At the end of the fourteenth century A.D., a tremendous disaster befell Bulgaria. In our days however, the traces of the severe sufferings of Balkan Christians seem to have been obliterated. The historical memory of the Bulgarian nation's martyrdom resembles a half-ruined, derelict church. To speak about New Martyrs in Bulgaria, in our days, is even somewhat embarrassing. Ages past have concealed their names. The shreds of knowledge we have about them are fragmental and inadequate. It is strange to say so, but we, too, their descendants, seem not to hold them dear. Those, who are aware of the lofty mission of the martyrs with Christ's Church are only a few; yet, the blood of martyrs is a seed of Faith, as one ancient author wrote. And how many of us could call themselves lovers of martyrs? One of the first divers for martyric pearls, Paisii of Hilandar, wrote in his The History of Slavs and Bulgarians:

I have been able to discover the following holy martyrs who were of the Bulgarian nationality and language. Twenty-nine martyrs' names are recorded in Bulgaria. Initially, the Turks killed many Bulgarians townspeople on account of their Christian faith; but because of their simplicity and carelessness people did not write about their sufferings. Thus, from generation to generation their martyrdom and names have passed into oblivion.

Today, however, we feel their spiritual presence. Their call is unceasing: "Forsake not the faith of your fathers. Cast not the precious pearl onto the ash heap" [cf. St. Mt. 7:6], but as we laid down our souls for Christ and for His Bride, the Church, remain within that which you have received unto the end," that is, your ancestral faith, to save your souls and gain that Land promised to you before all ages. Now the time has come for us to pay them a humble tribute of homage and love, by calling out of oblivion their great exploits, by glorifying their memory with love and trust; for, they are persistent intercessors of the Bulgarian nation!

But who are ye, New Martyrs of our nation? While we may not know your names, at least make known to us your feats, so that, elated by your undefeatable valour, we can shake off the spirit of despondency and faint-heartedness, elevating our souls on the wings of repentance before God, Who fortified you in your appalling sufferings!

Leafing through the faded pages of Bulgarian annals, the heart-rending picture of the Tuurkish yoke comes to life before our very eyes:

The "Encomion to Patriarch Evtimiy" witnesses to the massacre of the 110 Tarnovo boyars, who refused to embrace Islam:

'The Turkish voivode, whom Sultan Bayazid appointed to rule the town, called together those of God's men who superseded the rest in fame, virtues, and origin, pretending he was going to discuss vaious issues of common benefit. And they, while following the evil herald, went like irrational sheep after those who were to butcher them, hastening to put their trust in murderous hands, each carrying his own blood. When he saw them in his hands, the bloodthirsty beast slew them in front of the church, or should we better say, sanctified them, unmoved by their white hair, sparing no one on account of his youth. Their throats were made game for his knife.... O Holy Hosts! And not some at one time and others at another, but all of them, standing together before the torturer, spat at him and immediately, presenting themselves before Christ, were crowned with a martyr's crown. The torturer left their corpses as food for the fowls of the air.... O warriors, you kept the faith and decreased not in number! And here is their number: they were one hundred and ten, whose blood painted the church in crimson! And although they were plenty, the net of tore not! [3]

Are you aware of the holy martyr Ivan the New of Turnovo? Or of the holy martyr Constantine of Sofia? Or St. Rada of Plovdiv? Bishop Parthenii of Levkia has compiled materials regarding their martyrdoms [4], yet their memory remains, even to this day, deeply buried under the ashes of oblivion.

The dark era of the Ottoman yoke is well-known for the following mass-scale periods of Islamization: one in 1515, then from 1666-1670 in the Rhodope Mountains [5], and from 1686-1690 in North-Eastern Bulgaria. Islamization in the Rhodope region began in 1666, in connection with the Turkish-Venetian War for the island of Crete. It has been described in three chronicles, among which the testimony of the Belovo Chronicle is especially valuable; according to this source, during this time of Islamization, a total of seventy-four villages in the Rhodopean region of Chepino were forcefully converted to Islam. This information is also confirmed by the materials found in the Historical Journal, which is our chief source for the new martyrs from the Smolyan region. These were not only times of disgrace, but also times of glory, for Bulgarian Christians, since many of them preferred death to the "turban." The Rhodopean islamization took a long time, but "the results [for the Turks] were limited"; rather, it produced an especially great number of martyrs.

