THE CHURCH

mood, the peasants poured in front of him the collected twenty golden liras. When he heard the liras’ ringing, Bey rubbed his hands with satisfaction, and said, “I give you my will to build a church, but only if you manage to do this for three months time and it can be no more than four yards high...”

The peasants bowed to the land to the Bey and went to spread the joyous news around the village. The very next day, everyone went to work - men, women, old men and children - everyone did what they could and as much as they could. They were dragging stones and beams on their backs and the construction was rising. In less than three months, they built the church - a stone building, up to half of its height dug into the ground with small windows like castle‘s windows on each wall and a slated roof crowned with a cross. A painter from Samokov came and painted it inside. For the Cross Day, the candles were shining in front of the altar and illuminated the images of Christ and Virgin Mary. The first holly water liturgy was served by two priests in the church. Soon after, Gencho was sent to study at the Arapovski Monastery, and then he was ordained the first priest in our village...

The loud and melodious sound of the brass bells of the village goats jammed out Father Konstantin’s words, just as the ruthless time had jammed out and hidden in oblivion many things from the past.

I got up from the bench and kissed the old priest’s hand. I stared unintentionally into the sky in the west, where the sun was slowly setting behind the forest in the horizon. The dark strip of the forest was climbing up the slopes of the mountain, then was slowly descending down and creating an illusion that the sharp peaks in the distance were cutting the sky with a giant saw.