Every year on February 10, the feast of St. Haralambos , Bishop of Magnesia, is celebrated with special solemnity in a small Bulgarian town in the northernmost part of the country's Black Sea coast. For Shabla and its residents, this is the temple feast of the church "St. Holy Martyr Haralambos", which they built with great dedication, personal labor and sacrifices, but also a day of gratitude.

"Almost a magnitude 7 earthquake, with many victims and destruction of houses, and the church was completely destroyed," says Father Pavel. "The people of Shabla wondered if they should change its location, but they said that the foundations had been laid and they finished building it like this. As can be seen from the iconostasis, the icons were painted in 1909 and 1910. There is also a document that makes it clear that in 1907 they were still collecting funds for its completion, but it is not noted exactly when it was completely built. It was probably in 1908, because the icons for the iconostasis date to 1909-1910."

"What we know from the stories of local people is that at the beginning of the 20th century, the local authorities met and decided to build three main buildings - the church, the school and the town hall. The masonry of the new church and the Green Educational Center are very similar and perhaps the same craftsmen worked on both. Everything was done by local people, who put in their labor, efforts and materials to be able to support the construction."

"The archives show that he had 51 years of service", continues Father Pavel. "His name appears as a young priest from 1897. In the last registers, when he baptized, he already wrote in large block letters and apparently in 1948 he was already very old. The most interesting thing is that he personally left a detailed description of the coast with geodetic points in the Shabla lighthouse, which shows that he was а educated and, in this respect, a versatile person."

According to the registers, Father Nikola did not serve in the parish between 1914 and 1917 and there is information that he was interned somewhere in Northern Romania. By the will of God and the intercession of his heavenly patrons St. Nicholas and St. Haralambos he returned to Shabla where his earthly journey probably ended, and the church sank into desolation. However, the solid walls, erected under the expert eye of master Hristo Bozhkov-Zagoretsa, remain to remind generations of the God-loving work of their ancestors, and in 1999 the restoration of the church began:

Read also:

• Songs and legends in honor of St. Haralambos – patron saint of beekeepers