Kohaliku mälu säilitamine – püha jumalaema kultus
Maintaining local memory: The cult of the Virgin Mary

Summary/Abstract: The article focuses on the cult of the Virgin Mary in the village of Popovo, Pernik region, and the way that cult becomes a factor in maintaining the local memory of the community that experienced traumatic changes in Bulgaria at the beginning of the socialist period. The villages of Popovo and Krapets were displaced because of the intensive industrialization of the Pernik region in the early 50s of the twentieth century and the building of the Studena dam. The population was moved near the newly-built state-owned metallurgical plant named after V.I. Lenin (now Stomana Industry), where the building of the largest quarter of the town started. Access was prohibited to the villages and the settlers’ need to adapt to the new conditions resulted in looking for compensatory mechanisms in maintaining the community life and local memory of the two previous settlements. The building of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary Church in the new quarter named after Lenin (now Iztok) is perceived as a kind of continuation of the destroyed village churches, and its patron saint’s day is celebrated up to the very present by the previous inhabitants of Popovo and their descendants. The study is based on field research among the settlers from the two villages, as well as on observations on the restored village feast in Popovo after 1989, and on the celebrations of the Day of the Virgin Mary in the Iztok quarter of Pernik.

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