site.btaBulgarian President Begins Official Visit to Vatican City and Italy

President Rumen Radev began his official two-day visit to the Vatican City and the Republic of Italy, his press secretariat said Wednesday. The head of State leads the Bulgarian delegation, which is traditionally received by the head of the Roman Catholic Church, on the occasion of the Day of the Holy Brothers Cyril and Methodius, the Bulgarian Alphabet, Education and Culture and Slav letters, May 24.

The Bulgarian delegation includes representatives of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, the Catholic denomination in Bulgaria, government officials  and public figures. 

Later on Wednesday, the President will attend the opening of an office of the European Public Law Organization (EPLO) in Rome and the unveiling of an exhibition "Mount Athos in Drawings and Photographs" at the Pontifical Lateran University in the Italian capital.

On Thursday, the programme includes a meeting with His Holiness Pope Francis. There is also a meeting between Radev and Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin. Later, at the Basilica of San Clemente, where the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius officiated for the first time in the Slavonic language, Radev will attend a Liturgy, led by Metropolitan Anthony of Western and Central Europe. The President will also visit the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, where Pope Adrian II blessed the Bulgarian alphabet in the 9th century.

Within the framework of his visit, President Radev is expected to pay tribute to the monuments of Ivan Vazov and Captain Petko Voyvoda in Rome.