Митове и факти за Килифаревския манастир
Kilifarevo Monastery: Myths and Facts

Summary/Abstract: The identification of the monastery, founded by St Theodosius of Turnovo in the 14th century with the present day Kilifarevski monastery is wrong due to inaccuracy in the text of the saint’s vita made in the late 18th century by the monk Spyridon in the Rila Monastery. He relayed the name of the monastery as ΚиλΪɸɑƿстЂи monastery, while in the Rila Panegyric (1479) it is written that the monastery was founded in the ΚѥɸɑλɑƿЕвО area. This incorrect transcription puts the base of a legend that St Theodosius founded Kilifarevski monastery, which was endorsed by the bringing of Spyridon’s copy of Life of Theodosius in the Kilifarevski monastery on March 1, 1817 by the mendicant friar of the Rila Monastery in the region, monk Gabriel. This is the date from which begins the veneration of St Theodosius of Turnovo in Kilifarevski monastery, and the legend is further sustained in 1842 with the construction of the new catholicon where, as a tribute to the work of Spyridon and the Rila Monastery, a chapel was dedicated to both St John of Rila and St Theodosius. Consequently, all the early images from before 1817, which are thought to be images of St Theodosius of Turnovo should actually be interpreted as images of St Theodosius the Cenobiarch (c. 423–529), and in support of this comes the fact that not a single image of St Theodosius prior to 1842 was explicitly inscribed as Theodosius of Turnovo.

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