Sts. Constantine and Helena Monastery — the Spiritual Landmark of the Resort

About ten kilometres northeast of Varna, hidden among what was once an ancient forest, lies one of the oldest and least known monasteries on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast. Dedicated to Sts. Constantine and Helena, it preserves a history few people know — and an injustice that continues to this day.

A Mysterious Beginning

No one knows exactly when it was founded. There are no documents. But tradition speaks clearly — it tells of a monastic brotherhood that lived here as early as the 16th century. The reasons for its emergence were twofold: a miraculous icon of the holy patrons of Christianity and a healing spring — an ayazmo — whose waters were believed to be a gift from God.

The spring still exists to this day. It is located behind the holy altar in the church. Worshippers who come in faith and pray to the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Constantine and Helena speak of healing — each according to the pain they carry in their heart.

Until the middle of the last century, the church preserved an old icon bearing the images of the two saints. At the base of the Lord’s Cross there was a Greek inscription, badly damaged. Only fragments could be deciphered: “…because of great fear among the Christians… in Constantinople, in the year 1713…” What exactly happened remains unknown. But the inscription itself speaks of turbulent times.

The First Written Records

The earliest known information about the monastery comes from the 18th century. It appears in the book Letters from Bulgaria by the Russian traveller Viktor Teplyakov, published in Moscow in 1832. A foreign visitor noticed this place — and described it. How many Bulgarians of that time had such a privilege?

Destruction and Revival

The Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829 did not spare the monastery. It was destroyed. Almost no stone was left upon another.

But after wars come the people who rebuild. Two hieromonk brothers — Theodosius and Agapius Kantardzhiev from Tarnovo — took on this burden. Around them stood only forest — impassable, ancient, and sombre. The worshippers were few, the isolation complete. Yet the local people believed. They believed in the miraculous icon, believed in the power of the holy patrons. And with their own hands, their own money, and their own labour, they managed to turn the forest into cultivated land. That land was given to the monastery.

The income was not left sitting in the treasury. It was used to support churches in the surrounding villages, maintain schools, and help the poor. The monastic community did not live for itself alone — it also sustained the spiritual life of the entire region.

Between Two Patriarchates

Until the establishment of the Bulgarian Exarchate in 1870, Varna was under the spiritual authority of the Greek metropolitan, and the monastery was subordinate to the Greek Patriarchate. Even so, Hieromonk Theodosius conducted services in Church Slavonic. Greek was heard in the church only when the metropolitan or some influential Greek visitor came. Then — and only then — did the language change. A small but eloquent act of resistance.

The Continuity of Faith

After the death of the two brothers, the ministry was taken over by Father Konstantin Dănovski, originally from the village of Ustovo in the Smolyan region. Ordained in Varna in 1857, he celebrated the first service in the newly built Bulgarian chapel of St. Archangel Michael.

A New Beginning

Around this monastery grew one of the most famous resort settlements in Bulgaria — the resort of St. Constantine and Helena. It grew because of it and around it. Tourism here has developed, is developing, and will continue to develop — to a considerable extent thanks to this holy place, which also gave the resort its name.

Welcome to Sts. Constantine and Helena — where faith, history, and the spirit of the sea meet.