Saints Constantine and Helena Monastery

History of the Monastery

   Numerous churches and chapels have been erected on the Black Sea coast; some of them still exist, others have been destroyed in the course of the centuries. They were built by church benefactors as a tribute to particular saints. One of these medieval cloisters is Saints Constantine and Helena Monastery, 11 kilometres north of Varna. The bay where Varna is situated is flanked by two capes: on the south one, called Galata, the neighbourhood of the same name is located, while the north-east cape used to be the place of St Demetrius Monastery.

    Euxinograd Palace is a little further to the north, bordered in the past by the vast estate of Saints Constantine and Helena Monastery. The first one, St Demetrius, does not exist today – the park of Euxinograd Palace is on its place. As for the second one, there is only a little left – a small church and a building with several cells; and this is surrounded by the towering modern hotels of Saints Constantine and Helena Resort.

    There is no precise dating of the monastery’s founding. According to one of the accounts it happened at the beginning of 18^th century. This conclusion is testified to by the inscription on the oldest preserved church icon from the old iconostasis. The words between the two figures – in letters that are quite damaged – are still visible and read:

... because of the strong fear of the Christians ... in Tsarigrad (Constantinople) the year 1713 ...

As some old townspeople remember, a church icon depicting the two saints was kept in the church until the mid-20^th century. It had most probably been elaborated in Constantinople and subsequently transported an installed into the iconostasis of the small monastery church.

However, one should regard this only as an assumption, because the oldest information about the erection of an Orthodox chapel and later – a church – in the vicinity, around which a cloister sprang up, point to the time of the Bulgarian king Ivan Alexander (1331 – 1371). Looking back into the past, we learn that at the time Venice and Genoa took steps to Bulgaria for granting access to the Bulgarian ports on the Black Sea. Venice was the first to conclude a treaty with Bulgaria, so the Venetians entered the Bulgarian markets from Varna as their commercial centre. Considerable number of them settled in the town and formed a separate neighbourhood near the harbour.

Shortly after the Venetians, the Republic of Genoa also reached an agreement with Bulgaria. Having already established ties with Venice, Bulgarian authorities were less favourable to Genoa, which nevertheless also gained access. Genovese were therefore forced, of necessity, to construct a port and a neighbourhood of their own outside the town walls. They named it Kastritsi. This was the area of today’s Euxinograd palace and the St Constantine Resort. The harbour was in the northern part of Varna bay, naturally protected from the northerly winds.

The entire place is overgrown with a dense centuries-old forest. There are a lot of mineral water and holy springs (agiazmo), whose water is famous for its exceptional curing power. The new neighbourhod brought life to the place. There were numerous fishermen, sailors, merchants, and many people treating their diseases in the mineral springs.

    At that time (13^th – 14^th centuries), Christianity in Bulgaria was in its heyday. Bulgarian aristocracy generously donated the construction of separate churches as well as entire monastery ensembles. As early as 14^th century, the people of Varna erected a small church near a holy spring in the vicinity of the new neighbourhood.

    Shortly after that, monastic cells were built round the church and the place gradually turned into a holy cloister, or monastery. Besides the monks, a great number of hermits also settled in the area. The place became a spiritual centre. Since then the vast area north of Varna bay has been called “Manastirski rid” (Monastery Heights).

    The Genovese left the Bulgarian lands in 15^th century. Bulgaria fell under the attacks of the Ottomans. The monastery lived through hard times within the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire. In 17^th – 18^th centuries the monastic life there gradually died away. The monastery was destroyed and set on fire many times. People were chased away or killed. The very word “monastery” was dangerous to pronounce and therefore – forgotten.

    Nonetheless, the forest here remained holy for the local people. Later on, new people came or those banished returned. They have come here to work, live, help, to seek cure or make a pilgrimage. Thus Saints Constantine and Helena cloister continues to exist!

