Към интерпретацията на израза „бяла пчела“ в Народното житие на св. Иван Рилски
The Interpretation of the Expression „White Bee“ in the Popular Life of St. John of Rila

Summary/Abstract: The publication deals with an episode in the Anonymous or so-called „Popular“ Life of St. John of Rila where the expression „white bee“ is used. According to the anonymous hagiographer, at the moment when St. John the Theologian appeared before the Rila hermit to warn him of the end of his earthly sufferings and days, a white bee flew into the mouth of St. John of Rila and his spirit rose high over the mountains as an eagle and a golden-breasted dove. Studies at a Bulgarian and all-Slavonic level have established that the white bee in the Life symbolizes the great happiness of the Rila Saint for the liberation of his spirit that occurred. In a literal sense by „white bee“ in some areas close to the West Bulgarian dialects (the valley of the Pchinya river) and also in Kososvo, Metohija, Western Serbia and Montenegro even today they call the fortune to obtain in one fertile summer and from one beehive a third swarm of bees. In these same areas by „white bee“ they denote also the great blessing of a third great-grandchild, i.e. the possibility for one to live to see the fifth line of one’s successors.

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