On page 155 of the Historical Journal, we find a description of the martyrdom of Milyan, from the Smolyan region:

Another chronicle writes of the Chepino New-Martyrs (of 1670):

At that time, the villages in Tzepina were converted to the Turkish faith and a certain Hassan hodja was sent there to accompany the Pasha' but first of all he circumcised the priests Father Constantine, Father George, and Father Dimiter, on the day of St George. They forced all to become Turks by the 15th of August (Old Style), and those who resisted were slaughtered, to frighten the rest.... [6]

O, Holy New-Martyrs of Chepino, pray unto God for us!

Here is an excerpt frim a note in 1812:

In 1720, during the reign of Sultan Ahmed III, in the upper hamlet of the village of Raikovo, there lived a Turk from Anatolia, named Selim Hodja. He enjoyed the Sultan's deep trust. In a report to the latter, he informed him that the Raikovo residents were disloyal subjects of his and were constantly rebelling, disquieting the authorities and impeding the islamisation of the Rhodope population. The Sultan thus ordered that the disobedient villagers be punished. Selim Hodja executed that order and called some two hundred prominent men from Raikovo to the village square, entreating them to accept the Mohammedan faith, in order to soften the sultan's anger; otherwise, he threatened them with death. The Raikovo notables resolutely rebuffed all exhortations to become Turks and stated that at no cost would they renounce their Faith. Then, on signal, the surrounding Turks came down upon them and killed them all, to the last man. This was on July 8, 1720.

Rejoice, thou village called by the name of Paradise [7], wherein thy loyal children acquired the celestial habitations!

In the Canon of the Service to the Bulgarian New Martyrs, which is already being prepared, their martyric feat is hymned:

Notables of the hamlet of Raikovo,
With your blood ye sanctified the streets of your home,
Valiantly confessing Christ before the beastly Agarians:
Pray, therefore, unto Christ for us, ye wondrous,
As a bicenteniary choir before the Throne of God. [8]

On that same day in the area of Polyane (Meadows), the Turks hanged the parish priest of the village of Ezerovo (Lake village), Hieromonk Varlaam the Agiorite. Not a few bright stars of martyric holiness have shone over our much-suffering land from the Holy Mount! [9]

We learn about the New Martyrs of Veyevo from the recounting of their suffering. The Historical Journal notes only the year of their feat: 1669. This probably happened at Paschaltide. The story relates to us how the priest was caught during Liturgy. The Turks encircled the village. In the church, they caught part of the population, too. They offered them the opportunity to accept the "right faith." The priest refused and was the first to be cut to pieces—right in the church. Terrible moments ensued. Those who refused to accept Islam were killed on the spot. Yet, most of the population managed to escape to the neighbouring woods. Only five families accepted Mohammedanism. Infuriated by this, the enslavers burned the village on the Day of St. Elias.

We find traces of martyrdom in the village of Koutlovo (today's Slaveino), as well. Here is a story of such a martyrdom:

It was late spring and dawn was breaking. The village had just awakened. Shepherds goaded the herds uphill to pasture. Villagers were preparing for a toilsome day. Suddenly, the Turks came like a billow—some mounted on horses, others on foot, with yatagans and daggers drawn. They surrounded the village's makhalas [10]. All were frightened and tried to escape wherever their feet would take them. Many hid in the woods; but some failed to do so. Some years ago, S. Kisyov, from the village of Koutela, told his grandson Delyu Ivanov that, during the time of "deprivation of Faith," there were thirty people who refused to accept the Turkish faith. They were surrounded and massacred on the bank of the Veyevo River. Those arrested were shut in the Alamov house, men and women separately. There followed terrible moments! Beating, tortures, torment! Tearing of hair, stabbing with knives in the chest, and once more, forced conversions to Mohammedanism!

Holy new martyrs of Kutlovo, pray to God for your nation!