    A small church in honour of St Demetrius was built on the place of the old Genovese settlement, upon the foundations of the temple, destroyed by the Turks at the beginning of 19^th century. A legend associates the establishment of St Demetrius Monastery with the salvaged ships of Captain Dimitar in the bay south of cape Sovanlak. As a mark of gratitude for the miracle, a chapel dedicated to the saint was built. The story probably dates back to the second half of 18th century according to the elaboration time of the monastery icons, the oldest of which is from 1717.

    During the Russo-Turkish war of 1828 – 1829, a part of the Russian troops was stationed in the area of Saints Constantine and Helena Monastery. The forces were accompanied by the Russian military historian Viktor Teplyakov, who wrote in his book “Letters from Bulgaria”, published in Moscow in 1833: Saints Constantine and Helena Monastery is a poor cloister ... The monastery church is as poor, gloomy, and small as are all Bulgarian churches The Russians reconstructed the small Church St Demetrius in 1828, building a field hospital around it. After the troops had been gone, the hospital premises were turned into cells, which, together with the church, made the place a monastery centre.

Saints Constantine and Helena Monastery was brought back to life after the war. Two venerable hieromonks – the brothers Teodosi and Agapi Kantardzhievi – came here from Veliko Tarnovo in 1832. They transformed the monastery into a real holy cloister. Years of spiritual and material flourishing began. Father Teodosi organized and managed to establish St Demetrius Monastery, using the small church of the same name and the field hospital that had been built around it. Meanwhile his brother, father Agapi, reconstructed Sts Constantine and Helena Monastery, which had been almost entirely destroyed.

Both monks were well-off people, so they started the construction work with their own financing. Cells, fences, and drinking-water fountains were built, vineyards and orchards were planted. Later on the brothers initiated a campaign to raise funds from patriots in the entire country. It is a curious fact, not known by many that the local population sought refuge in this holy place from the cholera epidemic, which burst out in the vicinity of Varna at the time of the Crimean War (1853 – 1856).

What did the two brothers, the venerable Agapi and Teodosi, find near Varna back in 1832? According to a title deed from 1822 the property of Saints Constantine and Helena Monastery amounted to 32 decares. And that St Demetrrius – to 10 decares, i.e. comprising the yard round the church with the wooden military barracks. Only 34 years later, in 1866, St Demetrius Monastery disposed of 460 decares of fields, gardens, vineyards, a water-mill, and other properties.

Saints Constantine and Helena Monastery, under the management of the Abbot, hieromonk Agapi, was even wealthier. It owned more than 1000 decares of fields, 100 decares of vineyards, gardens, and other properties on the land of Kestrich village (today Vinitsa, a residential district of Varna), whence the cloister received a considerable annual income. According to a measurement from 1909, made specially for the property of Sts Constantine and Helena Monastery, it possessed 1600 decares of fields, gardens, vineyards, housing and yard estates, parks, forests, and unused plots.

Until the beginning of the brutal Greek spiritual domination during the 60s of the 19^th century, the monastery was in common possession of the Christian population in Varna district, regardless of nationality, since all communities had a share in the cost of its maintenance. Both Bulgarians and Greeks were elected in the boards that were responsible for the acquisition and use of properties.

The Abbot of Saints Constantine and Helena Monastery, hieromonk Agapi, died in the winter of 1866 and the Abbot of St Demetrius, hieromonk Teodosi, died in the summer of the next year. For a short period of time after their demise, priest Konstantin Danovski took over their posts, serving in both monasteries. However, it was not long before the Bulgarophobes in town managed to banish him. Until then, the liturgy in the monasteries was held in Church-Slavonic or Greek, depending on the needs and presence of the respective worshippers. But after 1867, only Greek priests performed the rites solely in Greek; what is more, there were no services whatsoever in St Demetrius – it was used for town parties and as an inn, i.e. a hotel, which was taken on lease every year.

