Panayot Madjarov
(Summary)
This book is an attempt to reverse years of neglect, and revive to memory the names of the Bulgarian priests who participated in the Liberation movement on the territories of the erstwhile Edirne vilaet (region), the population of which has remained Bulgarian from the early Middle Agens well into the year 1913 when Bulgarians were expelled from their homeland.
It has become known from the research that was carried out that among the 4,566 revolutionaries who sacrificed their lives for Freedom in the Edirne Region in Thrace, there were 115 priests. Of 810 revolutionaries, who were thrown into prison or were subjected to torture, 25 were priests. The research has established 72 names of churches and schools in the Bulgarian towns and villages throughout Eastern Thrace. They all bear witness to the years in which Bulgarian alphabet was used, and East Orthodox Sevices were carried out in churches. Part of the churches were built during the period of the Bulgarian Revival, on the foundations of mediaeval churches. All these facts point to the age-long history of existence of Bulgarians on the territory of Thrace.
Until 1913, the year in which these Bulgarians were banished for ever from the lands of their forefathers, there was not a single a Bulgarian village without a Bulgarian church, or a Bulgarian school. All people born after 1870 who were forced at various periods to flee to the state of Bulgaria had received education, and the predominant number of their spiritual leaders, teachers and priests, had graduated from the Bulgarian schools put under the auspices of the Bulgarian Exarchate. All these men, who revived and enhanced the Bulgarian national awareness, also shaped the nation-wide feeling of patriotism.
In order to give some idea of the contribution of those Bulgarians the following research papers were also added:
“The Influence of the April Uprising on Eastern Thrace”
and
“Bulgarians and Bulgarian uillages in Easthern Thrace.”
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