A man involuntarily shudders before the majesty of the most comely girl from Oustovo, who was martyred for Christ. It was long ago. A Turkish posse gathered the residents of the Rhodopian village of Oustovo before the church of St. Nicholas to convert them to Mohammedanism. However, no one wanted to accept the Islamic faith. Then an order was issued that the disobedient be slaughtered immediately. First they cut off the priest's head, then the sexton's. Death befell other men, too. Convinced that there would be no more resisters against islamisation, the Turks stopped the massacre. It was exactly then that the loveliest maiden from Oustovo confronted the blood-thirsty chief of the horde. "Be it even that I die, you damned oppressor, I am not giving up my faith!" the fearless maiden shouted, running towards the highest cliff above the village. Other maidens and brides ran after her, too. They all preferred to throw themselves into the frightful abyss and to preserve their chastity. Dauntless in chastity, and chaste in dauntlessness! Old people say to this very day that the red stains on the rocks are dried-up trickles of blood from the brave Oustovo girls and brides.... Holy new martyrs of Oustovo, pray to God for us!

Does anybody today still remember the Martyrs Misho and Gadjo? Their names, child-like in a way, are beautiful in the radiance of their confession. Misho's makhala, in the village of Vulkosell, in the Blagoevgrad region, has preserved to this very day the story of their martyrdom. Some ten years Misho and Gadjo led the makhala in its persistent opposition against Islam. One day, a Turkish posse surrounded the neighbourhood, captured all the men, and brought them to the farmyard of the two brothers. Then they lighted Gadjo's furnace and the Turkish commander shouted: "Whoever does not wish to become a Moslem shall go into the furnace!" Villagers were taken aback before this new Nabuchodonosor. They froze in their places and turned their eyes to Misho and Gadjo. But the latter were resolute and adamant. And as there was no possibility of resistance, the sons of Grandfather Vulko chose death. First Misho, and after him Gadjo too, threw himself into the dazzling flames. Paying homage to the martyric resolution of the two brothers, the villagers named the neighbourhood after the elder—Misheva makhala (Misho's quarter). Meanwhile, the Orthodox Church was adorned with two new beacons!

In the village of Kostadinovo, there lived a lovely lass, named Maria. Together with other maidens, she made for the monastery on Mount Ostrets to escape islamization. But when they arrived there, they found the monastery plundered and the monks slaughtered. The maidens decided to hide in a cave in Buhlyovitsa (the "Owls' Cave"). They arrived there and spent the night in it. In the morning, they saw that the whole neighborhood was blocked by janisaries. Maria decided not to surrender and fall into their hands. Rather, she climbed on one of the big rocks and threw herself in the gaping abyss. Ever since, that place has been referred to as Mariina Livada ("Maria's Meadow"). And the Holy Martyr Maria, who preferred celestial to earthly beauty, has become an intercessor for the whole Bulgarian nation!

Here again, as in the similar cases indicated above, there may arise a misunderstanding: Suicide is a sin, is it not? How are we then to consider Maria a martyr? St. Dimitrii of Rostov, in his Lives of the Saints, describes the martyrdom of St. Pelagia, who lived in the time of the impious Emperor Diocletian (A.D. 243 - 313). When the house where Pelagia lived was surrounded, she asked the warriors to wait. They agreed. The Martyr then stood facing eastwards, spread her arms to heaven, and fervently prayed to God not to be handed over to the warriors but to go back home to Him, chaste and unblemished. Afterwards, she dressed in her best garments and threw herself from the roof of her house, giving up her soul to God. St. Pelagia is commemorated on October 8/21. Martyred virgins quite often preferred such a death to the lust of the conquerors.

One especially venerated martyr from the Rhodope region is St. Tija-Maria. Born into an islamized Bulgarian family, Hatije came back to the bosom of the Orthodox Church because her grandmother Matevitza, whom she remembered, was also a Bulgarian Christian. In order to keep the secret of Hatije's baptism, it took place in the old Chapel in Vulkoushin's barn. In that barn, there was a huge wooden keg, in which the priest Fr. Kostadin (the future Bishop Hilarion, Metropolitan of Xanthi), who lived in Memka's house with the Radkovs, baptised the girl. The new Christian girl kept this secret for a whole year, sending candles and prosphora to the Church through other people, while praying and making prostrations at home.