Father Konstantin Danovski was born in the village of Ustovo, Aha Chelebi (today’s town of Smolyan) district on 20^th August, 1830. He received his education in his native village. After two years of work as a teacher there and in the neighbouring village of Raykovo, only at the age of 17, he came to Varna, where he was instantly hired as a teacher in the nearby village of Nikolaevka. In 1856 – 1857 father Konstantin Danovski married the village mayor’s daughter and was ordained as priest. He worked for the Greek Bishop of Varna for several years, and in 1865 became the first officially recognized Bulgarian priest in the town and Chairman of the Church and School Community. He died in poverty, alone and forsaken, on 18^th November, 1918.

About the mid 60's of the 19^th century the struggle of the Bulgarians for church independence from the Constantinople Patriarchate was in its climax. It was then that the actual partitioning of the ecclesiastical property (churches, monasteries, and their adjoining lands) began. But the Patriarchate, ruled by Greeks, inflicted an extremely heavy blow on the Bulgarians. By a circular letter from 1^st November 1865, its bishops were obliged to provide the due title documents for all real estate, belonging to the monasteries, churches, schools, community library centres, and bishoprics.

The Bulgarians in Varna, being too few (less than one tenth of the entire population), did not manage to cope with the Greek Bishopric’s taking hold of the churches and monasteries. Thus all the Christian property, including the monastery with its estates, remained in possession of the Greek Bishopric for many years, even after the Liberation of Bulgaria. The question of its illegal control by the Greeks was raised by the Bulgarian community in Varna, but to no avail.

The Greek Bishopric in Varna owned the monastery vineyards, fields, and other properties from 1867 to 1880, granting them on lease on an annual basis. According to Pavel Kalyandzhiev, publisher and lawyer from Varna, the income per year from the property of St Demetrius Monastery was 150 Turkish Liras and that of Sts Constantine and Helena – 250 Turkish Liras. This money was spent solely for the Greek cultural institutions and schools in Varna, and for the hospital, where only Greeks and Grecophiles were welcomed.

In 1870 – the culmination of Greek spiritual conquest – 2 Greeks, 1 Bulgarian, and 1 representative of the Turkish authorities were elected in the monastery board and empowered to dispose of the income from the farms and lease. The monastery, however, served as a sui generis bank, granting loans to villages and communities for the construction of churches and schools. The two Greeks did not hesitate to do so in favour of the Greek cultural institutions. Normally, the representative of the authorities gave his consent, so there was nothing the only Bulgarian could do about it. The monastery boards were gradually replaced by the Council of the Greek Orthodox Community in Varna, which remained in control even after the Liberation.

Having already tasted the spirit of liberty, the local people saw that the monasteries could play yet another role. Apart from being used as religious centres, the citizens of Varna started to perceive them as ideal places for relaxation, walks, and amusement. Their proximity to the town, the beautiful natural environment, the healing waters, and the nice wine made people visit them day after day. Thus, instead of pleasing to God, both monasteries turned into pleasure haunts. In his memoirs, priest Hristo Varbanov called them “hostels”.

From 4^th to 22^th August, 1880, The Prince of Bulgaria Alexander I was in Varna. It was then that the idea of making Varna the summer capital of Bulgaria was brought to the fore. Alexander Batenberg arrived in the town in order to turn the first sod and lay the foundation stone o the new cathedral. The Prince was accommodated in St Demetrius Monastery. During the whole visit, the municipal public life was concentrated under the banner of Greco-Bulgarian rivalry. There was a double representation in every all-town event and activity: Bulgarian – on behalf of the citizenry, and Grecophile – on behalf of the Greek Bishopric and community. Bulgarians made use of the Presence of the Head of State to impress on the Grecophiles that despite being a minority, they had the power on their side. On the other hand, the Grecophiles made an official complaint to Prince Alexander I for being repressed by the Bulgarians.

