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La tradition du soutien russe aux églises orthodoxes de l’Orient et des Balkans a commencé a XVIe siècle et s’est poursuivie jusqu’en 1917. Au niveau gouvernemental, l’aide matérielle a été réduite et réglementée au XVIIIIe siècle, mais elle a gagné en générosité après 1830, en rapport avec l’évolution de la Lestion d’Orient et la rivalité des grandes puissances engagées au Moyen-Orient. L’article étudie le caractère et la distribution géographique du soutien de l’Église et du gouvernement russes, tout en observant que ces traits ont évolué dans le temps et qu’ils ont été in*uencés par les tendances politiques de certaines périodes. Il étudie aussi les nombreuses donations privées issues des pèlerinages en Terre Sainte et faites aux monastères d’Orient, aussi bien que celles résultant des relations personnelles avec le haut clergé. La tendance générale à augmenter les sommes et les dons jusqu’à la Première Guerre mondiale a été le résultat de la montée de la tension au Moyen-Orient et dans la Méditerranée orientale.
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Anthony is a highly honoured saint, considered to be a patron and a defender of various diseases. The church “St. Anthony” in the smallest town in Bulgaria – Melnik – is known exactly for its healing aspect and can be identified as one of the most sacred cult sites in the surroundings, connected with numerous stories of miracles, healings, interesting and rare ritual practices. The modern state and functioning of the church is a complex of different components that build the role and importance of the cult site as a very attractive place for pilgrimage and healing. Besides of the cult of the patron itself, these components include also various miraculous objects, iconographic features, the location of the church, and characteristic stories of miracles, media, and personal representations and interpretations. In this article, I will examine the cult of St. Anthony in the city and church dedicated to him through the prism of two basic elements – miraculous objects or other ones in the church area and beliefs and ritual practices related to them. It is precisely the connection between the different components of the cult site, combining diverse objects of pilgrimage, honoring, and usage, that creates a truly unique context in which this church, the only one in the country until recently dedicated to the St. Anthony, exists. The analysis is based on observations from conducted fieldwork studies in Melnik and bibliographic and online surveys in the period 2016–2018.
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In the thirteenth century, in the calendar of the Catholic Church, a special day is established to honour the Holy Communion – the bread and the wine, turned into the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. The feast is celebrated everywhere in the Catholic world with a solemn liturgy and a procession. The article presents in a comparative perspective fieldwork observations and documentation of this Catholic feast in two villages in Bulgaria and in Poland: the village of Oresh, Svishtov region (in 1995 and 2015) and the village of Złaków Kościelny, Łowicz district, Łódź voivodeship (in 2016). The author outlines the specific characteristics in performing of the feast in the two communities (Corpus Christi in Oresh; Boże Ciało in Złaków Kościelny), conditioned by differences in the confessional and cultural history as well as by different conditions of practicing the religious traditions.The comparative study shows the significance of local identity, expressed through elements of inherited traditional culture. For the Bulgarian Catholics, cultural identity is affirmed mainly through their religious affiliation, which is different from the official Orthodox religion, predominant in the country. The revival of the festive Catholic processions in modern times is an expression of the desire for a sustainable connection with the restored family and community confessional tradition. An essential expression of the local specificity in the religious festivity of the inhabitants of the Polish village is the adherence to traditional elements of the folklore culture, which have cultivated the local religious tradition.
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Review of Rosemary Statelova's latest book ‘The Story of a Musicologist’ (Sofia: Riva, 2020). The book, defined as ‘memoir-autobiography’, is not only a biography of Rosemary Statelova, her family and professional environment, but also a biographical history of the packed Bulgarian time in the last 70 years, structured as fragments of memories and texts.
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The article describes the National Festival of Folklore in Koprivshtitsa in through the eyes of a particular local community, that of the village of Bistritsa, Sofia region. The study is based on fieldwork conducted in January 2015 at the local community centre. The main method of investigation is the semi-structured interview, which offers local people the opportunity to select the most significant moments in their narratives and to express their own understanding and interpretations of folklore heritage. The authors pay particular attention to the processes of transformation of local tradition into cultural heritage, which became especially visible after the 1930s and the 1940s. The text outlines the processes and means by which the local community presents its culture and understands the necessity of its contemporary safeguarding as a living practice. The influence of local and national cultural institutions is duly marked, including the influence of the local community centre and the National Festival of Folklore in Koprivshtitsa. Special attention is also given to these institutions’ contributions towards the conceptualization of different elements of the respondents’ local culture and the ways in which local culture becomes a resource for the construction of different networks of identities: cultural, local and national. The text also highlights the basic accents and interpretations in the narratives of the respondents who discuss the National Festival; the Festival’s importance as a place for the representation of their traditional village cultural elements; its role in their preservation; the character of the Festival stage and changes to it through the years; as well as the personal experiences of the community members during the Festival.
