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Talking War, “Seeing” Peace: Approaching the Pilgrimage of Krastova Gora (Bulgaria)

2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 20; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/02757200903112545

1477-2612

Margarita Karamihova, Galía Valtchinova,

Balkan and Eastern European Studies

Abstract The paper is dedicated to the pilgrimage of Krastova Gora, in the Rhodopes mountains, which is by far the most popular Christian Orthodox pilgrimage in post‐communist Bulgaria. It delineates how a contested area, where Muslims and Orthodox Christians have lived side‐by‐side for decades, was constructed as the regional holy place and a sort of national "Jerusalem". We show how this pilgrimage, triggered by the visions of an Orthodox visionary man in the 1930s, developed during the first post‐socialist decade to become a hallmark of the religious revival and religious cohabitation. Drawing on fieldwork conducted throughout the 1990s, we however focus on the messages of peace that coincided with the most dramatic time of the Yugoslav crisis, the war in Bosnia 1994–1995. Scrutinizing the multiple imaginings of Krastova Gora as a "haven of peace" and a source of divine grace, we unveil the impact of political events, social change and a certain vision of history in the construction of the pilgrimage site as a place of individual and national salvation. Keywords: Ottoman BalkansRhodopesPomaksConversionOrthodoxyNationalism and Religion Acknowledgements This paper has benefited from the exchange with numerous Bulgarian colleagues who have shared observations and recorded material. We are grateful to W. A. Christian Jr., B. Lory and K. Kehl‐Bodrogy for commenting on the final draft. Notes [1] This paper is partly based on some preliminary results of field research programme "Krastova Gora: The Three Roads to the Top" (hereafter referred to as the KG Project) realised between 1993 and 1996 by a team of Bulgarian ethnographers and historians, with the support of the International Centre for Minority Studies and Intercultural Relations, Sofia, Bulgaria. As member of the team, M. Karamihova draws mainly on her own fieldwork, which is, however, difficult to dissociate from data resulting from the team's work, subsumed in Ivanova (2000 Ivanova, E., ed. 2000. Krastova Gora: The Useful Miracle [in Bulgarian], Sofia: Institute for East‐European Humanities. [Google Scholar]). G. Valtchinova draws upon personal fieldwork done during two annual pilgrimages, in 1997 and 1999, and a few Friday pilgrimages. [2] See all the contributions in Ivanova (2000 Ivanova, E., ed. 2000. Krastova Gora: The Useful Miracle [in Bulgarian], Sofia: Institute for East‐European Humanities. [Google Scholar]). Other publications with extensive quotes of unpublished materials are Ivanova (1995 Ivanova, E. 1995. "The utalitarian sacrality: finding out the roots of tolerance" [in Bulgarian]. Bâlgarski folklor [Bulgarian folklore], 1–2: 102–116. [Google Scholar], 2001 Ivanova, E. 2001. "The tekke of Sarî‐baba above Momtcilovtsi, Smoljan area" [in Bulgarian]. Bulgarska etnologija, XXVII(3): 66–77. [Google Scholar]); Grigorov (1998 Grigorov, V. 1998. "Tekkes Revered by Bulgarian Muslims in Central Rhodopes [in Bulgarian]". In Muslim Culture in Bulgarian Lands: Studies [The Fate of Muslim Communities in the Balkans, Vol. 2], Edited by: Gradeva, R. and Ivanova, Sv. 553–567. Sofia: IMIR. [Google Scholar]); Karamihova (1999 Karamihova, M. 1999. "The So Called 'Rebirth Process': Politics and Results" [in Bulgarian]". In Za Promenite, Edited by: Karamihova, M. 371–402. Sofia: Center for Liberal Strategies and Social Practices. [Google Scholar]) and Valchinova (1999 Valtchinova, G. 1999. "Le pèlerinage du Mont de la Croix et l'apprentissage religieux en Bulgarie post‐communiste". Cahiers de littérature orale, 45: 87–110. [Google Scholar]). [3] The name is derived form