Josaphat Chichkov

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Robert-Matthew Chichkov (9 February 1884 – 11 November 1952) in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, was a priest, rector and teacher who was sentenced to death in the early 1950s. He venerate as blessed by the Catholic Church.

He came from a large and fervent

.

Once back in Bulgaria, he taught at St. Augustine College in Plovdiv and at St. Michael College in Varna. Later he moved to Yambol where he served as superior and rector of the high school seminary of

, as pastor of the local Latin rite parish, and as chaplain to the Oblate Sisters of the Assumption. In 1937 he returned to the college in Varna where he served as rector and teacher until he was arrested in 1951.

He was responsible for enlarging the Yambol seminary to include seminarians of both rites, Latin and Byzantine-Slav, and found ways to integrate students into one community. He organized

officers.

He had a particular interest in the latest technology and introduced a ham radio and movie projector at the seminary.

Josaphat Chichkov was arrested in December 1951. After what

]

Fr. Chichkov was declared a martyr for the faith and beatified by Pope John Paul II in Plovdiv on 26 May 2002.^{[citation needed]}

On 28 July 2010 the Bulgarian parliament passed a law officially rehabilitating all of those who had been condemned by the People's Republic of Bulgaria in 1952, including Fr. Chichkov.

References

• Guissard, Lucien. The Assumptionists: From Past to Present, Bayard Publications, 2002 (
  ISBN 1-58595-207-9
  ).
• Gallay, Pierre. The Martyrdom of the Three Bulgarian Assumptionists, Bayard Service Edition, 2002.
• Royal, Robert. The Catholic Martyrs of the Twentieth Century: A Comprehensive World History, The Crossroad Publishing Company, New York, 2000 (
  ISBN 0-8245-1846-2
  ).
• Holzer, Bernard and Michel, Jean-Baptiste, Les Rideaux Rouges de Sofia, Editions Bayard, 2003 (
  ISBN 2227472219
  ).
• Pope John Paul II, homily delivered in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 26 May 2002.