Biography
Sophronius the Bulgarian
About Sophronius the Bulgarian
Sophronius was born Stephen in Penkovts, Bulgaria, and became a priest-monk at a monastery near Sofia. The church notice places his life in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. When he learned that Turkish forces were about to attack, he left for Wallachia and lived near the Danube. His story is thus one of displacement as well as monastic perseverance.
He later practiced fasting, night vigil, and prayer in the Rusensk monastic community. The notice remembers his generosity toward others and his almsgiving, rather than supplying a long sequence of personal incidents. It dates his death to May 28, 1510, but preserves conflicting accounts of its manner: one describes a peaceful death, while another says a servant killed him. The latter tradition also reports the discovery of incorrupt relics three years later. These alternatives are retained as traditions rather than harmonized into an invented certainty.
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