But by and by, the rumor of her conversion to the Orthodox Faith spread throughout the village. Women secretly called her Tija-Maria, because her Christian name was Maria. Her brothers happened to learn of this and, coming to Derekyoi, tortured her; but she denied having been baptised. The next year Tija-Maria was preparing for Pascha: she kneaded some prosphora, twined up candles, painted eggs red, baked bread figures of dolls and a sheep-fold, and awaited the holiday. Her brothers, who lived in another village, came secretly to see if the rumor was true. On Great Thursday, she returned from church and went to her neighbours, while her brothers entered her home. They found the eggs, the sheep-fold, and the burning candles, fully convinced she had turned giaour. Her brothers hid in the barn. In the evening, Tija-Maria came home and, after extended prayer, lay down and slept. In her sleep, ber brothers half suffocated her, filling her mouth with rags; they took her in front of the house, under a big, blossoming plum-tree, where they shot her dead with two shots. In the morning, the women sent their children to see what had happened in Tija's house. They saw her lying dead under the blossoming plum. She remained so for three days; none had enough courage to approach the dead body. Later, they planted a rose bush on he grave. And on St. George's day, women would go to pick flowers from Tija's grave, which were kept for a "cure" throughout the year.

The chronicler of the Bulgarian Golgotha of 1876, McGahan, describes, in his book Turkish Atrocities in Bulgaria, many instances of the martyrdom of Bulgarians. On page 5, he mentions to a priest killed by the Turks. Raina Knyaginya's father, also a priest, was killed by the Turks together with some one hundred other people inside the church itself, while performing the Divine Services (p. 38).

Does Bulgaria remember her Hieromartyr Fr. Todor Peev? Here is McGahan's narration of his martyric death:

In Panagyurishte, we were shown the ruins of the Church, and at the place where the throne once was, there was a heap of charred bones. Over them was a bunch of flowers. These were the remains of priest Todor Peev, an eighty-five-year-old man whom the Turks tortured in the hope of extracting money from him. They then they tortured him in the most refined manner, as only the Turks are able to, and they finally burned him in front of the altar. (p. 45).

They told us further of the martyric death of an old man, Tzvyatko Boyadjiev, a well-known philanthropist who had donated a great deal of money for a school, fed at his own expense, during the winter, a number of the village's widows and orphans, and, in general, favored with his generosity both Christians and Turks. He was captured, his eyes were plucked out, and after fearsome tortures, he was burned alive. Such a fate awaited the other priest, Father Nestor, too, whose martyrdom resembles that of St. Jacob the Persian. The Turks had hoped to get "some money" from him, too, and for this reason they cold-bloodedly cut finger after finger from him, until the turn came for both of his hands and his head (ibid.).

It is a mystery to us as to what the last prayers and sobs of those Bulgarian sufferers were, but their loyalty to faith and nation is deeply moving and edifying. They might just as well have renounced Christ, and the Turks would have surely granted them their lives and let them go in peace. They could have bowed their heads down and said: "Take us wherever you want...." But they did not! But the "Turks know neither pity," McGahan writes further on, "nor compassion; in this they are lower even than wild beasts, since tigers, its is said, never touch the little ones of a species, whereas the Turks ruthlessly took new-born babes from their cradles with their bayonets and, tossing them from bayonet onto bayonet, threw them in the faces of their crying mothers. They carried children through the streets, skewered on bayonets, so that their little heads and arms hung over the gun muzzles, bleeding profusely on their butchers. At last they cut the children's heads off and made their friends carry these heads through the streets." (p. 46-47).

Let us also recall the killing of the infants in Bethlehem. They were killed because of Herod's monstrous suspicion, by his hope to eliminate a would-be rival for the throne—O, such madness and pitiable lust for power!—, while these Bulgarian babes were killed because of the cruelty of the infidels, because of the ferocity of evil spirits, who were intolerant to anything Christian! The former never knew Him for whom they were dying; but the latter, being members of Christ's Church, were already the target of mankind's ancient enemy, the target of his pernicious designs and insidiousness.