the river Jordan. In recent years, the name and every detail related to the visionary's life and personality are increasingly subject to manipulation and reinterpretation, in a distinctive hagiographic tonality. [4] The mixed ethnic background, complementary local economies and changing political history of the region for the medieval period lato sensu (sixth to fourteenth century) are examined by Asdracha (1976). It should be remembered that the presence of Armenians and Paulicians (a dualist Christian sect), as well as of a small number of Catholics, in the religious landscape of the area is prior to the Ottoman period (Asdracha 1976: 71 sq., 143 sqq.). [5] The evidence about heterodox Islam in the Rhodopes, perhaps among the Pomaks of the area is discussed in Gruev (2000 Gruev, M. 2000. "The spread of heterodox Islam among Bulgarian Muslims [in Bulgarian]. Minalo, 2: 35–43. [Google Scholar]); see also Karamihova (2002 Karamihova, M. 2002. A Tale for Osman Baba [in Bulgarian], Sofia: Professor Marin Drinov Publishing House. [Google Scholar]: 18). [6] The first Bulgarian Constitution (1879) proclaimed Orthodoxy the official state religion. It was a top–down reversal of the legal status of Muslim population in the newborn Bulgarian Principalty, from a privileged class to a minority. The change led to a massive flight of the Muslim population and the loss of their lands and property during and in the aftermaths of the Liberation war (1878–79); the growing pressure of the Bulgarian Christian population vis‐a‐vis the Muslims living in towns and mixed rural areas, especially when land property issues were at stake; the progressive displacement of Bulgarian Pomak population to the Ottoman empire and to Turkey. These movements, not necessarily forced, were what R. Brubaker called "the unmixing of peoples" (Brubaker 1996 Brubaker, R. 1996. Nationalism Reframed. Nationhood and the national question in the New Europe, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]: 148–178, especially 152–56). A specific reaction was the creation of a Pomak Republic in the authonomous region of Eastern Rumelia, in 1879. It remained a burning issue until 1886 and continued, in one form or another, until 1912 (Lory 1989 Lory, B. 1989. "Ahmed Aga Tâmraslijata: the last derebey of the Rhodopes". International journal of Turkish studies, 4(2): 179–202. [Google Scholar]). [7] The issue of the clashes between Bulgarian and Greek nationalisms in the area, which are concentrated in the town of Assenovgrad and its area, is discussed in Baeva and Valtchinova elsewhere in this issue. [8] For the Bulgarian–Greek border in post‐Ottoman times (since 1913) and the changes of the borderline in 1919/20, see Drury (1991 Drury, M. 1991. The Boundary between Bulgaria and Greece, Durham, , UK: Boundaries Research Press, International Boundary Research Unit, University of Durham. [Google Scholar]: 9–16, Fig. 2); for the contemporary state of the border in its central section, see Drury (1991 Drury, M. 1991. The Boundary between Bulgaria and Greece, Durham, , UK: Boundaries Research Press, International Boundary Research Unit, University of Durham. [Google Scholar]: 6–7, 20–21, Fig. 3). For the discourses developed among Pomak on the "border" and "isolation", in the socialist and post‐socialist period, see Mihaylova (2003 Mihaylova, D. 2003. "Between a rock and a hard place: Pomak identities at the border between Bulgaria and Greece". Focaal, 41: 45–57. [Google Scholar]: 49–54). [9] For the repartition of the Pomak group over Bulgaria, see Konstantinov and Alhaug (1995 Konstantinov, Y. and Alhaug, G. 1995. Names, Ethnicity, and Politics: Islamic Names in Bulgaria 1912–1992, Oslo: Novus Press. [Google Scholar]: 114–115). Around 85% of this group is concentrated in the western and central part of the Rhodopes mountains, where compact Pomak villages intermingle with Christian villages; for details see Apostolov (2001 