site.btaUPDATED Bulgarian Zograf Monastery Marks Saint George's Autumn Feast with Liturgy and Procession of Miracle-Working Icon
After an all-night vigil and Sunday morning's Divine Liturgy, the Bulgarian Monastery of St George Zograf on Mount Athos marked the autumn feast of St George (November 16, Old Style) with a procession bearing the miracle-working icon of Saint George. This is the date on which his relics were transferred from the site of his martyrdom in Lydda (today's city of Lod in Israel) to a newly consecrated Christian church.
The service was led by Bishop Ioan of Branitsa, first vicar of the Bulgarian Patriarch and Metropolitan of Sofia Daniil, concelebrating with Archimandrite Gabriel, the hegumen of the Zograf Monastry.
The feast was attended by many worshippers from Bulgaria, who joined in carrying the miracle-working icon of St George, the Arab Icon, from the monastery to the St George church on the hill west of the monastery gate, where, as legend has it, the mule that brought it in the 12th century came to a halt, after the icon had arrived at Mount Athos by sea from Asia Minor.
A Bulgarian parliamentary delegation arrived at the Bulgarian Zograf Monastery of St George on Mount Athos on Saturday.
The delegation is led by Parliament Deputy Chair Tsoncho Ganev. Its members are Human Rights and Religion Committee Chair Krasimir Sabev MP of GERB-UDF and Deputy Chair Atanas Slavov MP of Continue the Change - Democratic Bulgaria; MRF-New Beginning Deputy Floor Leader Stanislav Anastassov; Budget and Finance Committee Deputy Chair Atanas Atanasov, who is also the BSP - United Left Group's Secretary; There Is Such a People Group's Secretary Aleksandar Valchev, who is also Parliament's Secretary; and Velichie MP Ljubisha Blazhevski. The delegation is accompanied by Anton Markov, Consul General of Bulgaria in Thessaloniki, and Lachezar Toshev, chief expert adviser at the parliamentary Foreign Policy Committee.
The chants were performed by the St Naum of Ohrid Choir from Sofia, conducted by Andrey Kasabov.
BTA Director General Kiril Valchev arrived with the delegation. He presented to the library of the monastery two volumes of news stories and photos of the Zograf Monastery collected during the 127-year history of the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA).
The news items are featured in a 127-page book, matching the agency's 127-year history since its first bulletin was issued in 1898. The oldest BTA report from Mount Athos, dating from 1935, is a dispatch from the French Havas news agency describing the ebb and flow along the Athos coastline following an earthquake in Greece. The second volume contains 91 photographs of the Zograf Monastery from BTA's photo archive. The oldest image, taken in 1972, may prove useful, the hegumen said, as it shows a terrace of the wing currently under restoration. No older photograph of that section is known to exist, only a drawing.
During the spring feast of St George on May 6, 2025, Kiril Valchev promised the then newly elected hegumen, Archimandrite Gabriel, that he would come for the saint's autumn feast with copies of all BTA reports on the Zograf Monastery from the agency's bulletins since 1898, as well as copies of all photographs of the monastery available at BTA. They were delivered both in print and digital format, to be preserved in the library of the monastery.
/DD/
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