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The Pope will beatify three Assumptionist Brothers, victims of the Communist persecution at the time of the Cold War After a two-day visit to Azerbaijan the Pope will touch down at Sofia Airport, in Bulgaria, at 6.00 pm on Thursday, 23 May. He will remain in Bulgaria until 26 May. The programme of the Pope’s visit includes a meeting with the President of the Republic and a visit to the patriarchal cathedral of St. Alexander Nevski on the feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius, ‘apostles of the Slavs’ and patron saints of Europe, who evangelized the country during the 10th century. Meetings are also planned with the Orthodox Patriarch Maxim and the Holy Synod, with the Catholic bishops and with the representatives of the Jewish community. At Sofia the Pope will meet the Grand Muftì and representatives of the Muslim community. On Sunday 26 May, John Paul will beatify three martyrs in the central square of Plovdiv; they were arrested and executed due to their Christian faith. “All three says Mario Gueorguiev, senior editor of the monthly ‘Istina Veritas’ published by the Bulgarian interritual Episcopal Conference received the death sentence on 3 October 1952 and were executed in Sofia on the night of 11 November of the same year, together with the Blessed Msgr. Evgenii Bossilkov. Their vocation as pastors and teachers, which helped to keep alive and strengthen the devotion of many future priests and religious, and the faith and steadfastness with which they endured the persecutions of the police, have been unanimously recognized by Catholics, Orthodox, Armenians, Jews and Moslems”. Their biographies in brief are as follows. Father Kamen Vitchev. Born into an Orthodox family on 23 May 1893. On 8 September 1919 he entered as a novice the order of the Brothers of the Assumption in Ghent, in Belgium, and took the name of Kamen. In 1912 he began to study theology in Louvain, where he remained until 1918. He was then appointed lector in the College of St. Augustine in Plovdiv (Bulgaria) and later in a small seminary in Constantinople. Here he was ordained as a priest of oriental rite on 22 December 1921. After completing his doctorate in theology at the University of Strasbourg, he was appointed lecturer in philosophy again at the College of St. Augustine at Plovdiv. He wrote for the Catholic paper “Veritas” and “Studi bizantini”. On 4 July 1952 he was arrested and accused of being the leader of a Catholic plot against the security of the State. Condemned to death, he was executed on 11 November of the same year. Father Pavel Djidjov. He was born in Plovdiv on 9 July 1919. His family was Catholic of Latin rite. In 1926 he began to study in the school of St. Andrew’s run by the Brothers of the Assumption in Plovdiv. On 2 October 1938, he entered as a novice the order of the Brothers of the Assumption in France, and took the name of Pavel. He studied philosophy and theology at Lormot, near Paris, until 1942. In that same year he took his perpetual vows. Due to illness, he was obliged to return to Bulgaria, but continued his studies in theology there. In 1945 he was ordained priest in the Latin rite. Father Pavel exerted an influence such as to arouse the suspicion of the authorities on several occasions and subject him to the control of the security forces. He was arrested on the night of 4 July together with Father Vitchev and executed on 11 November 1952. Robert Matei Shishkov. He was born into a Catholic family in Plovdiv on 9 February 1884. He too entered the order of the Brothers of the Assumption as a novice at Fanariki, in Turkey, and took the name of Josaphat. In 1919 he was appointed director of the minor seminary of Saints Cyril and Methodius at Yambol where the students were educated according to both the oriental and the latin rites. Father Josaphat was the first to use a typewriter with characters written in Cyrillic, the first to introduce films as an educational method and the first to organize meetings for youth at which he got them to listen to the gramophone. Msgr. Roncalli – future Pope John XXIII -, at the time Nuncio Apostolic in Bulgaria, often visited him in the Seminary. In 1948 foreign priests were expelled from the country and Father Josaphat was appointed parish priest at Varna. It was there that he was arrested in December 1951 on the charge of being “one of the most elderly spies” in the country. He was executed on 11 November 1952 together with the other two religious.