Apostolov, M. 2001. Religious Minorities, Nation States and Security: Five Cases from the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean, Burlington, VT: Ashgate. [Google Scholar]: ch. 2); Gruev (2003 Gruev, M. 2003. Between the Red Star and the Crescent. The Moslem Bulgarians and the Political Regime, 1944–1959 [in Bulgarian], Sofia: IK "Kota". [Google Scholar]: 56–60). In the geographical and cultural continuity of this core Pomak group we find a smaller one in northern Greece: see Tsibiridou (2000 Tsibouridou, F. 2000. Les Pomaks dans la Thrace Grecque: Discours ethnique et pratiques socioculturelles, Paris: L'Harmattan. [Google Scholar]). The Pomak populations of the Rhodopes have been concerned in a variety of ways by the Greek–Bulgarian territorial dispute of 1945–47: see Gruev (2003 Gruev, M. 2003. Between the Red Star and the Crescent. The Moslem Bulgarians and the Political Regime, 1944–1959 [in Bulgarian], Sofia: IK "Kota". [Google Scholar]: 65–81). For a comparison of the perceptions of the Pomaks in both countries see Brunnbauer (2001 Brunnbauer, U. 2001. "The perception of Muslims in Bulgaria and Greece: between the 'self' and the 'other'". Journal of muslim minority affairs, 21(1): 39–61. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]). [10] The obsession with the issue of conversion and its extreme ideological and political manipulations have led to the birth of alternative "theories" of the origins of Pomaks in post‐socialist times; for the different perspectives see Georgieva and Zhelyazkova (1994 Georgieva, Ts. and Zhelyazkova, A. 1994. "L'identité en période de changement (Observations sur certaines tendances du monde mixte des Rhodopes)". Cahiers internationaux de sociologie, XCVI: 125–143. [Google Scholar]), with the widest range of identity options coupled with a careful ethnography, Konstantinov (1997 Konstantinov, Yu. 1997. "Strategies for Sustaining a Vulnerable Identity: The Case of the Bulgarian Pomaks". In Muslim Identity and the Balkan State, Edited by: Poulton, H. and Taji‐Farouki, S. 33–53. London: Hurst and Co.. [Google Scholar]), Todorova (1997 Todorova, M. 1997. "Identity (Trans)Formation among Pomaks in Bulgaria". In Beyond Borders. Remaking Cultural Identities in the New East and Central Europe, Edited by: Kürti, L. and Langman, J. 63–82. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. [Google Scholar]). [11] According to Bulgarian historians and ethnographers, kinship ties between Muslim and Christian families can be deduced from "technical" relationships such as the common use of meadows or of fruit trees. Such data have been recorded mainly by local historians, see Kanev (1973 Kanev, K. 1973. The Past of the Village of Momchilovtsi, Smolyan District [in Bulgarian], Sofia: Otechestven Front Publisher. [Google Scholar]). It should be noted, however, that intermarriages between the Christian and Muslim Bulgarian‐speaking populations have remained extremely rare. [12] Here we hint at the domestic theory of the "Bulgarian ethnic model"—or pattern of peaceful ethno‐religious cohabitation—which is supposed to be grounded on the traditional institution of the neighbourhood, the Ottoman komşuluk. This theory was promoted in the early 1990s by historians (see Georgieva [1994 Georgieva, Ts. 1994. "Coexistence as a System of Everyday Life of Christians and Muslims in Bulgaria". In Relations of Compatibility and Incompatibility between Christians and Muslims in Bulgaria, Edited by: Zhelyazkova, A. 151–172. Sofia: IMIR. [Google Scholar]]) and sociologists (see Mitev [1994 Mitev, P.‐E. 1994. "Relations of Compatibility and Incompatibility in the Everyday Life of Christians and Muslims in Bulgaria (Sociological Study)". In Relations of Compatibility and Incompatibility between Christians and Muslims in Bulgaria, Edited by: Zhelyazkova, A. 179–213. Sofia: IMIR. [Google Scholar]]) and enjoyed substantial scientific and political backing in the last decade. [13] This assertion counters the current tendency to present Pomaks as always the "weak" group and the "Bulgarian majority" as always the strong and oppressive group; the "weapons of the weak" (in the sense of J. Scott [1985 Scott, J. 1985. Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. [Google Scholar]]) have been much more varied and inventive than some would have it. [14] For the policies of "Rodina" towards the Pomaks in the Rhodopes, see Neuburger (2004 Neuburger, M. 2004. The Orient Within: Muslim Minorities and the Negotiation of Nationhood in Modern Bulgaria, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. [Google Scholar]: ch. 2); see Mancheva (2001 Mancheva, M. 2001. "Image and policy: the case of Turks and Pomaks in inter‐war Bulgaria, 1918–44. Islam and Christian‐Muslim relations, 12(3): 355–374. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) and Gruev (2003 Gruev, M. 2003. Between the Red Star and the Crescent. The Moslem Bulgarians and the Political Regime, 1944–1959 [in Bulgarian], Sofia: IK "Kota". [Google Scholar]: 8–9, 91–95) (with literature) for a well‐balanced vision of domestic scholars. [15] The facets of Bulgarian integrationist and assimilationist policies vis‐à‐vis the Pomaks are discussed by Konstantinov and Alhaug (1995 Konstantinov, Y. and Alhaug, G. 1995. Names, Ethnicity, and Politics: Islamic Names in Bulgaria 1912–1992, Oslo: Novus Press. [Google Scholar]); Konstantinov (1992 Konstantinov, Yu. 1992. "An Account of Pomak Conversions in Bulgaria (1912–1990)". In Minderheitenfragen in Südosteuropa, Edited by: Seewan, hrsg. G. and Oldenbourg Südost, R. 343–357. Institut München. [Google Scholar], 1997 Konstantinov, Yu. 1997. "Strategies for Sustaining a Vulnerable Identity: The Case of the Bulgarian Pomaks". In Muslim Identity and the Balkan State, Edited by: Poulton, H. and Taji‐Farouki, S. 33–53. London: Hurst and Co.. [Google Scholar]); Gruev (2003 Gruev, M. 2003. Between the Red Star and the Crescent. The Moslem Bulgarians and the Political Regime, 1944–1959 [in Bulgarian], Sofia: IK "Kota". [Google Scholar]); Karamihova (1999 Karamihova, M. 1999. "The So Called 'Rebirth Process': Politics and Results" [in Bulgarian]". In Za Promenite, Edited by: Karamihova, M. 371–402. Sofia: Center for Liberal Strategies and Social Practices. [Google Scholar]); Neuburger (2004 Neuburger, M. 2004. The Orient Within: Muslim Minorities and the Negotiation of Nationhood in Modern Bulgaria, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. [Google Scholar]). [16] We hint at the campaign (1984–1989) of forced assimilation of the Turkish minority in Bulgaria, popularly known as "the baptism of Turks": see Poulton (1991 Poulton, H. 1991. The Balkans: Minorities and States in Conflict, London: Minority Rights Publication. [Google Scholar]: 129–151). Its impact for the change of political regime in the autumn of 1989 is recognized mostly by foreign scholars, see Poulton (1991 Poulton, H. 1991. The Balkans: Minorities and States in Conflict, London: Minority Rights Publication. [Google Scholar]: 159–161); Krasztev (2001 Krasztev, P. 2001. "Understated, overexposed. Turks in Bulgaria, immigrants in Turkey". Balkanologie, V(1–2): 199–227. [Google Scholar]: 204). [17] It should be stressed, however, that this vision was shared by both Christian Bulgarians and Turks—the two communities with which Pomaks intermingled and were in continuous interaction—but for the opposite reasons: "imperfect Bulgarians" because Muslim for the former, they were "imperfect Turks" because Bulgarian‐speaking for the latter. [18] For the shattered Pomak identity in Bulgaria as a result of contradictory policies see Brunnbauer (2001 Brunnbauer, U. 2001. "The perception of Muslims in Bulgaria and Greece: between the 'self' and the 'other'". Journal of muslim minority affairs, 21(1): 39–61. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]), Gruev (2003 Gruev, M. 2003. Between the Red Star and the Crescent. The Moslem Bulgarians and the Political Regime, 1944–1959 [in Bulgarian], Sofia: IK "Kota". [Google Scholar]: 39–196); Karamihova (1999 Karamihova, M. 1999. "The So Called 'Rebirth Process': Politics and Results" [in Bulgarian]". In Za Promenite, Edited by: Karamihova, M. 371–402. Sofia: Center for Liberal Strategies and Social Practices. [Google Scholar]). [19] On the new identifications and post‐socialist identity shifts among Bulgarian Pomaks see Konstantinov (1997 Konstantinov, Yu. 1997. "Strategies for Sustaining a Vulnerable Identity: The Case of the Bulgarian Pomaks". In Muslim Identity and the Balkan State, Edited by: Poulton, H. and Taji‐Farouki, S. 33–53. London: Hurst and Co.. [Google Scholar]), Balikci (1998 Balikci, A. 1998. "Symbolic geography of the Pomak". In Nationalités et minorités en Europe: Forum Europe, Edited by: de Rivas, G. 158–165. Paris: Tassili. [Google Scholar]), Todorova (1997 Todorova, M. 1997. "Identity (Trans)Formation among Pomaks in Bulgaria". In Beyond Borders. Remaking Cultural Identities in the New East and Central Europe, Edited by: Kürti, L. and Langman, J. 63–82. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. [Google Scholar]). For a similar process observed among the Greek Pomaks, see Michail (2003 Michail, D. 2003. "From 'Local' to 'European' Identity Shifting Identities among the Pomak Minority in Greece". In Living There, Dreaming Here: Emigration Attitudes in the Beginning of 21st Century, Edited by: Karamihova, M. 248–267. Sofia: IMIR. [Google Scholar]). [20] The issue of land property in an area of mixed population, very close to a "dangerous" national border, is more important than it seems; see Gruev (2003 Gruev, M. 2003. Between the Red Star and the Crescent. The Moslem Bulgarians and the Political Regime, 1944–1959 [in Bulgarian], Sofia: IK "Kota". [Google Scholar]: 83–91). In recent years, it has been instrumentalized by nationalists of each side in a logic that D. Kaneff (1998 Kaneff, D. 1998. "When 'land' becomes 'territory'. Land privatization and ethnicity in Rural Bulgaria". In Surviving Post‐Socialism: Local Strategies and Regional Responses in Europe and the Former Soviet Union, Edited by: Bridger, S. and Pine, Fr. 21–39. London: Routledge. [Google Scholar]) described by a happy formula, "When 'land' becomes 'territory'". [21] Mechit: a small religious school in which men can pray except on Fridays. In contrast to what has been recorded elsewhere, the Pomak villages in the neighbourhood of the Cross Mountain had no mosques; most of the Pomak informants interviewed had no memory of the existence of village mosques. The lack of visible signs of Islam in these Pomak villages is an issue that requires a special study. [22] Field data suggest that Yenihan baba is a legendary saint, imagined as a model for pious and ascetic Muslim and revered as a saintly protector of the area from disasters of all kinds. For the legends and beliefs about this saint, see Grigorov (1998 Grigorov, V. 1998. "Tekkes Revered by Bulgarian Muslims in Central Rhodopes [in Bulgarian]". In Muslim Culture in Bulgarian Lands: Studies [The Fate of Muslim Communities in the Balkans, Vol. 2], Edited by: Gradeva, R. and Ivanova, Sv. 553–567. Sofia: IMIR. [Google Scholar]: 554–558). It seems that its relationship to the legendary history of the Ottoman penetration in the Rhodopes, as well as the nickname of "Rhodopes' Mecca", have been invented as responses to the nationalist struggles which have locally accompanied the transformation of Bulgarian‐speaking Christians into Bulgarians with a strongly affirmed national consciousness. [23] See Grigorov (1998 Grigorov, V. 1998. "Tekkes Revered by Bulgarian Muslims in Central Rhodopes [in Bulgarian]". In Muslim Culture in Bulgarian Lands: Studies [The Fate of Muslim Communities in the Balkans, Vol. 2], Edited by: Gradeva, R. and Ivanova, Sv. 