Seven Apostles of Bulgaria

The Seven Apostles (Bulgarian: Свети Седмочисленици, Sveti Sedmochislenitsi) are seven saints venerated in the Bulgarian Orthodox Church since the 10th century.[1]

Seven Apostles of Bulgaria
Equal-to-the-Apostles, Venerable
Honored inEastern Orthodox Church
Feast27 July
Mosaic of Seven Saints in Seven Saints Church, Sofia

They are also revered as the creators and distributors of the Glagolitic and Cyrillic scripts. These saints are Saint Cyril and Methodius who created the Glagolitic script, and their five students Saint Gorazd, Clement of Ohrid, Naum, Angelar and Sava.[2] Although Constantine of Preslav is considered a direct disciple of Methodius, the Church traditionally does not include him because he is not canonized. [3]

In the Russian Orthodox Church, Cyril and Methodius are remembered separately, and their disciples are recognized with the title of Equal-to-the-apostles. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church has set July 27 as the day of the repose of Clement of Ohrid and the feast day of the Seven Apostles.[4]

See also

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Footnotes

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  1. ^ David Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Fifth Edition Revised, OUP Oxford, 2011, ISBN 0191036730, p. 94.
  2. ^ Alban Butler, Lives of the Saints: Edited, Rev, Volume 3, Herbert Thurston as ed., Burns & Oates, 1956, p. 130.
  3. ^ "Свети Седмочисленици". Retrieved 31 October 2019.
  4. ^ Matthew Bunson et al., Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Saints, Our Sunday Visitor, 1998, ISBN 0879735880, p. 551.