With the imposition of extraordinary restrictive measures in Bulgaria, due to the epidemiological situation, on its official website Bulgaria’s Holy Synod has announced that the divine liturgies served in the Patriarchal Cathedral of Saint Alexander Nevsky in the centre of the capital Sofia will be broadcast live on the Facebook page of the Bulgarian Patriarchate. In this way, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church hopes to enable believers to participate in the services and at the same time to comply with the calls of the National Coronavirus Crisis Staff for all Bulgarians to stay at their homes and not gather in groups. Despite being able to follow the liturgy from home, some Orthodox Christians choose to attend the church services personally, where they, along with the priests, perform special prayers for deliverance from epidemics of particularly contagious and deadly diseases.

In a special interview for Radio Bulgaria, Priest Vasiliy Saryan of the Sofia-based church of the Holy Transfiguration of Jesus Christ explains:

"The church has always treated not only the souls of people, but also their bodies. There are enough miracles to prove it and we know that throughout the history of the church, God has always, through the Church, saved people from disasters, plagues and epidemics."

Priest Vasiliy urges people to be reasonable. According to him, in the modern world everyone should show more intelligence. The information about the crisis situation around the world is very diverse, and social networks are inundates all sorts of unconfirmed information. “This in turn leads to a loss of security and makes people afraid and worried. And this is the way people can inflict harm on themselves”, the priest believes:

"We know very well that self-suggestion sometimes can sometimes lead to very grave consequences. One can get sick and die if he or she starts to believe that he is sick, and vice versa with a deep faith in God, in a miraculous way, people terminally ill could heal. And so it is in this case - it is faith that will save us. Faith is power!”

English Rossitsa Petcova

Photos: BGNES