Robert-Matthew Chichkov (9 February 1884 – 11 November 1952) was a Bulgarian priest, rector and teacher, executed by firing squad by the ruling communist government. He is venerated as blessed by the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Life

He came from a large and fervent

Latin Church The Latin Church () is the largest autonomous () particular church within the Catholic Church, whose members constitute the vast majority of the 1.3 billion Catholics. The Latin Church is one of 24 Catholic particular churches and liturgical ...

Catholic family. He entered the

Assumptionist The Assumptionists, formally known as the Congregation of the Augustinians of the Assumption (; abbreviated AA), is a worldwide congregation of Catholic priests and brothers. It is active in many countries. The French branch played a major rol ...

high school seminary in Adrianopolis and entered the Assumptionist novitiate in Phanaraki, Turkey in 1900. His religious name was Josaphat. He was ordained a priest in the Latin rite in Malines, Belgium, in 1909 after studying philosophy and theology at Louvain University."Bienheureux Josaphat Chichkov, Bibliotheque Monastique
/ref> 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

Saints Cyril and Methodius Cyril (; born Constantine, 826–869) and Methodius (; born Michael, 815–885) were brothers, Byzantine Christian theologians and missionaries. For their work evangelizing the Slavs, they are known as the "Apostles to the Slavs". They are ...

, as pastor of the local Latin rite parish, and as chaplain to the Oblate Sisters of the Assumption. Open to technology and science, he was the first in the city to have a Cyrillic typewriter. Mgr Angelo Roncalli (the future Pope John XXIII) was Apostolic Visitor to Bulgaria from 1925 to 1934) and would often visit and rest at the seminary. In 1937 he was appointed provincial superior and returned to the college in Varna where he served as rector and teacher. 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 fundraising activities for the institution and taught French to teachers,

civil servants The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

, and

Bulgarian army The Bulgarian Army (), also called Bulgarian Armed Forces, is the military of Bulgaria. The commander-in-chief is the president of Bulgaria. The Ministry of Defense is responsible for political leadership, while overall military command is in ...

officers. He had introduced a

ham radio Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency communi ...

and

movie projector A movie projector (or film projector) is an optics, opto-mechanics, mechanical device for displaying Film, motion picture film by projecting it onto a movie screen, screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illuminat ...

at the seminary. When the communists arrived in 1948, foreign priests were forced to leave Bulgaria, and he was also appointed parish priest at the Latin parish of Varna.

Arrest

Josaphat Chichkov was arrested in December 1951, Accused of being a spy and scheming to start an imperialistic war against Russia, and Bulgaria. After what

international organization An international organization, also known as an intergovernmental organization or an international institution, is an organization that is established by a treaty or other type of instrument governed by international law and possesses its own le ...

s universally considered a

show trial A show trial is a public trial in which the guilt (law), guilt or innocence of the defendant has already been determined. The purpose of holding a show trial is to present both accusation and verdict to the public, serving as an example and a d ...

which began on 29 September 1952 and ended with a

guilty verdict In criminal law, guilt is the state of being responsible for the commission of an offense. Legal guilt is entirely externally defined by the state, or more generally a "court of law". Being factually guilty of a criminal offense means that one ...

and a

death sentence Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

on 3 October, Fr. Chickov, two of his Assumptionists companions, Fr.

Kamen Vitchev Peter Vitchev, also known as Kamen Vitchev, was a Bulgarian Eastern Catholic and an Assumptionist priest who was martyred by the Bulgarian communist regime. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 2002. Biography Early life and priesthood Vitch ...

and Fr. Pavel Djidjov, and a Passionist bishop, Most Rev.

Eugene Bossilkov Eugene Bossilkov, CP (born Vincent Bossilkov 16 November 1900 – 11 November 1952) was a Bulgarian Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Nicopolis from 1947 until his execution by Bulgaria's communist regime in 1952. He was a member of the ...

, were executed by firing squad on the grounds of the prison in

Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

at 11:30 PM the evening of 11 November 1952. Fr. Chichkov was declared a martyr for the faith and beatified by

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

in Plovdiv on 26 May 2002. On 28 July 2010 the Bulgarian National Assembly passed a law officially rehabilitating all of those who had been condemned by the People's Republic of Bulgaria in 1952, including Fr. Chichkov."Roman Catholics mark 65th anniversary of deaths of bishop and priests killed by Bulgarian communist regime", ''The Sofia Globe'', November 13, 2017
/ref>

References

Sources

* Guissard, Lucien. The Assumptionists: From Past to Present, Bayard Publications, 2002 (). * 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 (). * Holzer, Bernard and Michel, Jean-Baptiste, Les Rideaux Rouges de Sofia, Editions Bayard, 2003 (). {{DEFAULTSORT:Chichkov Bulgarian beatified people 20th-century Roman Catholic martyrs Bulgarian Roman Catholic priests 1952 deaths 1884 births People executed by the People's Republic of Bulgaria People executed by Bulgaria by firing squad 20th-century Roman Catholic priests Executed Roman Catholic priests