Две чудотворни икони на прага на религиозното възраждане в постсоциалистическа България
Two Wonder-Making Icons on the Threshold of Religious Revival in Post-Socialist Bulgaria

Summary/Abstract: The paper brings together two examples of wonder-making icons of the Holy Virgin from Bulgaria, different in chronology of the emergence of the cult and of different kind as specificity of the ritual practices: the icon of the Holy Virgin from the Church of the Holy Trinity in Ruse, and the Icon of the Holy Virgin from the Church of St Demetrius in the village of Svirachi, Ivailovgrad region. The cases discussed have developed against the backdrop of interrelations in the midst of a population of different ethnic belonging. The wonder-making icon creates a kind of “a centre” in the spiritual life of believers. Legends clearly outline also the political basis of the local cults as striving towards the symbolic denotation of the Bulgarian community in the face of some other population (Greek or Turkish). The practices of pilgrimage had developed to different degrees in Ruse and in Svirachi; in both cases there could be no question of pilgrimage (in the meaning of a regular established route of journeying on a pilgrimage to a sacred site). The two icons have no status of a cult of nationwide significance, but are part of the spiritual life of the local population and have a special place in the new religious practices.

• Details
• Contents