure of the old 9th-century form and, by increasing divergence from the various Slavonic idioms, in effect had become a dead language. The Biblical and liturgical texts, moreover, had grown ambiguous through a series of coarse revisions and had occasioned the spread of heretical sects, principally the dualistic Bogomils, who held that the visible, material world was created by the devil.
Euthymius’ reform followed his conviction that public morality and theological orthodoxy were essentially related to the accuracy and literary qualities of the sacred Scriptures. Thus, he revived an international Old Slavonic with its Cyrillic grammar and written form but more intricately interwoven with the Greek rhetorical and emphatic style. Such a linguistic tool furthered his belief in a Slavic destiny as successor to the Byzantine church, culture, and political heritage.
Applying his hesychast background, Euthymius made this monastic culture the energy source of his theological and literary reform. He emphasized its Byzantine conservatism in ritual and doctrine and prominently portrayed the role of the Holy Spirit in religious experience. Moreover, in hesychast fashion he used the method of dramatic biographies of the leading Orthodox saints and early Fathers as the vehicle for propagating correct doctrine and asceticism by interweaving theological reflections with the narrative. Thus, the Bulgarian monastic centers of Paroria and Kilifarevo and the monk missionaries, both native Slav and Greek refugee scholars, carried the Euthymian reform throughout Eastern Europe.
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