Bulgaria's Patriarch Daniil Visits Bachkovo Monastery for the Feast of the Vlachern Icon

His Holiness Patriarch Daniil visited the Bachkovo Monastery today, July 2, where the feast of the Vlachern Icon of Constantinople is being celebrated. This icon serves as the original model for the miraculous icon of the Holy Mother of God housed in the Bachkovo Holy Monastery.

Together with Georgian Metropolitan Andrei and Bishop Sioniy, the abbot of Bachkovo Monastery, His Holiness officiated the Divine Liturgy. Later, the head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church consecrated the new Bulgarian-Georgian spiritual and cultural centre.

“God’s will for humanity is always to be one — united in love. Love’s nature is to bring people together and lead them towards unity. This is God’s will for us at all times. The message of today’s feast, along with the celebration of the miraculous Vlachern Icon of the Holy Mother of God, which has been here at Bachkovo Monastery for nearly a thousand years — since the monastery’s founding and the consecration of this Bulgarian-Georgian spiritual center — is this: that people come here for prayer and pilgrimage, to strengthen faith in our hearts, to meet and commune, to connect with the lives of those who came before us. Here are exhibited holy relics, artifacts, and photographs from our predecessors that remind us that Bulgarians, Georgians, and all who come here in peace have received joy and spiritual benefit. May we also receive such spiritual blessings,” said Patriarch Daniil.

Bishop Sioniy described the centre as a spiritual message of unity for all Orthodox peoples.