The interest of Bulgarian and foreign scholars in saints and Christian faith and in historical texts and fiction linked to them have not subsided in 21 c. On the contrary: the new information technology has added to their wider promotion. A large international team of scholars is currently involved in the project Encyclopedia Slavica Sanctorium. Saints and Holy Places in Bulgaria. The encyclopedia will be available in both electronic and paper formats, and will be accessible for specialists as well as for a wider audience. The idea for the project has come from Associate Prof. Maria Yovcheva from the Institute of Literature at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and project leader is Prof. Iskra Hristova-Shomova from St. Kliment Ohridski University.
“Most cults for saints have been borrowed from Byzantium, and are all-Christian”, Prof. Iskra Hristova-Shomova explains. “However a great many of them do have some specific Bulgarian dimensions and are central to various texts. A few of those texts have been translated from Greek. Still, there are a few original Old Bulgarian texts written during the Middle Ages. Cults continued with portraits of saints created on frescoes and icons, with the construction of churches and with pilgrimages to the Holy Land. They are still valid today, and most Christian feasts have their interpretation in folklore and in surviving traditions. We aim to encompass all this through the project”, Prof. Hristova-Shomova explains. “We seek to trace back a cult to a saint to its origins, starting from his personality, from the texts created for him, the way they have been disseminated in Slavic books, his images in icon-painting as well as folklore rites that surround the saint. Though most of the cults came from Byzantium, they were adapted in an original way after Bulgaria adopted Orthodox Christianity. In turn, texts about saints and veneration for them crossed from Bulgaria into the rest of the Orthodox world, i.e. Russia and Serbia. So, this country occupies a very important, central place in the Slavic tradition.”
The beginning of the Vassilius Liturgy. The manuscript is from 1567, Rila Monastery
The electronic version of the encyclopedia will be formatted like an information website. The project is financed by the Science Research Fund at the Ministry of Education, Youth and Science. For the Bulgarian side the project’s team includes scholars form the Cyril & Methodius Studies Chair at St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia, and from the Institute of Literature at the Bulgarian Academy of Science, more notably from its Medieval Bulgarian Literature Department. Foreign scholars have joined in too – from USA, UK, Austria and Lithuania. The first stage of the project started in early 2011 and expected to wrap up in June 2012. Prof. Iskra Hristova-Shomova says that the encyclopedia will include texts such as passionals, liturgies and prayers, in Old Bulgarian and other Slavic manuscripts. Most of them will be featured in their Old Bulgarian originals. The most interesting texts such as the ones about St. Kliment Ohridski will be given in modern Bulgarian translations.
“As any other country, Bulgaria has some unique features,” Iskra Hristova-Shomova goes on to say. “The specific aspect of the typically Bulgarian veneration of saints is that the ones who are venerated most are the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius who created the Slavonic alphabet and are patrons of the whole of Europe. We will explore in details to cult in them. The veneration of the two brothers across the entire Slavic world started from Bulgaria. It is interesting that while for other nations including Slavic ones, the chief saints were either sovereigns (in Serbia) or martyrs (in Russia), in Bulgaria the most venerated saints are Cyril and Methodius, the holy enlighteners of Bulgaria”, Prof. Iskra Hristova-Shomova points out.
As part of the project Ecyclopedia Slavica Sanctorum. Siants and Holy Places in Bulgaria, the Sts. Cyril and Methodius National Library recently presented the exhibition The Day of St. Basil the Great. More from Prof. Iskra Hristova-Shomova:
“The Day of St. Basil the Great, traditionally known as Vassiliovden, is marked on 1 January and is the crossroads of a few messages. Looking into it, one can easily see the concept of our project. On the one hand, we have the powerful figure of St. Basil the Great who was a major Christian visionary, writer and thinker. He was the first author of the Six Days of Creation and of one of the liturgies performed to date. On the other hand it is also a day that plays host to a range of folklore rites such as back tapping with a decorated cornel twig, a very ancient ritual in our lands. In various regions of Bulgaria this day sees masquerades and other community festivals. On 1 January Roma Gypsies celebrate their Bango Vassil, the leading Gypsy feast.”
Currently, Prof. Iskra Hristova-Shomova is working on a book exploring Slavonic calendars. Studies and articles related to the project will be released as well. An international conference Saints and Holy Places in the Balkans is scheduled for mid-June. During the forum scholars from various countries will discuss the cults in saints and historical places related to them.
Translated by Daniela Konstantinova
