“Sveti Andrey Parvozvani” Church

The church-monument “Sveti Andrey Parvozvani” – Sofia was erected in 1926 in commemoration and celebration of Bulgarian volunteers who perished fighting for Bulgaria’s independence. It is not only Bulgaria’s only church named after Christ’s first-named Apostle, but it is also the only one devoted to the valiant Bulgarian warriors who fought in the Russo-Turkish Liberation War, the Serbo-Bulgarian War, and the Macedonian-Edirne Militia. That is why they are referenced during the temple’s services on a regular basis.

Following the First World War, in 1925, Sofia Metropolitan Stefan, the future exarch, gifted the highest point in the city – the Banishora area – for the construction of a temple-monument commemorating the 50th anniversary of the great battles of Shipka. The Greater Sofia Municipality provides a free block of land between Opalchenska, Strandzha, Struga, and Kavala streets for the building of a spectacular temple. It has been designated to a candle. Vasiliy Davidov of the Sofia church “St. Nikolai Sofiyski” to form an initiative committee for the church’s building. As a consequence of this committee’s work in 1926, a temporary chapel was erected at the end of the chosen piece of land with the intention of eventually erecting a major temple-monument.

On December 13, 1926, the Vicar of the Metropolitan of Sofia, Bishop Paisius of Znepol (later Metropolitan of Vratsa and Deputy of the Holy Synod), and the Protosingle Archimandrite Sophronius (later Metropolitan of Veliko Tarnovo), laid the antimins of the Holy See and celebrated the first Holy Liturgy in the Church of St. Andrew the First Called.

Unfortunately, the goal of creating a grand colossal monument akin to St. Alexander Nevsky did not come to fruition owing to the onset of World War II. In the words of the saintly Bulgarian Patriarch Kiril, “on an ominous day” in January 1944, during the bombardment of Sofia, an aircraft bomb dropped on the church and smashed it to the ground. Later on, a candle. Vasily Popdimitrov, the church’s then-chairman, built a new chapel on the same foundations in three years. In 1948, the restoration was finished. By God’s grace, the board of trustees was able to reconstruct the devastated Orthodox church during the most difficult years for our Church, after the change of power. This is a true miracle in its own right.

Following the restoration of the Bulgarian Patriarchate in 1953, newly elected Bulgarian Patriarch Kiril paid a visit to the church “St. Apostle Andrew the First Called” on a church festival. The church board’s remembrance record commemorating the patriarch’s visit has been kept. The Bulgarian Patriarch Kiril then proclaimed the church “St. Andrew the First Called” a “Temple-monument of the Bulgarian military” in his address. Patriarch Cyril was keen to restore this little church to its original design, and his wish was granted when time permitted. Construction of two new side wings and a large bell tower above the temple’s portico started a few years before his death, with his permission.
Meanwhile, a kindergarten and a regional post office were erected on the given property without legal expropriation, obviating the possibility to establish a new, massive temple with a temple complex.

On May 2, 1972, the church-monument “St. Apostle Andrew the First Called” was formally consecrated by Bishop Parthenius of Lefkada, the vicar bishop of the Sofia metropolitanate at the time. Then, in 1976, on the 50th anniversary of the church’s construction and other occasions, Bishop Parthenius spoke from the pulpit about the church named after the First Apostle of Christ, as the “fourth Sofia Cathedral” in seniority after “St. Sophia,” St. Alexander Nevsky as a patriarchal cathedral, and St. Nedelya as a metropolitan cathedral.

The temple celebrated its 80th anniversary in 2006. The major ambition of the church’s leader, staurophore butler Ivan Kasabov, is to one day achieve his ancestors’ goal and the original intention of the BOC’s St. Synod: to erect a beautiful temple-monument dedicated to the Bulgarian military on this site.