Following the desire and initiative of the Church Council at the church of “St. Great Martyr George the Victorious” in Lazaropole, which showed great conscientiousness, literacy, and care towards the written Christian and cultural heritage, and in agreement and with the blessing of our elder and abbot, Bishop of Antania Mr. Partenij, today the Bigorski Monastery Library was gifted a very significant collection of a hundred ancient printed books. These are church books that were previously stored in the church of Saint George in the glorious Mijak village, which throughout history has produced and nurtured many significant Macedonian social and educational figures.
The decision to deposit the books in the Bigorski Monastery was made at the Church Council meeting on July 31 this year, chaired by Mr. Dimko Poposki. It stated:
“The Church Council at the church of St. George – Lazaropole at the meeting held on 07.31.2022 decided to donate the book fund it possesses, consisting of a hundred books of types such as bibles, liturgical books, mineya, etc., to the monastic library at the Monastery of St. John Bigorski for further preservation and maintenance. These books have been locked away for years without the possibility of use and were exposed to decay.”
This library fund consists of ancient printed books, mostly from the 19th century, written primarily in Church Slavonic. All are liturgical and instructional books used for the rich spiritual and ecclesiastical life of the people from Lazaropole. A detailed list of these was compiled by Dr. Atanas Chuposki, and it was signed by the Secretary of the Council, Mr. Sone Josifovski, and the librarian from the Bigorski Monastery Library on behalf of Elder Bishop Mr. Partenij.
We thank and commend the pious act of the devout people of Lazaropole, who by donating these priceless historical books to the Bigorski Monastery, showed true love and care for preserving the spiritual and cultural heritage of their ancestors. Indeed, the Bigorski fathers and clerics in the past took great care of education in this region, and through their prayers and blessing, Bigorski continues the same gospel-educational mission today.
The monks, with great care and love, promptly attended to the books, which were carefully, page by page, cleaned of dust and pests and were appropriately stored in the library space of the Bigorski Monastery Library, with expert classification. For the complete restoration of the damaged books, significant financial resources are needed, for which we hope will be collected through donations from people aware of the significance of the written heritage.
