The sarcophagus containing the remains of Tsar Samuel will be placed in the southern part of the transept of Sofia’s Church of St Sophia, Father Kiril Didov, chairman of the church board, told BTA on Thursday. He specified that “the coffin containing the remains of Tsar Samuel will be placed inside the sarcophagus”.
“Tsar Samuel may have embraced Christianity in the Church of St Sophia and may even have been baptized here, but these are assumptions. The fact that he was indeed a Christian is evidenced by the fact that he built the Basilica of St Achillius and transferred and placed there the relics of St Achillius of Larissa,” Didov said.
According to him, “there is no doubt that Tsar Samuel was a devout man and helped spread the faith throughout his kingdom”.
Asked to describe the event involving the return of Tsar Samuel’s remains from a church and religious perspective, Father Kiril Didov said: “This is a major event and one of the positive things about the European Union (EU), because two Balkan countries that over the years have had both military and many other disputes are finding, through the EU, a mutually beneficial solution to an issue. It concerns the transfer of Tsar Samuel’s remains to Bulgaria, while Greece, and more specifically the Greek monasteries, will receive items belonging to them.”
“On October 3, there will be a procession starting from Battenberg Square – in front of the National Art Gallery, the former royal palace – and proceeding to the Church of St Sophia. A memorial service for Tsar Samuel will be held, which is expected to be officiated by the Bulgarian Patriarch and Metropolitan of Sofia Daniil,” Didov noted.
Afterwards the coffin will be placed in the sarcophagus, allowing everyone to pay their respects to Tsar Samuel’s remains. Father Didov added that people wishing to do so would also be able to pay their respects at the church in the future.
“We have reached a historic agreement on the return of Tsar Samuel’s remains,” Prime Minister Rumen Radev said on Tuesday at the beginning of a government meeting and added that this was the result of intensive negotiations between Bulgaria and Greece.
He urged Bulgarians to attend an event in Sofia’s central Battenberg Square on October 3 for the arrival of the Tsar’s remains and “pay tribute to a great Bulgarian ruler”.
In the morning of the same day, Radev will be at the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki, where, at a ceremony hosted by the Prime Minister of Greece, the remains of Tsar Samuel will officially be handed over to the Bulgarian state. They will be flown to Sofia by a Spartan aircraft.
A memorandum of understanding between the Greek and Bulgarian Ministers of Culture, Lina Mendoni and Evtim Miloshev, on the reciprocal transfer of historical relics of significance to the two countries was signed in Athens on Tuesday, September 29, the Greek Ministry of Culture said on its official website, describing the agreement as historically significant.
Under its terms, 48 religious artefacts originating from the Monastery of the Virgin Mary Eikosifoinissa (Panagia Eikosifoinissa), the Monastery of St John the Forerunner (Timios Prodromos) near Serres, and the Holy Metropolis of Serres and Nigrita will be returned to Greece. The artefacts were transferred to Sofia in 1917, during World War I, and have since been exhibited or kept in storage at Bulgaria’s National History Museum, the ministry said.
In return, Greece will hand over to Bulgaria the remains discovered at the Basilica of St Achillius in 1965 by Prof. Nikolaos Moutsopoulos and identified as belonging to Bulgarian Tsar Samuel (997–1014). The transfer will also include other anthropological material recovered from the basilica’s four sarcophagi. In recent years, the remains have been kept at the Museum of Byzantine Culture in Thessaloniki, the ministry added.
Minister of Education and Science Prof. Dr Georgi Valchev told the Bulgarian National Television (BNT) on Tuesday that the memorandum providing for the return to Bulgaria of the remains of Tsar Samuel is of enormous significance. According to him, the document demonstrates the level of trust between two countries that are partners in the European Union and members of NATO. He said that the Balkans’ difficult history had left numerous unresolved issues over the years and said the region had a tendency to remain overly focused on its historical legacy. Against this backdrop, he said the memorandum demonstrated that such inherited problems from the past could be overcome in a spirit of good neighbourly relations.
Sarcophagus Containing Tsar Samuel’s Remains to Be Placed in Southern Part of St Sophia Church, Father Kiril Didov says THE NEWS FROM BULGARIA – NEWS AGENCY 2009-2025 2026-10-01 15:38:37
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