    One can make out two camps in the Bulgarian population of Varna. One was radical – the publishers and the circle round Varnenski Vestnik Newspaper, consisting of intellectuals and youth with Pavel Kalyandzhiev at the head. These activists had all settled in Varna after the Liberation. The intellectuals insisted on taking radical measures against the Grecophiles. They reacted painfully to the anti-Bulgarian demonstrations, urging the local judiciary and executive authorities to act resolutely.

    Here is one point of view from Varnenski Vestnik: The Greek Bishopric must be divested of the care and trusteeship (over St Constantine and St Demetrius Monasteries); these should be transferred, in accordance with the law, to the Municipal Council of Varna, since it is in its right to dispose of the town stores, unused plots, market places, the town’s common pasture, including the stones and everything on the ground and under it, with the gardens, vineyards, baths, and the property of the monasteries. Immediately, without losing any time, the Municipal Council must appoint one of its members to take an inventory of all the movable and immovable property, and subsequently take control over it; meanwhile asking the Bishop of Varna eparchy, the Right Reverend Simeon, to appoint two priests for doing so in Saints Constantine and Helena and St Demetrius.

    The second camp was more moderate. They were represented by Bishop Simeon and eminent original inhabitants of Varna. Among their names, one would distinguish those of the mayor Yanko Slavchev, the governor Petar Stanchev – i.e. influential and rich people, “old-timers” of wealth.

The Bishop of Varna and Preslav, Simeon (1840-1937), came from a purely Bulgarian family by his father’s origin and was in close relationship with the family of Stephen Karadja, a leader of the Bulgarian struggle against the Turks in the 19c. Archimandrite Simeon, a coadjutor to Bishop Antim at that time, accompanied him on his way to Constantinople where the latter was elected Bulgarian Exarch on February 12, 1872. On August 21, 1872 Archimandrite Simeon was consecrated the Bishop of Varna and Preslav. After the Liberation from the Ottoman domination (1878) Bishop Simeon was appealed to creative work together with all leading then Bulgarian intellectuals. Bishop Simeon carried out church constructing works on a large scale. On his arrival in the dioces in 1872 62 churches and 6 chapels existed. By the time of his death in 1937, 137 new churches and 35 chapels were erected, or 173 in total.

Bishop Simeon drew a general conclusion about the events in the summer of 1880 in a letter to Todor Ikonomov this way: The visit of the Prince will be remembered by one good and one bad thing… The good one is laying the foundation stone of the Bulgarian church to be erected in Varna, which is being built energetically even now. The bad one is the exasperation and awakening of the hatred between Bulgarians and Greeks. Greeks, as is their way anywhere else, want to be separate from Bulgarians in everything; they wish and make efforts to demonstrate they are Greek, not Bulgarian. The special delegations that were sent by them to the Prince to congratulate him on the successful arrival in Varna, the special serenades – these were all manifestations of their desire ... This Greek ambition makes our Bulgarian compatriots feel put out – they wanted to be ahead of the events. They aspire to make the Greeks submit to the influence of Bulgarian national spirit, to make them forget their Greek origins; but this is something only time will do. That is why our compatriots keep asking and examining old registers to learn who erected the churches in Varna, who built the monasteries, who donated the fields and so on; in the hope, on piling up enough information, to achieve through the courts what is good for the Bulgarians.

So, the foundations of a new Bulgarian church were laid in August 1880, and the idea was set forth to establish a summer residence of the Prince in Varna. This seemed to unite the radical youth and the moderate Bulgarians from the town. The results were not long in coming. In May 1881 the Municipal Council invited Prince Alexander I in Varna again. It decided to rent St Demetrius Monastery to accommodate the sovereign as it did the previous year.

The new mayor Mihail Koloni was particularly energetic. He not only organized the repairing of the streets, the sanitation of the town, and the urbanization of the monastery area, but also transported his own furniture from Bucharest to fit out the chamber of Prince Alexander I.