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The article presents archival materials and other historical sources which keep primary information about the death and funeral of the famous Bulgarian rebel leader Hadzhi Dimitar Asenov (1840 – 1868) who originates from the town of Sliven. The widely accepted thesis that Hadzhi Dimitar was deadly shot during the Buzludzha battle (18th July 1868) and was buried at the place of the battle has been proven once again by bringing new motives and logical arguments. The funeral of the famous revolutionary on the Buzludzha peak (named in 1942 Hadzhi Dimitar peak) has been confirmed with memorial and archaeological pieces of evidence. Both re-burials of the fallen heroes (1898 and 1961) provide additional data in that direction. Despite scientific argumentation of the said thesis, the article also interprets some uncertain and contradictory evidence about the eventual death of Hadzhi Dimitar on the Kadrafil peak, located in the Sredna gora mountain – 50 km away from Bualudzha peak in the Stara planina mountain. Neither factual nor logical arguments of this legend withstand scientific criticism. Nevertheless, they are persistently popularized by local patriots, originating mainly from the village Svezhen (formerly called Ajar – until 1934). Furthermore, supporters of the so called Adjar's legend are trying to give national status of their unscientific claims about the death and burial of the famous revolutionary leader Hadzhi Dimitar Asenov. Their unjustified actions are conceptualized in the scientific context of the cultural memory theory. The dispute between the scientific version and the Adjar's legend is explained by the different approaches of historical science and cultural memory toward a single fact from the past – the last moments of a national hero's life. The professional historiography works with objective facts, scientific methods and logical arguments. Cultural memory attracts convenient hypotheses, mythological plots and unprovable local memories.
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This study is aimed at identifying the most noticeable Slavic elements in the calendar rites of Bukovyna. It analyzes material collected by Romanian researchers in the second half of the 19th – early 20th century (E. Niculiță-Voronca, T. Pamfile, L. Bodnărescu, А. Fochi, A. Zașciuc), documents from the Central Scientific Archive of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Moldova, the New Linguistic Atlas of Romania, Moldova and Bukovyna (1987), as well as personal observations recorded by the authors of the study in Ukraine and Romania during ethnographic expeditions. In the calendar rites of the Romanians of Bukovyna, some clear Slavic elements can be identified, such as some names of calendar holidays, Ukrainian elements in such rites as koliada, the Christmas star, shchedruvannya. Ukrainian motifs of musical folklore in winter rites, as well as the use of the names of Ukrainian opryshky and haidamaky, the adaptation of the “walking with vertep”, the use of the term vidma of Ukrainian origin, the penetration of the name and main text of the Ukrainian Malanka, etc.
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In the last 75 years, Romania and India managed to follow common interests and created a strong partnership. Celebrating the fruitful cooperation between the two countries, His Excellency Mr. Rahul Shrivastava, the Ambassador of India to Romania, Albania and Moldova, and Her Excellency Mrs. Daniela Sezonov-Țane, the Ambassador of Romania to India, Nepal and Bangladesh were kind to address their perspectives on the evolution of relations between Romania and India, highlighting both the differences and similarities between the two countries, and also the latest challenges.
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The debate for the birthplace of St. Paisius of Hilendar emerged rather late – practically after the Balkan Wars and the First World War. Until then, everyone was unanimous that the saint originated from the town of Samokov / the village of Dospei, Samokov region. As of today, three hypotheses for the birthplace of St. Paisius of Hilendar are defined: 1. Kralevdol hypothesis (the village of Kralev dol, District of Pernik), 2. Bansko hypothesis (the vilage of Bansko, District of Blagoevgrad), and 3. Samokov hypothesis (the town of Samokov / the village of Dospei). The problem regarding the birthplace of St. Paisius of Hilendar can be solved through the use of three types of evidence: • Folklore stories, toponyms, etc. • Documental (written) evidence – parish registers, attributions, etc. • Language evidences – derived from the draft of the “Slavo-Bulgar History” (Istoriya Slavyanobolgarskaya), preserved in the “St. George Zograf” Zograf Monastery in Mount Athos. All three types of evidence unequivocally display that the birthplace of St. Paisius of Hilendar is the town of Samokov / the village of Dospei.
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This manuscript is called Chehlarov’s copy because it is known that Chehlarov was one of his possessors. Also it is known as the Fourth Tarnovo Copy of “Istorija slavjanobolgarskaja“ because it was found in Veliko Tarnovo. This paper contributes to its codicological (it reconstructs the correct order of folios) and language (East Bulgarian dialectal features) characteristics and also argues that it belongs to the family of Father Pantelejmon’s redaction but not to its branch of which Vlad Gladichov’s copy was a protograph. Therefore, terminus ante quem non is 1809 when Father Pantelejmon produced his manuscript.
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Ajunsă în stare de ruină, biserica Mântuitorului de la Berestovo a fost restaurată între 1643–1644 de mitropolitul Petru Movilă al Kievului, cu intenția de a-l comemora pe prințul Volodymyr, sfânt și egal cu apostolii, cel prin care a fost botezată Rusia kieviană. Pictura murală și inscripțiile reflectă ideea transformării Kievului într-un oraș sfânt, un nou Ierusalim și, în același timp, indică succesiunea neîntreruptă a autorității mitropolitane stabilită de prințul Volodymyr. Această decorație murală realizată în secolul al XVII-lea urmează programe iconografice mult mai vechi, asemănându-se cu cele din vremea Renașterii macedonene. Tabloul votiv îi înfățișează pe Născătoarea de Dumnezeu, pe prințul Volodymyr și pe Petru Movilă stând înaintea lui Hristos, Movilă fiind cel care îi prezintă Mântuitorului macheta bisericii restaurate. O analiză comparată permite afirmația că noua pictură a bisericii Mântuitorului a avut ca model ansamblul monumental al bisericii Sfânta Sofia din Kiev, datând din secolul al XI-lea. Puternica insistență asupra temei Încarnării, tipică polemicilor post-iconoclaste, a fost inspirată de imaginea în mozaic a Maicii Domnului Orantă din catedrala Sfânta Sofia și de inscripția care o însoțește și care reproduce versetul 6 al Psalmului 45. Imaginarea Kievului ca Nou Ierusalim și punerea lui sub protecția Maicii Domnului au fost gândite de Petru Movilă ca pietre de temelie ale efortului său de reactivare a Mitropoliei Kievului.
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