Incidentally, it would behoove is to cite the decorum of the maidens of this time, so as to see how Christianity adorned with the snow-white blossoms of their virtues our much-tormented nation.

At the time of the fall of the small town Perushtitsa, the brides and girls were told to dress in men's clothes and to cut off their hair, so they could at least avoid defilement by the blood-thirsty bashi-bazouks. Some obeyed this; but there were also others, who being ashamed to dress in men's clothes, remained in their maiden's attire.

These memories are touching and at the same time somewhat doleful, if one brings to mind the young of contemporary Bulgarian society! It is now uncommon to see a girl in "a maiden's attire." Girls seem to be ashamed of the opposite thing: of looking humble and chaste. What a shocking contrast! Give ear to what this foreigner McGahan wrote about the Bulgarian women of past times: "The chastity of Bulgarian women is well known to everyone; they suffer not just for the ensuing ignominy, but even more for the sin committed.... Not a single girl who is so disgraced sees herself as worthy of getting married...." In our lascivious era, our hearts are too hard to fathom the full anguish of these pure souls at defilement, of which many nowadays imbibe with delight. The martyrdom in the hearts of these maidens of times past is alien to us! Their anguish is our joy! Their shame is our glory! But let us now bow to their suffering and become ashamed before the majesty of these wonderful souls—souls permeated from their childhood by virtuousness and chastity!

In the Life of St. George the New of Sofia, compiled in 1539 by the Russian monk Elija (Iliya), we read, among other things, the following sentence: "And many shed their blood for Christ." Who were these "many"? Who has ever heard of their martyrdom? Concerning the days of Sultan Selim I (1512-1520), called by the author of his biography "a butcher, debauchee and wine-drinker," we read: "A fierce evil..., fierce and exceedingly doleful times." On pages 1476-1496 of the Dryanovo copy of Paisiy's History of Slavs and Bulgarians, we find another testimony to martyrdoms in the days of this Sultan:

Then Tsar Selim I dethroned the patriarch before all and killed him. Then, going from Tsarigrad to Turnovo, he issued the following order: Any nobleman who agrees to accept the Turkish faith, let him retain his erstwhile rank; otherwise, should anyone fail to agree, all of his wealth and power over strongholds is to be taken away from him; let him be like any of the simple folks. Thus, whoever accepted the Turkish faith, the same retained his high rankl and those who refused, they were killed. And Selim killed many noblemen, while from others he took their wealth and possessions. He razed the churches to their foundations, and wherever there were holy relics, he burned them; others he took to Tsarigrad.... It was in that time that the Holy Martyr George the New suffered.

A new period of martyrdom opened in the second half of nineteenth century, during the April Uprising [11]. We find numerous testimonies about these new sufferers for the Faith in various archives and in literature from 1876 and the years thereafter. For instance, in Naiden Gerov's archive, there is a report regarding a girl from Perushtitsa who was stabbed to death by the Turks: "The Turks took to Karash Yara a beautiful girl from Perushtitsa, compelling her to turn Turk; when she refused, they stabbed her through with a sabre." How many are the young girls like this flower of Christ, who "gave up their heads but not their Faith"? [12]. O, Holy New Martyr of Christ, pray to God for us!

That single occasion points to other innumerable cases of martyrdom during that period of cruel suffering. "Two girls from [the town of] Plovdiv, after wandering for a long time, decided to come here (to Plovdiv). At the Mistrobolu's craftiness, two Turks ran them through with a sabre, after forcing them to turn Turk". Twelve Christians from Novo Selo—among them two priests, one aged 80—were killed on June 8, 1876. From a newspaper report by "De Vestine," published in the "Le Figaro" on July 30, 1876, we learn of another heart-rending martyrdom:

They were seizing abandoned children who had been orphaned. They had sold many and had no more buyers for them. They were going somewhere else to offer their merchandise, whose numbers grew with every street child they met on their way. The little children, tired out and dying for food, were no longer able to follow their butchers, and so the annihilation began. Someone pointed out there might be European children among them, too, and so the chiefs ordered that those who were not Bulgarian not be touched. A bashi-bazouk came up with a clever idea, and it was decided to make the children cross themselves. Whoever crossed himself in the Eastern (Orthodox) manner were strangled.

