Bulgaria Holds Solemn Mass for Batak Martyrs

The Bulgarian Holy Synod made the decision to canonize the Batak martyrs in April, 2011. Photo by BGNES

Plovdiv metropolitan bishop Nikolay is holding a solemn mass Tuesday morning in veneration of the newly cannonized victims of the Batak Massacre in 1876.

The service, set to include 30 Orthodox clerics from around the world and 300 priests from the Plovdiv Bishopric, will take place in Batak's main church Sveta Nedelya.

The holy relics of the Bulgarian Batak martyrs were taken out of the Sveta Nedeliya church in the town for the first time Monday for people to pay homage to them.

A solemn mass was also served Monday evening. Official guests visited Batak to attend a concert commemorating the 135th anniversary of the April Uprising.

In April 1876, Bulgarian freedom fighters rebelled against the authorities of the Ottoman Turkish Empire seeking to liberate their nation and create an independent nation state.

April Uprising was crushed with great violence by Ottoman forces, when an estimated 30,000 Bulgarians, mostly civilians including women, children, and elderly, were slaughtered. Coverage in the European press led to an international outrage and a humanitarian intervention in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78.

Between 4000 and 5000 Bulgarians were butchered in the Batak Massacre – in the southern town of Batak – described by journalist MacGahan in a shocking account, while some 700 were slaughtered in the region of Novo Selo, Kravenik, Batoshevo, and Apriltsi – villages in Northern Bulgaria near Lovech.

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