Rumen Radev will visit the Vatican and the Italian Republic today and tomorrow, announced the press office of the president, quoted by BTA.
The head of state will lead the Bulgarian delegation, which is traditionally received at an audience by the head of the Roman Catholic Church on the occasion of the Day of the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius, of the Bulgarian alphabet, education and culture, and of Slavic literature – May 24.
Today, the head of state will participate in the opening of an office in Rome of the European Public Law Organization (EPLO), as well as in the presentation of the exhibition “Aton in drawings and photographs” at the Pontifical Lateran University in the Italian capital.
On May 23, the president and the Bulgarian delegation will receive an audience with His Holiness Pope Francis. A meeting of the Bulgarian President with the State Secretary of the Vatican Cardinal Pietro Parolin is also planned in the Vatican.
Later in the Basilica of San Clemente, where the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius served for the first time in the Slavic language, the head of state will attend the Divine Liturgy celebrated at the central altar of the basilica by His Eminence Western and Central European Metropolitan Anthony . The President will also visit the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, where Pope Adrian II blessed the Bulgarian alphabet in the 9th century, the press office informed.
Within the framework of the visit, President Rumen Radev is expected to pay his respects in front of the monuments of Ivan Vazov and Captain Petko Voivoda in Rome.
The Bulgarian delegation for the visit to Rome and the Vatican includes representatives of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, of the Catholic religion in Bulgaria, representatives of state institutions and public figures. The head of state will be accompanied by his wife Desislava Radeva.
Every year, an official Bulgarian delegation visits Italy and the Vatican for the traditional celebrations on the occasion of May 24, according to information from the "Reference" department. of BTA. At the traditional audience at the head of the Roman Catholic Church, Bulgaria's role in preserving and developing the work of the holy brothers Cyril and Methodius, announced on December 31, 1980 by the Holy See as co-patrons of Europe together with St. Benedict of Nursia, was noted.