Posts Tagged ‘February’

Saint Martyr Kirana of Solun (Thessaloniki) a Bulgarian macedonian saint martyred on 28 February 1751

Tuesday, February 28th, 2023

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Saint Martyr Kirana (Kerana) was born in the first half of the 18th century 1731 A.D. in the Thessaloniki village of (Ossa) Avisona, in the family of pious Christians in Ottoman Macedonia which at that times was highly inhabited with Bulgarians who held that name of the time, and even today many Bulgarian have this archaic name.

A slim and beautiful girl, she was taken by a janissary (stolen kids from Bulgarian or other non-turkish nations who were grown and included in the Ottoman empire’s governance or army) who was a subashiya (tax collector who collected 10% of all the non-turks income) in her village with the idea to make her one of his wifes. After Kirana rejected him, he abducted her with a gang of janissaries.

He took her to Thessalonica, where his friends testified falsely that the girl had promised to become his wife and accept their faith. Kirana proved to be a brave and steadfast Christian – she neither wanted to marry the rapist nor convert to Islam. Because of this, she was chained and thrown into prison. The commandant of the fortress, Ali Bey, allowed the janissaries to enter to Kirana’s prison and torture her as they wished. As we read from her left Biography:

"One beat her with a tree, – another – with a knife, a third – with kicks, a fourth – with fists, until they left her near dead…

And at night the locksmith of the prison hung her by the arms and grabbed any tree found and beat her mercilessly…".


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Thus, for a week, Kirana was severely tortured. On the seventh day (February 28, 1751) she died. And then a miracle happened –

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"… a great light shone in the prison, came down from above from the roof like lightning, which surrounded the body of the martyr, spilled over the whole prison and illuminated it as if the whole sun had entered inside. It was then the fourth or fifth hour of the night (t . f. 10-11 o'clock at night)." In the morning, the Turks allowed the Christians to take the body of the martyr. They buried her outside the city, in the Christian cemetery there. Her clothes were divided among the faithful as sacred. Later, an unknown scribe compiled her life in Greek. The Church honors the memory of the holy martyr Kirana and commemorates her on February 28.

Biography source: Plamen Pavlov, Hristo Temelski Saints and spiritual leaders from Macedonia with minor modifications

Evening service and Holy Liturgy in Russian Church st. Nicolas and marriage preparations

Wednesday, February 5th, 2014

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Last Saturday evening I and my future wife Svetlana went to get train tickets (Sofia Dobrich), cause next week me and Svetlana will be travelling to Dobrich. Afterwards we went to Russian Church in center of Sofia – St. Nicolas for the evening service and confessed. The evening service was led by Archimandrite Philip who is currently Russian Church's prior.

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At the end of Church service there was an oilment, as always being on a Russian Holy Liturgy is astonishing experience. On Sunday morning 2nd February we were in Russian Church again for the Russian Liturgy and we took the holy sacraments as it is proper (according to Orthodox Church tradition the marrying couple should confess and receive the sacraments before marrying in Church). After Church service we went to Church crypt to venerate holy relics of Archimandrate Seraphim Sobolev. A big thing is happening in my life nowdays as I will have marriage this week  on Friday 7-th of February:)

We prepared so far almost everything for marriage. My parents helped with finding a marriage resturant and finding musicians for post marriage restaurant celebration. We also travelled to Asenovgrad to look for Svetlana's  wedding dress and we got one  I bough a marriage suit 2 weeks back and we ordered a marriage rings. There is already agreement with a priest father Vasilij – who will merry us in Church St. Trinity this Friday. Father Vasilij serves in Church "Dormition of Virgin Mary" in Kavarna . We choose father Vasilij to make the Marriage vows for the reason he is nativily Russian speaking (like Svetlana) plus the father is a good example of a true Christian priest. Today the parents of Svetlana (mama Vera and papa Alexander) arrived in the airport in Varna for the marriage (thanks God they had safe flight). Sunday night I send Svetlana to Train Station here in Sofia to make latest preparations for marriage. I will be travelling to Dobrich on Wednesday night 1 day before marriage. The rest of things happening around are not so interesting. In y job in HP work is complicated as usual. On my job I'm learning HPSM (HP Service Manager) and how to open new Changes in system and that's mostly my life these days. When I have time I'm playing OpenTyrian and a couple of nice arcade games on my ZTE Android mobile phone and reading some saint livings on mobile.