Mihail Kostov Koloni was born on 27^th November 1817 in Sliven and moved to Bucharest when he was 12. He received Greek schooling. Koloni was a tutor and mentor of the children of the Romanian prince Gika. After the Prince’s fall from power in 1842, he continued his education in Paris, returning to Bucharest in 1848. Mihail Koloni sponsored the construction of the Bulgarian church in Bucharest (1853) and the formation of the Second Bulgarian Legion (1867 – 1868). He was a member of the Bulgarian Secret Central Committee and worked with selfless devotion for the liberation of Bulgaria. He raised a considerable fortune from trade and lease holding. After the liberation he sold out his property in Romania and settled in Varna for the rest of his life. Being a man of charisma, highly educated, and selfless, Mihail Koloni soon won the trust of Varna citizens. Regardless of his advanced years (64 at the time), Koloni amazed the townspeople with his incredible projects. He had the ambition to transform the town into a large-scale harbour centre, seaside resort, and summer capital. It was his proposal to build a park hotel and sea baths, as well as the construction of the town sewerage, a theatre building, and a covered market. In many cases, failing to secure public support, Mihail Koloni financed the socially useful initiatives himself. This led to the gradual spending of the enormous capital that he brought with himself to Varna, and he died in extreme poverty.

On 13^th June 1881 Prince Alexander Batenberg arrived in Varna. In those June days St Demetrius Monastery resembled a Head of State Summer Residence indeed. Important decisions were taken here, bills were drawn up, but it was the idea of a Summer residence that the circle around Alexander I discussed most of the time. The local Bulgarian press made a hint about that. On the 20^th June Svobodna Balgaria Newspaper wrote: There is talk that the new Municipal Council will take measures to divest the self-proclaimed Greek community, a handful of people, of the two monasteries – St Demetrius and Sts Constantine and Helena, which have been presumptuously and guilefully controlled by them for several years now. The Prince’s sojourn was a pretext for the Bulgarians to take an offensive against the Phanariot ways of Varna Gagaouz and Greek communities. This was a topic that Bishop Simeon, the Mayor Mihail Koloni, the Governor Petar Stanchev, and other public figures from Varna regularly discussed during their frequent contacts with the Prince’s entourage, both formally and informally.

    In June the office of the Prince started negotiations with the Greek community in Varna for purchasing St Demetrius Monastery. It was quite a shock for the local Greeks. They did not want to give away the monastery and threatened to write to the Patriarch in Constantinople. On the 7^th August Varna Municipal Council came up with a decision to grant an unused plot or purchase one for a palace.

    The Greek community litigated this decision in court. However, in November the Ministry of Interior appointed a special commission for the evaluation of the monastery. Immediately, the municipality of Varna started a buy-out of the surrounding vineyards in order to form the plot of the future residence. To make sure this will be looked upon as making a gift, the locality was named Sandrovo after the Prince’s nickname.

    In January 1882 the Council of Ministers decided that St Demetrius Monastery should be acquired for a summer residence. According to Alexander Golovin, Private Secretary of Alexander I, the Greek community voluntarily gave away the monastery to the Prince, while he granted 50.000 Leva to the Greeks (the evaluation of the monastery). It is obvious that the Greek Bishopric was forced to sell the monastery properties by the extraordinary circumstances. The French vice-consul in Varna reported that the Prince had purchased the monastery in May 1882. Since then it became residence of the Bulgarian monarch.

    Thus the history of a Varna monastery that existed for exactly 50 years (1832 – 1882) ended, and the history of Euxinograd Palace began. From May 1882 St Demetrius Monastery was an official residence of the Bulgarian monarch. During the summer months it became the setting for solving the problems of the state and the court intrigue. Spirituality was replaced by secularity. This is something we have been witnessing more and more often, until our day ...

    On the 15^th August 1882 the foundation stone of the new palace was laid officially. Its sanctification was carried out by the Right Reverend Bishops – Simeon of Varna and Preslav, Grigori of Dorostol and Cherven, and Natanail of Ohrid and Plovdiv

    In 1891 the District Council of Varna started examining the past of Saints Constantine and Helena Monastery. The Council provided all necessary evidence that the monastery had been founded by Bulgarians and maintained in the course of the centuries by the entire Christian population.

