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Oriental Rites
When the people of Bulgaria received Holy Baptism during the 9th century thanks to the missionary work of St Cyril and St Methodius, they entered into union with the Apostolic See of Rome. That union was to be broken and renewed several times in the history of this troubled land in the Balkans, and the disastrous influence of the nearby schismatic Greek Patriarchate of Constantinople, the centuries-long Turkish occupation, religious ignorance and isolation all played a role in creating the situation which still exists today: most Bulgarians belong, nominally at least, to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, whilst the Catholics of both Byzantine-Slavonic and Latin rites make up a only a small minority of the population.
Blessed
Kamen (face highlighted) serving as a deacon at a Pontifical Liturgy
Nor were the powers of this world slow to act. The Czar foresaw that a Catholic and religiously independent Bulgaria meant the end of Russia’s panslavist expanionism, and Mgr Sokolsky disappeared mysteriously and spent the remainder of his days interned in a Russian monastery. As all seemed lost for the cause of union, in 1862 the pope turned to the newly-founded order of the Augustinans of the Assumption, and other Western congregations, asking them to come to the aid of Mgr Popov, Mgr Sokolsky’s successor. The Assumptionists The Assumptionists had been founded only 12 years before by Bl. Fr Emmanuel d’Alzon. Their apostolic works included specialisation in journalism and education, and so Pius IX believed that they would make ideal missionaries for Bulgaria. By 1872, however, three quarters of the Byzantine-rite Bulgarian Catholics had already returned to schism, and most of the remainder lived not in Bulgaria but in Macedonia and Thrace. Converting the Orthodox would be a major challenge for the young community which arrived under the command of Fr Galabert, A.A. Undaunted they set to their task with great zeal, opening seminaries, colleges and schools in order to overcome religious ignorance, and by the end of the 19th century the Catholics of both rites counted some 30 000 faithful. It was in this small but fervent community that Petar (Peter) Vitchev was born on 23 May, 1893 of devout parents. At a very early age, the desire grew in Petar and his brother to become priests.
Petar longed to become an Assumptionist and to work for the conversion
of his Orthodox countrymen as a monk. Higher
study in Rome and Strasbourg was to follow, and, eight years later,
Fr Kamen obtained a doctorate of theology in Strasbourg. On his
return to Bulgaria he was appointed professor of philosophy and
student prefect in one of the colleges. The Bulgarian mission was flourishing at that time. Out of the total population of six million in the newly independent Kingdom of Bulgaria, Catholics numbered about 57 000, of whom 6000 belonged to the Byzantine-Slavonic rite like Fr Kamen. On the eve of World War II, the mission, largely in the hands of the Assumptionist Fathers, counted 127 secular priests and 200 religious of both sexes, 10 schools, two large hospitals and six orphanages. All this was about to change. On 9 September 1944, Soviet troops entered Sofia and hastened to set up a predominantly Communist government officially labelled the ‘Patriotic Front’. After the proclamation of the Republic in 1945, the Communists began to eliminate their political opponents. The hour of trial The hour had come for Bulgaria’s Catholics to prove their faith. The intensity of Christian life which bound this small but active body into a marvellous unity marked them out for swift persecution.
By 1949 an intense press and propaganda campaign was set in motion with a view tospreading the idea that private schools were henceforth intolerable in the new ‘progressivist’ atmosphere. Then a decree of the Praesidium of the National Assembly ordered that “all foreign schools, religious and lay, be closed, whatever their standard or cultural activity”. Consequently nine colleges conducted by religious had to close. These schools were attended by more than 5000 boys and girls. The government took over the buildings and all foreign religious had to leave the country. It was clear that the situation was becoming more and more tense. Now that the foreign - mostly French - Assumptionists had left the country, Fr Kamen Vitchev was appointed Superior of the remaining 20 religious. Notwithstanding his limited resources, he endeavoured to look after five Byzantine and four Latin parishes. But the difficulties kept increasing. Despite all his efforts to protect his congregation from persecution, the general atmosphere in Bulgaria became more hostile every day. Until then, he had been able to avoid the arrest of any Assumptionist. Meanwhile, the National Assembly had approved a new ‘Law on Religious Denominations’, containing a whole series of enactments which aimed at extinguishing Catholicism in Bulgaria. It was an open declaration of war against the Catholic Church. After a bitter press campaign against the decree of the Holy Office condemning membership of the Marxist-Communist Party (6 August 1949), the persecution became more violent. Less than a year later, Fr Assen Chonkov, an Assumptionist, was the first to be arrested. In 1952 the Bulgarian government decided to eradicate all Catholic activity, and within a year, three public trials of Catholic clergy and laity were held. In the first, the Superior of the Capuchins at Sofia was condemned to 12 years in prison, and two months later, another Capuchin received the same sentence. Arrest and mock trial Then, on 4 July, Fr Kamen Vitchev was placed under arrest together with his fellow Assumptionist, Fr Pavel Dzhidzhov,. Two days later, Mgr Eugene Bossilkov, a Passionist, was arrested too. Together with 24 other priests, two nuns and two Catholic laymen (former editors of the Catholic newspaper Istina), they were tried on 29 September in Sofia’s Palace of Justice. During the trial, staged in typical grand style by the Communists, the charges ranged from espionage to illegal possession of arms and anti-Communist propaganda. This, of course, was the perfect opportunity for the press to discredit the small Catholic community as much as possible, which it derided as a nest of spies and traitors, though no-one doubted that it was Catholicism itself which was on trial in Sofia. The most diabolic aspect of the process was neither the complete disregard for the most elementary form of legal procedure, nor the flagrant miscarriage of justice, but the fact that it aimed at annihilating the Catholic Church in Bulgaria by assailing its most exemplary bishops, priests and laymen. On 3 October 1952, only four days after the beginning of the trial, the court sentenced four of the accused to death for “espionage and conspiracy against the U.S.S.R., Bulgaria and other democratic republics”: Bishop Bossilkov and the Assumptionist Fathers Vitchev, Dzhidzhov and Chichkov. All the other priests, the nuns and the laymen were condemned to imprisonment for up to 20 years. The martyrs’ crown It was nearly 40 years before the details of the martyrdom became known. The execution took place at 11.30 p.m.on 11 November in the central prison at Sofia. The martyrs were shot. Before Fr Kamen was crowned with martyrdom, he underwent continuous physical and psychological torture. To obtain a signed declaration of guilt, his prison guards tried all possible forms of coercion which would not leave external marks of violence on the martyr’s body. He remained constant to the end. During his recent visit to Bulgaria, Pope John Paul II raised Fr Kamen and his two Assumptionist martyrs companions to the honours of the altar. Bishop Bossilkov had already been beatified some years before. Bl. Kamen Vitchev shed his blood for Our Lord Jesus Christ and His Church. It remains for Bulgaria to embrace the Catholic Unity for which he offered his life. † |
