Цикълът на Деянията и Чудесата Христови от притвора на Черепишката манастирска църква „Успение Богородично”

Author(s): Maya Zacharieva / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2015

The article treats the iconographic specifics of the cycle of Christ’s acts and miracles at the earliest narthex of the Catholicon of The Assumption, Monastery of Cherepish, which researchers traditionally attribute to the work of St Poemen of Zographou. The study makes also certain observations about their connection with the so-called School of Epirus as evinced in the murals at the Church of St Nicholas of Philanthropenoi in Ioannina, Pamvotida Lake, as well as in other examples in the Balkans and the Athonite monasteries of the age. The analysis shows that the icon-painters were familiar with the models used by the sixteenth-century leading post-Byzantine artistic centres.

Надписи от Горноводенския манастир „Св. Св. Кирик и Юлита” край Асеновград. Предварителни бележки

Author(s): Aleksandra Trifonova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2015

In this paper the inscriptions of the Sts Cyricus and Јulitta monastery at Gorni Voden are discussed. They give valuable information about the historical persons who contributed to the weal of the monastery. Based on them, it comes out that the monastery was built in 1835 with the donations of the habitants of the Greek community of Gorni Voden. The naos was painted in 1847-1848 with the sponsorship of laymen of Bulgarian origin, whereas the narthex was painted in 1850, during the time of the hegoumenos Gerasimos Iviritis, by the painter Alexios Athanassiou from Naoussa. The wood-carved iconostasis was painted with the help of Greeks from Philippopolis during the period of 1864-1871. Among the donors of the monastery laymen of Bulgarian origin dominate who come from the places Assamita, Gerdima, Gorni Voden, Guzurli, Edbek, Irinzik, Karaorman, Kezik, Meriza, Muldava, Tremezli and Chiflik mahala, as well as members of the guilds of the chandlers, the grocers and the snippers of Philippopolis. Donnors were also by separate persons from this town, as Georgios Kazandzoglou (1847), Georgios Athanassiou Kaftandzis (1864), Anasstasios hadji Dimitriou Koimdzis (1864), Athanassios Iakovou Argyriadou (1868), Vassilios G. Klieanthis (1870), Ekaterina A. Tomidi (1871) and Josif, as well as persons from the ecclesiastical circle, as hierodeacon hadji Makarios from Bursa, the hegoumens of the monastery Gerasimos Iviritis (1850) and hadji Jeronimos Philippopolitis, the priest Dimitrakis Chrisafi Frangakis and the monks Sofronios and Josif.

Summaries

Author(s): Author Not Specified / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2015

Summaries of the articles in the issue.

The Franciscan Eusebio Fermendžin and His Work in Favor of Bulgaria

Author(s): Yordanka Gesheva / Language(s): English Issue: 1-2/2014

Euzebijo Fermendžin was born in Vinga, the Banat region (Romania) and was a descendant of catholicized Bulgarian Paulicians from Nikopol, who had left their homes at the beginning of the 18th century but haven’t lost their Bulgarian national consciousness. Fermendzhin was better known in Rome and the Vatican, in Vienna and Hungary, in Croatia, than he was in our lands, but spiritually, emotionally and creatively, he was also related to Bulgaria. He reached the highest positions in the Franciscan Order, he was a professor at Catholic schools and academies; a corresponding member of the South Slavic Academy of Sciences in Zagreb; for some time he was the head of the well-known multivolume edition of Luke Vading ”Annales Minorum”, in which were published documents and studies on the history of the Franciscan Order all over the world and others. Collector and compiler of ”Acta Bulgaria ecclesiastica ...”, a large volume of documents on Bulgarian church history from 1565 to 1799, published in Zagreb in 1887, and also the collections ”Acta Bosnae potissimum ecclesiastca ...”, of ”Acta Croatiae ...” and others.

Bulgarian Catholics in Macedonia (1879–1912): An Attempt for Statistical and Demographic Overview

Author(s): Stanislava Stoytcheva / Language(s): English Issue: 1-2/2014

After the Congress of Berlin (1978) which divided the Bulgarian lands, the bulk of the Bulgarian Catholics remained within the Ottoman Empire – mostly in Macedonia and less in Eastern Thrace. Using interdisciplinary methodology, the study traces the geographical distribution, size and demographic indicators of the Bulgarian Catholics (respectively Uniates) in Macedonia in the period 1879-1912, which has not been a subject of specialized scientific research so far. For this purpose it analyzes the above mentioned parameters according to official statistics of the Ottoman Empire, data of the Bulgarian Exarchate, Catholic data (such as the mission of the Lazarites, etc.), and Greek and Bulgarian official sources. It presents the differences in the national statistics about the number of Bulgarian Uniates and the attempts to manipulate the data by the Greek and Turkish side with the aim to demonstrate their “real” nationality. Last but not least it traces statistically traced the waves of ebb and flow of the Uniate movement in the 19th-20th centuries. As a result, the conclusion is made that although the registered outflow from the union in the late 19th – early 20th c., on the eve of the First Balkan War (1912) is observed strengthening and certain extension of the positions of Catholicism among the Bulgarians in Macedonia. This is confirmed both by the data from Catholic sources, and those of the Bulgarian Exarchate for 1911–1912.