The District Council brought a law suit against the Greek religious community and their school trustees in Varna, seeking to receive from them the rights of control, management, and use of the entire monastery property. The lawsuit lingered on and only 8 years later, in October 1899, the property was transferred to the Bulgarians by the Greek Bishopric. Nevertheless, the Greek community in Varna continued to litigate and the ownership problem of the Saints Constantine and Helena Monastery remained unsolved. Only in 1919 the lawsuit was decided in favour of the Bulgarians by the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

From then on, the Standing Commission for District Economy was a title holder of the property and started to manage it. The first step, in 1901, was to plan the creation of a Practical School of Wine- producing. To this end, school buildings and a wine-cellar were constructed. In 1903 a district experimental center for wine-production was created. A 100 decare plot was chosen to serve as a field for experiments. The natural water sources in the area were caught, electrical supply was secured, and financing was granted for water-mains. The vineyards and the gardens in the area provided fresh fruit and vegetables for the holiday-makers.

Appreciating the healthy climate of the place, Queen Elena sponsored the construction of the first children sanatorium in 1905. Stables and other structures for stock-rearing were built and pedigree hens, pigs, and cows were provided. However, only a few years later the farming establishment was closed because of unfavourable conditions and government interference. In 1907 plans were made for the organization of a holiday recess within the area of the farm. They resulted in the construction of the first hotel the next year, which Varna townspeople know even today under the name “Prague”.

It is the summer of 1908 that is considered to be the start of the first modern sea resort in Bulgaria – St Constantine. Apart from that, all the rooms of the would-be school for wine-production were reconstructed to become comfortable lodgings for holiday-making families. In 1910 a new floor of the building near the fountain was erected, disposing of 12 rooms and an entrance from the yard. In 1911 a new building with 12 more rooms appeared not far from the old monastery. A new bakery to be used by the holiday-makers for baking hotchpotch, bread, pies, and barbecuing piglets and lambs was made in 1912 and 1913, along with a second big and luxurious refreshment bar. In fact it used to be a buffet, disposing of kitchen and all the necessary equipment premises behind it. Food and beverages were handed at the bar, but were consumed at garden tables and seats, arranged around the buffet. This was how the experimental farm gradually turned into a resort.

However, the religious life in the monastery did not come to a halt during all those years. Both monks and priests from Varna served there and took care of it. Older citizen still remember that there were fewer festivities in the resort at the time of fast. Only meatless lenten dishes were on offer at the buffet, and the monastery could hardly accommodate all laymen, who had come to confess and take Holy Communion.

Besides wine-producing, the monks had another occupation at the beginning of 20^th century. They helped people get rid of diseases by wine-treatment. The liquid, obtained from the fruit, is what brings joy and happiness to the heart of man, but the leftovers – seeds and marc – can heal the flesh. People with certain diseases were subjected to a grape diet. Combined with the clean environment, the healing water, the eager prayers, and the “cleansing” of the soul through repentance, it led to recovery and easing of their pains. The grape seed was used as well – for preparing cosmtic and medicinal products.

The Holy Spring is in the altar, behind the Throne. Varna townspeople and the visitors to the holy cloister can take some healing water even today. Quite a few of them achieved easing of their pains – not only because of their faith and prayer, but, of course, due to the intercession of the saints Constantine and Helena, equal to the apostles. Several cases have already been recorded (in our days at that!) of people, suffering from eye diseases, who have achieved relief and cure!

The man, who created the Seaside Park in Varna – the Czech Anton Novak – began constructing today’s park round the monastery in the resort in 1925. It was finished in 1931 by the agronomist S. Dzhartov, a teacher in the School of Agriculture in Varna. His students took their practicum here – building the paths and shaping the park round the monastery and Odesa Hotel (destroyed in 2003). After the Liberation the lands of the monastery – around 1600 decares – became property of Varna municipality. From 1937 to 1940, in pursuance of a decision of the municipal authorities, the land was parceled by broad straight walks. Sycamores, chestnut and lime-trees were planted alongside. The total length of the walkways is 6 km and the number of the planted trees – 1600.

