Eugene Bossilkov

Vincent Eugene Bossilkov was born on 16 November 1900 in Belene, a town on the Danube in northern Bulgaria, into a family of Latin-rite Bulgarian Catholics, a small minority in a predominantly Eastern Orthodox country. From an early age he was educated by Passionist missionaries, who had maintained a presence in northern Bulgaria. He entered the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ, taking the religious name Eugene, and completed his formation in Passionist houses in the Netherlands and Belgium. He was ordained a priest in 1926 and returned to pastoral work among the Catholic communities of Bulgaria.

As a priest he combined parish ministry with scholarly work on the history of Christianity in the Balkans and on the Eastern churches. In the 1930s he studied in Rome at the Pontifical Oriental Institute. After returning to Bulgaria he served as a pastor and in the formation of clergy. In 1947 he was appointed Bishop of Nicopolis, the Latin-rite diocese covering northern Bulgaria, with its seat at Ruse. His episcopate began as the Communist regime that had taken power in 1944 moved to isolate the Catholic Church from Rome, seize its property, and suppress its schools and publications.

In July 1952 Bishop Bossilkov was arrested by the state security services and charged with heading a Catholic spy network allegedly working for the Vatican and Western governments, accusations typical of Stalinist show trials in Eastern Europe. After interrogation he was tried in Sofia together with other priests and lay Catholics and was sentenced to death in October 1952. Letters written from prison expressed his peace of conscience and his refusal to recant. On the night of 11 November 1952 he was executed by firing squad in Sofia prison. The authorities never disclosed the place of burial, and his remains have not been recovered.

The Holy See did not receive official confirmation of the execution for many years. After the later documentation of his death, Pope John Paul II beatified Eugene Bossilkov on 15 March 1998, recognizing him as a martyr killed in hatred of the faith. He is remembered as the most prominent Catholic victim of Communist persecution in Bulgaria and as a witness of the small Latin-rite community there. His feast is observed on 13 November, especially by the Passionists and by Bulgarian Catholics.