site.btaVasil Levski Can Be Compared Only to Christian Apostles, MRF-New Beginning Deputy Floor Leader Jordan Tzonev Says

In a declaration delivered on behalf of the parliamentary group of the MRF – New Beginning, party Deputy Floor Leader Jordan Tzonev said Wednesday that Bulgarian revolutionary Vasil Levski could be compared only to the Christian apostles.

Tzonev said that the day was one of homage to the memory of perhaps the greatest Bulgarian – Vasil Levski. He described Levski as a symbol of leadership and moral purity for generations of Bulgarians, adding that all comparisons with him, including those made from the parliamentary rostrum, were inadequate. Even the claim that Bulgarians were unworthy of him, he said, fell short of expressing the true measure of his stature.

He noted that in Christianity the word “apostle” comes from the Greek “apostolos”, meaning “messenger”, and refers to a person sent with testimony rather than force, with truth rather than power, and with sacrifice rather than personal gain. An apostle, he said, walks ahead of others and assumes the risk, bears a message that is not personal but a form of service, accepts suffering without resentment, and bears witness through life itself, not only through words.

Tzonev went on to say that Levski did not accept a pardon, did not betray others, and did not seek a way out for his own life, but remained faithful to his cause up to the gallows. He added that this bore an evangelical parallel, not as a theological analogy but as an ethical model of self-sacrifice: like the apostolic missionaries, Levski travelled and founded communities in the form of revolutionary committees, just as apostles founded churches; he preached an idea of freedom based on equality and justice; he lived in poverty and died alone.

According to Tzonev, the title given to Levski – Apostle of Freedom, stemmed from a deep spiritual memory and functioned as a moral measure. When the Bulgarian people called Vasil Levski the Apostle of Freedom, he said, this was not poetic embellishment but spiritual recognition. He concluded his declaration by paying tribute to Levski’s memory.