Today we celebrate the 185th anniversary of Levski's birth

Monday, 18 July 2022

Mayor Pencho Milkov, Regional Governor Anatoli Stanev and Chairman of the Municipal Council Ivo Pazardzhiev celebrated the birth of the Apostle of Freedom by laying flowers in front of the Vasil Levski monument in Ruse.

"Today we bow to the memory of his pure soul, self-sacrificing courage and heart filled with love for the Motherland," the mayor said.

The apostle grew up in a poor family. As a young man, he was ordained as a deacon in the Sopot Monastery. Subsequently, he created the Internal Revolutionary Organization, and in 1862 he joined Rakovski's First Bulgarian Legion in Belgrade. There, according to legend, he made a lion's leap during military exercises, hence his nickname. After the disbanding of the legion, he joined Ilio Voivode's troop.

On Easter Sunday in 1864 in Sopot, in the presence of his closest friends, he cut off his long monastic hair himself. From that moment he became the lay deacon of freedom Vasil Levski.

Crossing the entire country, he captivated the Bulgarians and created a revolutionary committee in almost every settlement. His ideal is that after its liberation, Bulgaria will become the so-called "pure and holy republic" with equality of peoples, nations and national minorities.

The apostle of Bulgarian freedom was betrayed and captured in the winter of 1872. He was tried in Sofia.

Today, thousands of Bulgarians offer flowers on Vasil Levski's birthday, with the center of the celebrations being in his hometown of Karlovo.

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