Here is the account of Mrs Maria Dimitrova, daughter of priest Ivan Valkov, who took care of the monastery after 1936: It seemed as if one were in a fairy tale around the small monastery: forest, quietness, faithful Christians, stepping before the altar to pray at the time of the Holy Eucharist and take Holy Communion with holy donations. In the beautiful summer or autumn, we could overhear the sea waves and the babble of the stream with a wooden bridge across.

In these years many Bulgarians as well as foreigners – Czechs, Poles, Germans and fewer English – came here to enjoy the sun, the sea, and make use of the grape-healing. There was no “Balkantourist”, no large-scale construction... There were only two two-storey hotels, and the bakery of goodman Dobri. It was where people would order home-made breads, pies, hotchpotch, roast chicken, etc. The residents of the neighbouring villages Kestrich (today Vinitsa residential district), Osenovo, and Klimentovo delivered fresh milk for the holiday-makers; yoghurt in big aluminum vessels (“safati”), Viennese buns and boza (millet-ale) were sold in a small confectionery near the bakery.

    One of the hotels placed rooms at the disposal of the monastery guests. Priests who had come for the patron saints’ day were put up there. In summer, worshipers from the country were accommodated in those rooms – I still remember the families of Professor Venelin Ganev, Professor Sirakov, and many more. I also remember the family of Professor Cliah, a friend of my father’s, founder and editor of the first world magazine – “The Economist”.

    The children – my brother, Professor Sirakov’s children, Professor Ganev’s children, and me, would play together, apart from regularly participating in the services. We had thought out a very interesting religious play of chess after the gospels’ texts, upon boards, divided into squares for fitting in pictures from the Holy Scriptures.

    The Holy Liturgy was served in the small monastery church on Sundays and on more important holydays. The church was particularly crowded on Saturday evening. There was a bell in the yard, whose chime called to divine service.

    My most vivid memories are from the patron saints’ day of the monastery, though. Only those, who had come for the evening service the previous day, were able to reach the monastery church. The whole neighbourhood swarmed with people, who had come from Varna, from close and distant villages, from Dobrich, Balchik, etc.

    Our ever-memorable Bishop Simeon was often assisted in serving the liturgy by priest Hristo Georgiev, priest Pashev, priest Doganov, priest Stefan, priest Yordan, and others. Numerous marriage and christening ceremonies, not only on the patron day at that, were performed here.

    People knew the history of the monastery and the wonder-working icon of the saints Constantine and Helena, equal to the apostles. That is why they would come to pray and confess days before the event, and the church was overcrowded even at the all-night vigil before the patron day.

    Charity was not forgotten in those days as well. I remember the small metal money-boxes for raising funds to help the socially deprived, old people from the special homes, maternity homes, and hospitals, Well-off people donated part of their savings or other valuables, such as shares, or even livestock, to the monastery.

The actual extensive development of the resort started in 1957, with the construction of Roza Hotel and Chernomorets Restaurant. Dozens of new hotels and restaurants were built as a result of the large-scale development in the following years. The resort’s name was Druzhba (Friendship) until 1992, and the monastery ensemble was declared a museum, with divine services only during the tourist season.

In 1992 the resort was renamed Saints Constantine and Helena – a name, worthy of such a place. In 1999, after 50 years of oblivion, the status of a monastic cloister was restored and the re-establishment of the monastery began. In the same year archimandrite Serafim Genovski, born in Veliko Tarnovo, came to the monastery as an abbot. Despite the difficulties and the scarce funding, father Serafim managed to build several cells, a new canteen and a kitchen, erected a new dome of the church, and created a beautiful monastery yard. He did so with his hands and with the help of several people – selfless volunteers.