Discovery Of The Oldest Active Monastery in Europe Near Stara Zagora

The oldest monastery in Europe was founded by St. Athanasius the Great of Alexandria in AD 344 year. This statement was proved on January, 2004 when the Balkan Media Academy organized a scientific expedition to the monastery “St. Athanasius” at the village of Zlatna Livada, near Chirpan, in the region of Stara Zagora.

After the ending of the church council of Serdica, St. Athanasius the Great started his way to Konstantinopol. During his traveling to Alexandria, he stayed at the Roman fortress which ruins are nowadays next to the monastery. The saint decided to found the monastery because the native people were under the strong pressure of the heretics. That is the reason why the monastery was given the name of the saint after his death.

All these facts were proved by the saint`s biography and the annals of the Alexandrian Patriarchate. Another proof for that are the ruins of the “Roman Monastery” – as it is called by the people from this region. There are many wonder legends about the saint and the monastery. One of them is about the healing spring and its curing water which still attracts the congregations to come and visit the monastery.

An archeological material proves the existence of the monastery during the Middle Ages. In the late 19th century the saint place was an asylum for the Bulgarian revolutionary Vasil Levski.

The present building of the monastery was constructed in 1980. The Patriarch of Alexandria Peter VII visited the monastery in 2003.


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