The Immaculate of Rakovski - The Catholic Heart of Bulgaria
Rakovski, in the province of Plovdiv, is the largest Catholic city in Bulgaria. Its three parishes are the Sacred Heart, San Miguel Archangel and the Immaculate Conception, in the Parchevich district. On 6 May 2019 Pope Francis held the first communions of 245 children there.
🌹 Wonders and anecdotes
- Rakovski was born in 1966 from the union of three Catholic peoples; his faithful descend from the ancient Paulians converted to Catholicism after the Ottoman era.
- The church of the Sacred Heart, completed in 1931 after the 1928 earthquake, rose with the impulse of Monsignor Angelo Roncalli, the future of John XXIII, then in Bulgaria.
- On May 6, 2019, Francis, the first Pope to visit Rakovski, gave the first communion to 245 children; tens of thousands followed the Mass from the outside.
- The children were left with their "identity card": "God is our Father, Jesus is our brother, the Church is our family."
Immaculate Conception (Rakovski)
Catholic Heart of Bulgaria, Rakovski keeps a faith transmitted for centuries in minority land; the parish of the Immaculate of Parchevich testifies to the Marian love of a people who received Pope Francis.
"Immaculate Conception," he keeps the faith of the people of Rakovski.
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