553–567. Sofia: IMIR. [Google Scholar]). In recent years, the restoration of Yenihan baba tekke patronized by the Turkish‐oriented party MRF (see note 41) has become a highly politicized issue, used by various nationalist groups. [24] Another legendary Muslim saint, Sari baba, is one of the most popular figures of Muslim holy man in the Ottoman Balkans: tekkes dedicated to him can be found in a large area from Albania and western Macedonia to Bulgaria and south‐east Romania: see Clayer and Popovic (1995 Clayer, N. and Popovic, Al. 1995. "Les Balkans". In Le culte des saints dans le monde musulman, Edited by: Chambert‐Loir, sous la dir. De H. 335–352. Paris: Cl, Ecole française d'Extrême Orient, Guillot. [Google Scholar]). For the tekke in question, see Grigorov (1998 Grigorov, V. 1998. "Tekkes Revered by Bulgarian Muslims in Central Rhodopes [in Bulgarian]". In Muslim Culture in Bulgarian Lands: Studies [The Fate of Muslim Communities in the Balkans, Vol. 2], Edited by: Gradeva, R. and Ivanova, Sv. 553–567. Sofia: IMIR. [Google Scholar]) and Ivanova (2001 Ivanova, E. 2001. "The tekke of Sarî‐baba above Momtcilovtsi, Smoljan area" [in Bulgarian]. Bulgarska etnologija, XXVII(3): 66–77. [Google Scholar]). [25] Ethnographers who have done fieldwork before the mid‐nineties were regularly told by local people that "Krastov, Yenihan and Sari baba were brothers": see Ivanova (1995 Ivanova, E. 1995. "The utalitarian sacrality: finding out the roots of tolerance" [in Bulgarian]. Bâlgarski folklor [Bulgarian folklore], 1–2: 102–116. [Google Scholar]); for other figures of kinship relating only Muslim saints venerated in various tekkes, see Grigorov (1998 Grigorov, V. 1998. "Tekkes Revered by Bulgarian Muslims in Central Rhodopes [in Bulgarian]". In Muslim Culture in Bulgarian Lands: Studies [The Fate of Muslim Communities in the Balkans, Vol. 2], Edited by: Gradeva, R. and Ivanova, Sv. 553–567. Sofia: IMIR. [Google Scholar]: 554). [26] Here the concept of communitas is used with caution; we share the reserves put forth by more recent anthropology of pilgrimage: Eade and Sallnow (1991 Eade, J. and Sallnow, M., eds. 1991. Contesting the Sacred : The Anthropology of Christian Pilgrimage, London: Routledge. [Google Scholar]) and Morinis (1992 Morinis, A. 1992. "Introduction: The Territory of the Anthropology of Pilgrimage". In Sacred Journey: The Anthropology of Pilgrimage, Edited by: Morinis, A. 1–28. London: Greenwood Press. [Google Scholar]). It should be noted, howeve,r that our case followed Turner's suggestion almost literally. The road in question was used during the years of communism, when access to the hill was banned, and the walk (especially by pious women from Stanimaka/Asenovgrad; see Baeva and Valtchinova elsewehere in this volume) created a feeling of shared danger and "happiness", a kind of communitas‐like experience. Even in recent years [1998/99; Galia Valtchinova], with a good road to the pilgrimage site, people from this town considered that a "true pilgrim" had to walk through Mostovo. [27] See infra; the choice of 14 September (Invention of the Holy Cross) as the day of the annual pilgrimage goes in the same direction. [28] The story was told first by a late nineteenth‐century Bulgarian poetess, an activist of the Bulgarian Revival and of the regional movement of reinforcing Orthodoxy in the Rhodopes. The events dated back to the late 1830s–1850s, when the struggle for the Bulgarian Church took a decisive turn in this area. The "civilizing" activities of monk Gregory the poetess has reported of (from hearsay) included teaching to the local population of hygienic rules, new techniques for agriculture, food storage and conservation, alongside basic religious educations and developing skills of writing and reading. [29] The theme of "ruins of Christian shrines" destroyed during the Ottoman invasion was largely exploited by both the scholarship concerned with the reconstruction