Mother of God Life Giving Spring: Aspects of Later Byzantine Art

Author(s): Claire Brisby / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2003

За иконата - богословски („Богословие на иконата” от Л. Успенски)

Author(s): Georgi Gerov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2002

Ново издание на издателска къща „Омофор”

Author(s): Chavdar Popov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2002

Ценен принос към изследването на древноруската икона

Author(s): Elena Genova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2002

„Зборник. Средновековна уметност 3. Музеj на Македониjа”

Author(s): Ivanka Gergova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2002

Иконописни шедьоври от Синай

Author(s): Georgi Gerov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 3/2001

Ludic role of religious rituals

Author(s): Tudor Cosmin Ciocan / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2015

This paper was made as part of a wider research I made about rituals and their meaning and roles they are playing in the religious system of thinking. The way they are thought, displayed, precisely followed as instructed and believed, makes them a powerful social act that has been always provided by any religion, and also a tool for religion to make the human society what it is today. After I speak about what is a ritual and its religious content in general, I am enumerating roles and functions of play and theatre in particular have, both for profane and religious purpose. Do we still use play/games as adults because they are rewarding, they give us pleasure? They are used as means of relaxation, or for continuing the age of childhood; or it is in our nature to play games in everything we do? In this paper I have emphasized play as adaptive potentiation or adaptive variability useful both in therapy, as in religious ceremony. The relation and comparison of rituals with play is due to the fact that playing is the most engaging behavior performed by man and animals, and it can be found as foundation of almost any ritualist activity.

Clothing between Secular and Religious: Policies and Identity

Author(s): Iva Kyurkchieva,Maya Kosseva / Language(s): English Issue: 1/2015

This paper focuses on the question of how clothing which expresses religious identity is used and perceived in Bulgarian secular society. The authors discuss different strategies in the choice of religious symbols and clothes corresponding to individual roles in society, as well as to the ethnic and religious communities in general. The exposition follows through several basic cases in which the activities of state institutions and public opinion are discussed. The strategies in regard to the religious elements of clothing in the public and private spheres in Bulgaria are viewed in terms of a historical and contemporary perspective of the relations between the religious and the secular in the context of the traditional ethnic and religious variety in Bulgaria. Research on the topic indicates that there is a necessary and clear position on the part of the institutions and civil society in order to build adequate mechanisms to influence or control the processes in the future.

Англиканската църква, Източното православие и България (XIX – средата на ХХ в.). Част първа

Author(s): Zhivko Lefterov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 5-6/2014

The first contacts of the Anglican Church with Eastern Orthodoxy date from the early 17th century and they initiated a process of rapprochement, which is well known in the international historiography. Over the centuries, to this day it has a different intensity depending on the degree of theological negotiations and the political situation. This study traces the impact of this process among the Bulgarian Orthodox community and among Bulgarian society, how perceptions of the Anglican church were formed among Bulgarians and furthermore whether the topic went out of theological dialogue and was publicly known and discussed, and hence politically exploited. The author tracks the attitudes and positions of the representatives of the Anglican Church to the main events related to Bulgaria, and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in the 19th and early 20th century. He reveals how individual public representatives tried to see farther than purely theological dialogue and sporadically, albeit unsuccessfully, to use thefavor of the Anglican Church to Eastern Orthodoxy in the context of the national tasks that had to be resolved. During the Second World War and the Cold War Anglican-Orthodox rapprochement became part of big politics and was influenced by Stalin‘s religious policy. Although Stalin initially relied on the Anglican Church to expand Orthodox influence in international organizations, subsequently he started considering it to be a competitor and opponent. As a consequence the dialogue was restored after the death of Stalin, but in the countries from the socialist camp and particularly Bulgaria the Orthodox Churches followed the Communist Party religious policy of „opening“ which aimed to use the churches in the big propaganda war between East and West showing that there was religious freedom behind the Iron curtain.

