site.btaPresident Radev, Patriarch Daniil to Launch Miracle Worker of Rila Pilgrimage Trail

President Rumen Radev and Bulgarian Patriarch and Metropolitan of Sofia Daniil will launch a pilgrimage trail, The Miracle Worker of Rila and a broader faith-based tourism initiative, A Journey of Faith, the president's press secretariat said here Friday.

At the St. Sophia Church, the Patriarch will perform a water blessing ceremony, after which a liturgical procession will begin from the church to the Rotunda of St. George, led by the President and Patriarch Daniil. Clergy, pilgrims, and representatives of institutions supporting the initiative are expected to join the procession.

The project aims to connect sacred sites of Bulgarian history and spirituality in a network of pilgrimage trails across the country. A Journey of Faith is held under the auspices of the Bulgarian President and with the blessing of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.

The first route to be undertaken within the project is an already established pilgrimage trail, The Miracle Worker of Rila. Over the course of several days, hundreds of pilgrims will follow part of the route along which the relics of St. John of Rila were carried, from the Rotunda of St. George in Sofia to the Rila Monastery, where they are kept today.

Already in place for 16 years, the Miracle Worker of Rila trail is the first of a broader initiative, which has been actively developed over the past two years as part of efforts to build a nationwide pilgrimage network, said Vice Dean of the Faculty of Theology at Sofia University Pavel Pavlov.