Sofia, February 3, 2026
Photo: bg-patriarshia.bg
On February 1, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church marked the Day of Gratitude and Respect for the Victims of the Communist Regime with a Hierarchical Divine Liturgy and memorial service at the Metropolitan Cathedral of St. Nedelya in Sofia.
The commemoration fell on the 81st anniversary of the execution of regents, ministers, priests, parliamentarians, and intellectuals sentenced in 1945 by the so-called People’s Court, reports the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.
The People’s Court, established by the Fatherland Front government on October 6, 1944, sentenced 21,024 people in 131 trials. Of these, 2,618 were sentenced to death, including regents, most ministers, and parliamentarians from the period after 1941. Around 200 were killed even before judicial proceedings. The families of the condemned—4,325 households comprising nearly 12,000 people—were forcibly relocated. Among those who suffered were more than 250 Orthodox priests, many killed without trial.
On the night of February 1-2, 1945, death sentences were carried out against Regent Prince Kiril of Preslav, Prime Minister Bogdan Filov, General Nikola Mikhov, and 17 ministers.
The services were led by His Grace Bishop Ioan of Branitsa, first vicar of the Metropolitan of Sofia, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Daniil.
Following the Liturgy, Bp. Ioan called on the faithful to remember “our innocent fellow citizens who suffered and were killed by the godless communists.” He noted that clergy who perished included Archimandrite Irenaeus, protosyngellos of Metropolitan Stefan, who disappeared without a trace, as well as priests from Bankya and Boyana “who conscientiously served God’s people and the holy Church.”
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