Stoyu N. Shishkov
Hieromonk Grigorios
(a.k.a. priest Ligorko) Born around 1800, died around 1880
Hieromonk Grigorios
(a.k.a. priest Ligorko) Born around 1800, died around 1880
Hieromonk Grigorios was of medium height, with blond and sharp beard, dry face and fiery eyes. He was a widely educated theologian and possessed rare Christian virtues. He had a glib tongue and a powerful preaching tone. He lived modestly; he never ate meat food; he never lusted for money; he dressed poorly; he attended on himself; he was easy-accessible to everyone and anyone, and he preached anywhere. He boldly lashed wicked people; he hated the Turks; he hated and kept apart from everything secular; in a word, he led a purely Christian-and-ascetic life, which – coupled with his powerful preaching – revived the population’s spirit, uprooted many prejudices and largely raised the religiousness and morality in that region, which even today stands out in this respect as compared to many other suburbs.In that dark and terrible historical era when the native Bulgarian population was compelled by the force of swords to leave their father’s Christian faith and replace it with the Muslim [one], only few were those who managed to avoid murder and Turkicisation and preserve their faith...
What was life like for that true to Christianity minority left in the mountains in the first years after going after the Turkish faith, how come it has survived to this day – we can only learn this from the preserved private [or family] legends. From these legends and some physical evidence preserved here and there we can see that the remains of Bulgarian Christians – until recently – lived a really difficult, full of deprivations and suffering, life in the mountains, accompanied by constant care for self-defense. In order to avoid death, they have struggled in every way to hide their being Christians, they hid in inaccessible forested areas, etc. (1) No churches, no priests, no signs of Christian life were admissible not so much because of the Mohammedanized neighbors and relatives but because of the numerous raids of janissaries, Tartars, kardjali-s [brigands], delibashi-s etc. which walked all parts of the Rhodope Mountains, and whose only purpose in life was plunder. So even the outer [for the mountains] world for a long time could not know for sure that there is in the broad mountain recesses here and there Christian population to have survived.(2).
No doubt that under such conditions the religious sentiment must have been dropped by far in the other non-Turkicised forest dwellers. At one time, approximately in the first half of XVIII century, monks from the Mount Athos monasteries began visiting the Rhodopes dressed often in Arnaut or Turkish costumes. This comes to show – as will be seen below – that Athos has at first undertaken a missionary mission to revitalize and preserve Christianity among the residual non-Turkicised Rhodope population.
From among these monks from Mount Athos, many of whom reached a martyr’s wreath, the deepest memories in the local population is preserved and the most deserving for both the religious-and-moral awakening and also for the national-and-public awakening in the middle Rhodope Mountains [region] was Hieromonk Grigorios called and remembered even today also as [a.k.a.] (by the name of) ‘pop Ligorko’ or pop [priest] Gligorko.
When circumstances changed somewhat, some of the Mount Athos monasteries succeeded to open in certain villages their own convents [cells, nunneries], which were occasionally visited by monks – (i) to invite pilgrims to Mt. Athos, (ii) to preach and collect votive offerings to the monasteries. In the Ahu-chelebi kaaza [district – Turkish etim.] a chief Athos convent was in the village of Ustovo, which years on end never remained empty, without a monk. That convent was of the “John the Forerunner” Dionysian Monastery. Around the year 1837-38 Hieromonk Grigorios, who was then some 40 years old, came to the said convent. A pure Greek by nationality, born in the village Skutou, somewhere near Mount Athos, monk Grigorios did not know a word in Bulgarian, because of which the residents of Ustovo did not want him. So then monk Grigorios went to the village of Gorno [upper] Dere-kyoy, which had no priest. In the meantime he learned the local Bulgarian speech [dialect] and – along with his priestly duties – he got to also teach the village children at school. Of exemplary living, being an excellent preacher in the church and a good teacher at school, Hieromonk Grigorios soon earned a good reputation in the kaaza [village district]. The following year, the Ustovo residents already invited him to their village, where he stayed until 1849. During that period he already learned the tongue well, wandered about all the villages for confessions and became so popular that people thought him [to be] a saint. In 1849 the “St. J. Forerunner” monastery ordered him to leave Ahu-chelebi and go to Wallachia. However, after three years, in 1832, Hieromonk Grigorios returned back to Ustovo and stayed [there] until 1872, when in his declining years he departed to Mt. Athos, where the days of his life ended.
