site.btaBulgaria Commemorates 1150th Anniversary of Christianization

Bulgaria Commemorates 1150th Anniversary of Christianization

Pliska, Northern Bulgaria, May 2 BTA) - A liturgy dedicated to
the 1150th anniversary of Bulgaria's Christianization was served
 on Saturday at the basilica in Pliska by Patriarch Neophyte,
the metropolitans of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and visiting
Orthodox leaders. A message by the Patriarch and the Holy Synod
was read at the liturgy commemorating the anniversary and Saint
Tsar Boris I of Bulgaria.

Attending the two-day celebrations in the old Bulgarian capitals
 of Pliska and Preslav were representatives of all Orthodox
churches: the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Patriarchate
of Alexandria and All Africa, the Patriarchate of Antioch, the
Jerusalem Patriarchate, the Patriarchate of Moscow and all
Russia, as well as the Georgian, Serbian and Romanian
patriarchates, and the Church of Cyprus. The Russian delegation
was headed by the Metropolitan Onoufrios of Kiev and all
Ukraine.
   
The church commemorates Tsar Boris I Baptizer of Bulgaria and
the establishment of an autonomous Bulgarian church. Boris I was
 the Bulgarian ruler who Christianized the country and
introduced the Cyrillic alphabet, reigning between 852 and 889
and again in 893 for a short time.

Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, former prime minister Simeon
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Emil Velinov, head of the Directorate for
Religious Denominations under the Council of Ministers, received
 orders at the end of the liturgy.

Prime Minister Boyko Borissov received the Order of the Saint
Tsar Boris I of Bulgaria the Baptist, first degree, the highest
church honour, after a decision by the Holy Synod of March 11.
The order was established  in 1979, on the 1300th anniversary of
 the Bulgarian state.

Emil Velinov was given the same order.

King Simeon II, already a recipient of the order, was conferred
the Order of Saint John of Rila, the first order of the
Bulgarian Patriarchy, established in 1961.

President Rosen Plevneliev attended the celebrations and
delivered a speech. Attending were also Deputy Prime Minister
and Interior Minister Roumyana Buchvarova, Deputy National
Assembly Speaker Dimiter Glavchev, ministers, MPs, diplomats,
including Russian Ambassador here Yuriy Isakov, representatives
of the local authorities and the public.

On Friday the Bulgarian Patriarchate announced that Simeon
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha will be referred to as king of Bulgaria in all
 public and private services held in the diocese of the
Bulgarian Orthodox Church.The proposal was put forward by
Metropolitan Nikolai of  Plovdiv and was voted unanimously by
the Holy Synod.

Simeon was born the son of Boris III and Giovanna of Italy. He
became tsar on 28 August 1943 on the death of his father but
since he was only six years old when he ascended the throne, a
council of regents was appointed. His family was forced to flee
the country by the communist government on September 16 and he
returned to Bulgaria on May 25 1996.

Between July 24 2001 and August 17 2005 Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
 served as the 48th Bulgarian prime minister. After winning the
elections he went on the head the National Movement Simeon II.