of the past, and by local and regionalist mythologies. For the Ottoman policy toward church building, see Gradeva (1994 Gradeva, R. 1994. "Ottoman policy towards Christian church buildings". Etudes Balkaniques, 4: 14–36. [Google Scholar]); see Lory, elsewhere in this issue. The KG Project paid special attention to such claims (coming especially from the religious entrepreneurs), and to information about "ruined churches". According to aged Pomak informants, there were no traces of a church, or any building whatsoever, on the cultivated land: local people had no memories about ruins detected while tilling the soil. Similarly to oral data, no building is shown on the most detailed maps of this time, the military ones. [30] Such claims could not be credited because of the lack of ruins; shortly after the renewal of the pilgrimage, archaeological excavations were undertaken to find the traces of the Christian sanctuary. The only evidence about "the old monastery" come from these excavations, the materials of which (mainly ceramics, according to local archaeologist N. Damjanov [personal communication], which is rather poor support for the existence of a church) have never been published. [31] Details about Father Vasilij's activities are available from the booklets for pilgrims, including a collection of narratives of healing miracles he compiled himself. The project comprised the construction of a new church with several hotel rooms in its basement (completed 1995), of twelve chapels on both sides of the road to the Cross (finished by 1999), as well as the task of "restoring the old monastery Holy Trinity" (still under way in 2001). The priest's entrepreneurial efforts were crowned by the construction of a wide asphalted road leading up to the hilltop. [32] It might be argued also that Our Lady was much closer to common people, better integrated both in "high" and in "popular" religion. The opposite of what one observes in Catholic cultures, where powerful cults have developed around the suffering of Jesus Christ and the symbols of the Passion, in Eastern Orthodoxy Jesus and the Cross have attracted modest devotion, compared to the cult of the Holy Mother of God (Sveta Bogoroditsa). [33] A night mass on Friday is peculiar to some Byzantine Orthodox feasts, namely Pokrov, which, becoming very popular in Russia, reached back the Balkan Slavic Orthodox areas under its Russian name. It originated in the Vision of a holy fool, St. Andrew, in the church of Blachernae (see Rydén [1976 Rydén, L. 1976. "The vision of the Virgin of Blachernae and the feast of Pokrov". Analecta Bollandiana, 94: 67–76. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]: 69–71]), a fact that neither the priest nor the most fervent and most educated believers have ever shown awareness about. [34] The interaction between oral techniques and the written in the construction of the core legend of Krastova Gora pilgrimage is explored in Valtchinova (1999 Valtchinova, G. 1999. "Le pèlerinage du Mont de la Croix et l'apprentissage religieux en Bulgarie post‐communiste". Cahiers de littérature orale, 45: 87–110. [Google Scholar]). Here we touch on the more general issue of the prevalence of oral transmission—and not of books—in the "return of religion" in post‐communist Bulgaria, especially in what concerns Eastern Orthodoxy. [35] This story, as well as the following ones, is reproduced in different versions in the booklets written for pilgrims, which were first published in 1994. It should be noted that materials of ethnographers and interviews with historians have served to compile the two most popular such booklets quoted above, especially Krastova Gora 1994 (1994 1994. "Alleluia on the Hill". In Krastova Gora 1994, Assenovgrad: Region Press. [Google Scholar]). [36] See Valtchinova (2000 Valtchinova, G. 2000. "Entre mythe et histoire: Symbolisme de la Ville et de la Croix dans le pèlerinage de Krastov, en Bulgarie". Revue des études slaves, LXXII(1–2): 119–128. