Assault on Priest and Attempted Robbery at Bulgarian Monastery

Case information
Incident date
Country
Bulgaria
Place
Rozhen
Categories
  • Social Hostility / Intolerance
Attack Against
  • Faith
Perpetrator / Motive Indicators
  • Private
Hate Crime & Violent Incidents
  • Physical Violence
  • Theft
  • Vandalism (all)
  • Vandalism of Church
Place of Incident
  • Church
Bias Indicators
  • Significance of Property/Structure/Location to religious community
  • Time/Place/Location
  • Victim/Witness Perception
Reported to Police
  • Yes
Response of Local Authorities
  • Investigated
Image credit: Daniel Feivor, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/)

Six masked men entered the medieval Rozhen Monastery at about 8:00 pm on September 18th. They assaulted and tied up the priest who was present and began digging into the wall behind the iconostasis in the monastery church with picks and spades. After about 30 minutes, they left the monastery without taking anything except the priest's mobile phone. The priest was reportedly unharmed but shaken by the incident. Security camera footage led to the arrest of some of the perpetrators.

Sources