The way that these lambs of Christ were chosen is worthy of note; only those who crossed themselves "in the Eastern manner" were chosen. We find a stunning similarity to the martyrdom of our contemporaries, the newly-fallen Serbian martyrs, who have been found with three fingers missing from their right hands! The war waged against the Christian Faith, which has been preserved spotlessly only within the Orthodox Church, is a war literally driven by Satan himself, a war against God—and there are, in it, no common denominators for equating Truth to a lie. By glorifying our New Martyrs, we once again confess their Faith as our Faith, without which, in the words of the ever-memorable Metropolitan Clement (Drumev) of Turnovo, "there is no Bulgaria"!

Someone might rightly ask: Is it correct to glorify as Martyrs people who did not confess Christ before their death? There is a psychological explanation of this. In the words of McGahan, "these people (the Christians) will not enter into the bosom of the Moslem faith, and this is why Turks view them as foreign, as enemies." Is not the murder of "the foreigner" and "the enemy" according to the faith not martyrdom for Christ? Who can reveal to us God's ways! Is not the cause of our land's contemporary suffering the Faith of our Fathers, too, as well as our Orthodox confession? Thus, the bloodless martyrdom of our days is even more frightful, since we fail to realize the fact that Bulgaria is being martyred because of Christ, because of the remnants, however insignificant, of true Faith and true chastity in this country: because of the fact that, in Bulgaria, there still exist supposed "numskulls" who will not worship our the Baal of our day, a hodgepodge of delusions, blatant materialism, and the religious depersonalisation thereof. So, why should not those who have suffered for being a sliver in the eyes of the Ismailites not be regarded as Christian martyrs, too? Let us recall the martyrdom of our Holy Fathers of Sinai and Rhaytha. The torturers wanted, then, nothing but their money.... O, confessors of the Faith of our Fathers, forgotten Martyrs of the Bulgarian nation, who spent your lives in an earthly Gehenna, and who sanctified with your blood this earth, which is burdened by men's countless sins, pray unto our Lord for your long-suffering nation!

NOTES:

* Cf. Rev. 3:11 "Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown."
** Here "Romania" means "Thrace," the South-central part of Bulgaria.

[1] From the "Bead-roll of the Kapinovo Monastery." P. Petrov, On the Trails of Violence, Vol. II, p. 117.

[2] Petrov, ibid., p.163.

[3] V. Kisselkov, "Metropolitan Grigoriy Tzamblak," Sofia, 1946, p. 54.

[4] Cf. Bishop Partenii of Levkia, Lives of the Bulgarian Saints, Volumes I and II, Sofia, 1979.

[5] The Rhodopes are the most extensive of Bulgaria's mountains. They constitute a huge labyrinth of hills of different length and direction. The slopes are not steep and are filled with wooded valleys and lush pastures. Their peaks are not very high. The highest peak is Perelik: 2191 meters. The name "Rhodope" is derived from the name of the Thracian goddess Rhodopa and dates back to the time of Homer.

[6] According to the annals of the St. Peter Monastery in Pazardjik, published by G. Dimitrov. The Principality of Bulgaria Along Historic, Geographic and Ethnographic Dimensions, Part I, Plovdiv, 1894, p. 111.

[7] In Bulgarian, "rai" means "Paradise."

[8] Translated by Novice Petko.

[9] A. Poptodorov. "From the Past of the Rhodope," in the "Rhodopean Review," Vol. II (Nos. 1-2), pp. 12-15, "Historical Journal."

[10] A traditional Bulgarian way of building houses: a cluster of houses, either in a group, village, or separate, and usually in the mountains. A "mahala" can also mean a "hamlet," a very tiny village of four or five houses.

[11] To suppress an uprising against the Ottoman Empire in 1876, the Turks massacred thousands of Bulgarians.