site.btaUPDATED November 13: Catholics Worldwide Honour Martyrdom of Bishop Evgenii Bossilkov and Fellow Clergymen

November 13 is a day of homage by Catholics from across the world for the martyrdom of Monsignor Evgenii (Eugene) Bossilkov, Bishop of Nikopol, and of the Bulgarian Catholic clergymen Kamen Vitchev, Pavel Djidjov and Yosafat Shishkov, who were found guilty of espionage and executed by the Bulgarian communist authorities in 1952.

The clergymen were beatified in 2002 by Pope John Paul II.

Bossilkov was born to a family of Bulgarian Latin Rite Catholics on November 16, 1900, in Belene, Bulgaria. 

He studied in Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy where he obtained his doctorate at the Pontifical Oriental Institute. He became a parish priest in the Danube Valley and made a name for himself as a Roman Catholic leader in the 1940s. In July 1952 he was arrested by the Communist regime, together with many other religious leaders. He was sentenced to death in a frame-up trial against 32 people arranged by the State Security. On November 11 the same year the execution was carried out by a firing squad.

The Holy See considered Bishop Bossilkov missing until Todor Zhivkov admitted, during a visit to the Vatican in 1975, that he had been executed.

Bishop Bossilkov was proclaimed a servant of God - the first step towards canonization - in Urbania (Italy) on October 27, 1985. On March 15, 1998, Pope John Paul II declared Bossilkov "Blessed".

Following is the original English-language coverage of Bossilkov's beatification in the BTA External Service:

"am1503.111
BULGARIA-BISHOP-MARTYR

Catholic Bishop Evgenii Bossilkov First Bulgarian Martyr of Faith

Sofia, March 15, 1998 (BTA) - Bulgarian Catholic bishop monsignor Evgenii Bossilkov was beatified by Pope John-Paul II at a special ceremony in the St.  Peter's Basilica in the Vatican city Sunday.  It is for the first time in its history that the Catholic Church confers beatification on a victim of the Stalinist oppressions.

"Bishop Bossilkov is one of the many victims which atheist communism sacrificed in Bulgaria and elsewhere in its programme of annihilation of the Church.  In those times of relentless persecution many turned their eyes to him and from the example of his courage drew force to stand true to the end to the Gospel," Pope John-Paul II said in his sermon.

Bishop Bossilkov was sentenced to death for his religious activity and executed in 1952 during the Communist regime in Bulgaria.  Even his closest relatives were not informed about his execution. An official statement about his death was made only ten years later.

A Bulgarian delegation, headed by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Vesselin Metodiev departed for Rome to take part in the official ceremony. They granted to the Vatican a relic, a shirt, stained with Bossilkov's blood from the tortures in the prison.

Bulgarian Catholics have long been holding in respect the name of bishop Bossilkov.  From now on his name will be mentioned in all church services and the Catholics will be able pray to him.

Bishop Bossilkov was born on November 16, 1900 in Belene (northern Bulgaria). His parents Liviggio and Beatrice named him Vincentius. At the age of eleven the future spiritual leader of the Catholics in Bulgaria entered the Seminary.  He soon made impression with his talents and in 1914 was sent to study theology in Belgium, later in the Netherlands.

In 1919 the young man became a monk and received the name of Evgenii. He belongs to one of the strictest orders of the Passionists. Bossilkov received his Bachelor's degree at the Papal Eastern Institute in Italy and later took a doctor's degree in theology. In 1947 he was consecrated as bishop of the Nikopol diocese.

Bossilkov is the first of the four Bulgarian clergymen, executed during the six trials against the Catholics in Bulgaria in 1952. In late May, 1952, he was arrested together with another 39 clergymen and sent to the Sofia prison. A total of 55 people were then charged of espionage and sentenced.

"Early in the morning they came to the church where we lived and took him away," his nephew, 77-year old nun Gabriella, recalls. "They came inside, armed with rifles and pistols, searched everywhere and were even not ashamed to enter the altar," she says. It was only by the basket of food returned untouched from the prison that she guessed about his death.

The proposal for bishop Bossilkov to be granted beatification was made back in 1988 by Bulgarian emigrant Prof.  Ivan Sofranov.

Bossilkov's beatification is the first step to his being canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church.

At the end of the month Vatican envoys are expected to come to Bulgaria to look for Bossilkov's grave. According to some sources, he was buried somewhere in the Sofia graveyard.  His fellow-citizens in Belene created the legend that he had been sent into exile in Siberia and is still alive./EK/AM/ 21:34:01  15-03-1998 - 0 -"