But the greatest merit of this monk – a true shepherd, was his sermon in the local speech and his siding with the Bulgarians during the Greco-Bulgarian church strife. At his suggestion and guidance priests Cyriac Belkovsky from Ustovo, Dimitar Tolkovski from Raikovo and Konstantin Manolov from Petkovo drafted sermons, reverted other [sermons] into the local Aha-chelebi speech, and they also continued the fight against the Greek clergy at that time and were awakening and fixing [firm] the people’s consciousness in that region (3).
When the Greek Patriarchate proclaimed our nation [to be] schismatic, Hieromonk Grigorios urged the population and was saying: “Take heart, son, this schism is not a major [thing]. Bulgarians have done no dogmatic violations; the Patriarchate’s purpose is to frighten you and go back into its bosom, for it needs your financial assistance.” In a sermon of his in Raikovo Hieromonk Grigorios literally said these words, too: “The devils came out of the Turkish pashas and entered the Greek bishops and friars.”
In 1870 the Greek bishop of Xsanti, having heard that monk Grigorios had a great influence in Aha-chelebi and that he upheld the Bulgarian cause vividly, called him to rebuke him and advised him to abandon that path. However, the monk Grigorios boldly told him that he cannot preach things [that are] contrary to the Holy Scripture. Some ascertain that the rebukes by the Bishop and by the monastery management – when the latter learned of monk Grigorios’ diversion from the patriarchal path, it exercised its influence – and he, spiritually deadened, quit Aha-chelebi once and for good. Others argue the opposite, that Hieromonk Grigorios allegedly sided in his last days with the Patriarchate and – having seen that he can do nothing amidst the newly awakened and already ill disposed population of Aha-chelebi, despaired and left the country. Which of these are we to believe one cannot say with certainty, but one thing is known [for sure] – namely, that in his last two years after the schism the old man was spiritually deadened.
Hieromonk Grigorios had also visited [somewhat – the village of] Darudere and some of the Rupchos [area] villages, like Chepelare and Shiroka Lukka. His merits to this Bulgarian region during those times are great and invaluable (4).
Source: Stoyu Shishkov. Selected Works.
“Hristo G. Danov”, Plovdiv, 1965. Str.57-60
(magazine “Rhodope progress”, ch. I (1903) vol. II)
“Hristo G. Danov”, Plovdiv, 1965. Str.57-60
(magazine “Rhodope progress”, ch. I (1903) vol. II)
Notes by the author: 1) Until recently the Bulgarian Christian women in Darudere used to wear yashmaks and to hide their face from men, the same as mohammedan women. Even today – so as to avoid possible dangers when passing through certain Turkish suburbs, Bulgarian craftsmen and [cart-] drivers dress up in Turkish clothing, speak Turkish and pretend to be Turks.
2) See the book “Portrait of the Greek clergy and its treacherous deeds against Bulgarians in the Rhodope Mountains” by S. M. Rodopski, 1887, Central Printing House ‘Ed Dion’ in Plovdiv.
3) See “Material towards studying the Rhodope dialect” by late. Chr. Popkonstantinov in books I and II, from the Anthology on folklore [sayings / sentences], etc. of the Ministry of National Education.
4) Much of the above information I was given about that Athonite Monk by the His All-Reverence manciple Basil Avramov, now Arch. Vicar in Stanimaka. In his early age he was student of Hieromonk Grigorios.
2) See the book “Portrait of the Greek clergy and its treacherous deeds against Bulgarians in the Rhodope Mountains” by S. M. Rodopski, 1887, Central Printing House ‘Ed Dion’ in Plovdiv.
3) See “Material towards studying the Rhodope dialect” by late. Chr. Popkonstantinov in books I and II, from the Anthology on folklore [sayings / sentences], etc. of the Ministry of National Education.
4) Much of the above information I was given about that Athonite Monk by the His All-Reverence manciple Basil Avramov, now Arch. Vicar in Stanimaka. In his early age he was student of Hieromonk Grigorios.
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