Stuttgart, March 12, 2024
Photo: bg-patriarshia.bg
On Sunday, March 10, the Bulgarian Orthodox church in Stuttgart, Germany, was consecrated.
The church, named in honor of the great missionaries St. Boniface, the Apostle to Germany, and Sts. Cyril and Methodius, the Apostles to the Slavs, was consecrated by Their Eminences Metropolitan Anthony of Western and Central America and Nicholas of Plovdiv and Their Graces Bishops Arseny of Znepol and Vissarion of Smolyan, reports the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.
The hierarchs were joined by Bulgarian clerics from throughout the diocese as well as representatives from the Serbian, Greek, Russian, and Romanian parishes in Stuttgart.
Photo: moderne-regional.de
During the consecration service, relics of St. Boniface and the New Martyrs of Batak were placed inside the altar. Then the Divine Liturgy was celebrated on the newly consecrated altar table.
Met. Nicholas also gifted the Metropolis of Central and Western Europe with relics from the New Martyrs of Batak to be used for veneration and in the consecration of future churches.
The Church of St. Boniface was rented from the Catholic church for 6 years, until it was purchased with funds from the Bulgarian state in June of last year.
Photo: bg-patriarshia.bg
The church, built in 1934, is of exceptional historical value, as it was the only church built during Nazism, when churches were persecuted and destroyed.
There are about 10,000 Bulgarians in Stuttgart and about 40,000 in the entire state of Baden-Württemberg.
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