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]: 124–126) for an analysis of cunning as a "strategy of the weak" and of the role of women in this "holy enterprise". [37] This quote was recorded during the shooting of a short documentary film by M. Karamihova, in August 1994. It is repeated in a slightly different way in Arininski 2000 Arininski, V. Father. 2000. "Chudesata na Krastova Gora, ["The Miracles That Happened at the Cross Mountain"]". Prizma: Plovdiv. [Google Scholar]: 14, 17. [38] For a detailed description see Karamihova 2007 Karamihova, M. 2007. "Kurban Sacrificial Offering for Good Health in a 'Strange' Place". In Kurban in the Balkans, Edited by: Sikimic, B. and Hristov, P. 231–244. Belgrade: Insitut d'Etudes Balkaniques. [Google Scholar]:238–39; we are grateful to Dionigi Albera for having attracted our attention to the importance of space, movement, and gender roles in this episode. [39] For Vanga, see Valtchinova (2004 Valtchinova, G. 2004. "Constructing the Bulgarian Pythia: Intersecting Religion, Memory, and History in the Seer Vanga". In Memory, Politics and Religion. The Past Meets the Present in Europe, Edited by: Kaneff, D., Pine, F. and Haukanes, H. 179–198. Münster: LIT Verlag. [MPI for Social Anthropology, Halle Studies in the Anthropology of Eurasia, 4] [Google Scholar]); for a similar reference to Vanga for legitimizing other visionaries' revelations or Apocalyptic predictions, see Baeva and Valtchinova elsewhere in this issue. [40] By this time, the Bulgarian army was still based on the principle of conscripts and the two‐year military service was an obligation for every male Bulgarian citizen aged eighteen and over. During socialism, various strategies had been developed to circumvent this obligation, making for the perversion of the system and the multiplication of hidden forms of violence and harassment. The sensibility of Pomaks to this issue might also be due to disclosures that people from minority groups suffered much more frequently than majority Bulgarians from the hidden forms of discrimination in the army. On the army issue in the early 1990s, see Ragaru (2001b Ragaru, N. 2001b. "Bulgarie". In L'armée et la nation. Place, rôle et image de l'institution militaire dans les sociétés de l'Europe médiane, Edited by: Michel, P. (dir.). 169–203. Paris: L'Harmattan. [Google Scholar]). [41] Here we mean the special place of Yugoslavia in the world view of communist Bulgaria: for the average Bulgarian born and grown up under communism, Tito's Yugoslavia was seen as being contrary to "communism". Until the late 1980s, "Yugoslavia" was a synonym for freedom, openness, and ethnic diversity that has never been achieved home. [42] The political orientations of the MRF around this period are discussed by Kaneff (1998 Kaneff, D. 1998. "When 'land' becomes 'territory'. Land privatization and ethnicity in Rural Bulgaria". In Surviving Post‐Socialism: Local Strategies and Regional Responses in Europe and the Former Soviet Union, Edited by: Bridger, S. and Pine, Fr. 21–39. London: Routledge. [Google Scholar]); Ishijama and Breuning (1998 Ishijama, J. and Breuning, M., eds. 1998. Ethnopolitics in the New Europe, Boulder, CO, London: Lynne Rienner Publishers. [Google Scholar]: 21–50) and Ragaru (2001a Ragaru, N. 2001a. "Islam in post‐communist Bulgaria: an aborted 'clash of civilizations'?". Nationalities papers, 29(2): 293–324. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]). [43] The separation of the pilgrimage sites in plural societies, where each linguistic or ethnic group—all the more, each religious group—has its favoured pilgrimage places, is suggested by Turner and Turner (1978 Turner, V. and Turner, E. 1978. Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture: Anthropological Perspectives, New York: Basil Blackwell, Oxford; Columbia University Press. [Google Scholar]: 6).