Bulgaria’s Patriarch Neophyte and Russia’s Patriarch Kirill held a solemn church service at the Birth of Christ Shipka Monastery on the occasion of the 140^th anniversary of Bulgaria’s liberation from the Ottoman Rule. Bulgaria’s President Rumen Radev and the President of the Bulgarian National Assembly Tsveta Karayancheva also attended the service at the temple. Patriarch Neophyte called Bulgaria’s National Liberation Day a holiday of Bulgarian freedom, God’s love and mercy and wished the Bulgarian citizens to celebrate March 3 with joy and enjoy their freedom. In an interview for the Bulgarian National Radio Russia’s Patriarch Kirill reminded that with prayers for the suffering Bulgarian people the Russian Orthodox Church had formed a public opinion which influenced the political decision related to the start of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878.