site.btaUPDATED Vice President Iotova: Bulgarian Studies Should Be Reinstated to Rightful Place in Global Academia

Vice President Iliana Iotova emphasized the need to restore Bulgarian Studies to its rightful place in global academia. She addressed the participants in an academic session marking 1,160 years since the Christianization of Bulgaria and 1,170 years since the creation of the Glagolitic alphabet, held at Shumen University on Saturday.

She described it as her mission to achieve reinstating Bulgarian Studies to its rightful place and thanked her fellow advocates in it, including President Rumen Radev, the Holy Synod, the Ministry of Education and Science, the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and Bulgarian universities.

Iotova highlighted the Christianization of Bulgaria in 865 under Prince Boris as a pivotal state act, equating its significance to the founding of the state in 681. This move allowed Bulgaria to influence the geopolitical dynamics of Europe and preserved the nation's ethnic identity in the face of internal and external threats.

"If it were not for the statesmanlike act of Prince Boris, it is uncertain whether our tribes would not have been assimilated, absorbed and forgotten," Iotova noted. She recalled that the transformation did not happen easily - there were internal uprisings, and there is evidence of their suppression.

The true significance of Christianization, however, is revealed not only in official literature, but also in apocryphal texts and in people's memory, said iotova.

She linked the adoption of Christianity directly to the reception of Saints Cyril and Methodius and the development of the Glagolitic, and later Cyrillic, alphabets, which unified the Bulgarian people and acted as a barrier against assimilation. Old Bulgarian became the third liturgical language in Christendom, marking a second major success for Prince Boris, continued by his son, Tsar Simeon.

Iotova emphasized that language and faith became inseparable forces, with the Bulgarian alphabet and literature playing a crucial role in the survival, unity and identity of the Bulgarian people. Bulgaria became the spiritual and cultural centre of the Eastern Slavic world. The Bulgarian language played a role in the Slavic world comparable to that of Latin in Western Europe. Manuscripts written in Bulgarian letters spread across East and West; today they serve more than 250 million people the world over. Thanks to this, Bulgaria stayed on in Europe's memory, even when it was not on the map.

The Vice President concluded by honouring the historic role of Pliska and Veliki Preslav near Shumen as the birthplace of a nation and a state that justifiably claims the title of Europe's spiritual empire.

Guests at the plenary academic session at Shumen University included Vice President Iliana Iotova, Bulgarian Patriarch and Metropolitan of Sofia Daniil, BTA Director General Kiril Valchev, Shumen University Rector Prof. Natalia Vitanova, bishops from the Holy Synod, scholars and public figures.

The celebrations marking 1,160 years since the Christianization of the Bulgarian people and 1,170 years since the creation of the Bulgarian alphabet were organized by the Metropolitanate of Varna and Veliki Preslav.