Икони с изображения на св. Кирил и св. Методий от Странджа (втората половина на XIX – началото на ХХ в.)
Icons of SS. Cyril and Methodius from the Strandzha Mountains (Second Half of the 19th – Early 20th Century)

Summary/Abstract: During the Bulgarian struggles for emancipation from the Patriarchate of Constantinople in the middle of the 19th century, the cult of the apostles SS. Cyril and Methodius spread widely across the northern slopes of the Strandzha Mountain, where the population was almost entirely Bulgarian. This circumstance explains why icons of the two saints had already appeared in the region around Sredets and Malko Turnovo before the War of Independence (1877-78). Those icons were the work of the Greek iconographer from Sozopol, Sokrates Georgiou, who skillfully adapted his style to the patriotic sentiments of the local Bulgarian church communities. In the region of Malko Turnovo, which remained under Turkish control until 1912, a similar strategy was adopted by another Greek iconographer, the less gifted Stavros from Lozengrad. On the northern side of the Bulgarian-Turkish border, in the region of Sredets and the villages around Sozopol and Primorsko, several iconographers from Triavna—Dimitur Minev and his son Khriso among them—worked tirelessly during the first decades after 1878, decorating local churches with icons of the saints painted in the best tradition of the Triavna School. In some Strandzha villages, icons of Cyril and Methodius began to be placed on the Bishop’s throne, as a sign of special respect toward the saints. This curious practice, evident across the Bulgarian territory, was an innovation that stemmed from a characteristic conviction of the time: that the legacy of the two brothers constituted the spiritual and cultural foundation for the autocephaly of the Bulgarian Church, restored on May 11, 1872.

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