„W MOCY DUCHA ŚWIĘTEGO. KSIĘGA PAMIĄTKOWA DLA JEGO EKSCELENCJI KSIĘDZA BISKUPA EDWARDA BIAŁOGŁOWSKIEGO Z OKAZJI XXV ROCZNICY ŚWIĘCEŃ BISKUPICH”, RED. P. MIERZWA, M. NABOŻNY, RZESZÓW 2013, S. 496, ISBN 978-83-936516-0-3

Author(s): Waldemar Pałęcki / Language(s): Polish Issue: 18-20/2013

Две свети места в ж. к. „Младост“ в гр. София

Author(s): Valentina Sharlanova / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 2/2016

Исследуя церковную общину в малом городе: роль священника и другие аспекты православной общинности

Author(s): Polina Vrublevskaya / Language(s): Russian Issue: 3/2015

This article is devoted to the everyday life of an Orthodox parish in a small town in Russia. Starting with a critical analysis of existing approaches to measuring religiosity, the author tries to find ”communal” dimensions of religiosity, which typify Orthodox Christianity in today’s Russia. The text traces the history of the local churchsince its restoration and analyzes a variety of interactions and the development ofrelations among Orthodox parishioners, as well as their relations with the priests. Drawing on ethnographic data and interviews, the author identifies indicators suitable for analyzing parish life and what it means to belong to the parish community. The conclusion is that the parish community is formed of extensive and continuous interactions among parishioners that are not limited to religious practices yet still initiated by clergy. It is suggested that the figure of the priest should take a central place when studying Orthodox parish communities. The article also describes how to incorporate these aspects into further investigations of Orthodox Christianity.

СОЛНЕЧНЫЕ И ЛУННЫЕ ГАЛО В САКРАЛЬНОЙ КАРТИНЕ МИРА ВОСТОЧНЫХ СЛАВЯН XI – XIII ВВ.

Author(s): Daniil Viktorovich Puzanov / Language(s): Russian Issue: 3/2015

The paper reconstructs the place and role of solar and lunar optical phenomena in the sacral picture of the universe by the Eastern Slavic society during the pre-Mongol period. The written and folk interpretation of halo traditions, solar and lunar shine is analyzed. The views on atmospheric diffraction phenomena as weather signs and omens of political changes are also investigated. The people of Old Rus’ believed that simple halos defined weather changes. At the same time, complex halos predicted victory or political crises and signified holiness of the deceased person. The common mind connected the sacred solar and lunar halos with the figure of prince and (in the Christian era) saint pretenders. The folklore also associated the phenomenon of halo with the special solar and lunar sacred activities. The literary presentations of complex halos could reflect the biblical semantics of light and glow as heavenly fire and evidence of the glory of God.

НОВЫЕ СВЕДЕНИЯ О ХРИСТИАНСТВЕ В ДЕЛЬТЕ ВОЛГИ В ПРЕДМОНГОЛЬСКОЕ ВРЕМЯ

Author(s): Dimitrii Viktorovich Vasilyev / Language(s): Russian Issue: 3/2016

The study was performed in order to introduce into scientific circulation the part of an Orthodox “encolpion” from the ancient settlement site of Samosdelka in the Volga delta (layers of the 12th century). The objectives of the study are cultural and historical interpretation of the artifact and its dating. This cross gives an indication of the extent of Christianity in the city of Saqsin during the pre-Mongolian period. Furthermore, it allows to identify another way of contacts between the worlds of Islam and Christianity, i.e., through the area of Saqsin and Russia. The paper provides a number of examples to prove that crosses of this type were most popular in the 11th–13th centuries. Such artifacts were well known in Medieval Russia, but they originate from the vicinity of Kiev. The cross from Samosdelka settlement refers to the period from the middle to late 12th century. It is likely to have been brought to the Volga delta by one of the Russian merchants. The small quantity of objects of Christian worship, as well as the lack of any information about the Christians in the Lower Volga region during the 12th–13th centuries in written sources make us to conclude about the weakness of direct contacts between the Christian regions and the area of Saqsin, which was generally Islamized at that time. The obtained results are important to describe the cultural situation in the Lower Volga region on the eve of the Mongol invasion.

Zachodnia i wschodnia tradycja wykonawcza śpiewu sakralnego: aspekt estetyczny

Author(s): Ievgeniia Lazarevych / Language(s): Polish Issue: 04 (31)/2016

Fundamental differences between Kyiv-Pechersk choral style and Western model of performance of religious chants can be considered in various contexts and at several levels. One should take into account diversity of church rules (canon), mentality, even geographical location and physiological capabilities of voices of the singers coming from a particular area. The performance practice is also connected with such factors as cultural traditions, language, way of life and social issues related to faith. It is therefore understandable that, after a short period of a fragile cultural unity of the Church, different traditions emerged. The author argues that the way of singing is directly dependent on the fundamental philosophical and theological ideas, originating from the Church canon. Then, the differences between chant performance in two main branches of the Christian Church seem to be a consequence of the distinct ways in which the theological doctrine, dogma of the Church, the temporal and spatial principles of worship and art developed in Roman Catholic and Byzantine Orthodox traditions. The two different perceptions of communication with God and its influence on church singing are considered by the author as an exemplary case.