An Augur of Bloodshed: The Weeping Mary of Nevrokop in 1902

Michael Talbot

University of Greenwich

In the summer of 1902, incredible news reached the ears of the officials in Ottoman Macedonia, which was promptly passed on to the central authorities in Istanbul, directly to the petitions office of Sultan Abdülhamid II's secretarial division in Yıldız Palace. 

A fictitious rumour is circulating among the Bulgarians that in an Orthodox church situated in the district of Nevrokop [Gotse Delchev], a dependent of the Salonica province, it is said that a sort of miracle has appeared, with tears flowing from the eyes of the icon of the Virgin Mary, and word has been spread among the Bulgarians in general by wicked people that this has also taken place in the church at Ayn-i Halak [?], With reports of claims of a similar event to that in Ayn-i Halak taking place in Otlukköy [Panagyurishte], Avret-Alan [Koprivshtitsa], and Batak, and with the ignorant population giving credence to those rumours, they have been spread around and, in the latest fantastical tales, have been taken as an augur of bloodshed. As a result, the Bulgarians are fearful and alarmed, and are beginning to prepare themselves and put themselves on alert. The facts of this matter are humbly submitted. To command [belong to he who commands all]. Your slave, Ferid. 3 June 1902.

Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivleri, Y.PRK.AZJ 44/28

Selanik vilayetine muzaf Nevrekop kazasında bulunan Rum kilisiyasındaki Meryem Ana tesvirinin gözlerinden güya mucize kabilinden olarak gözyaşı akdığı hakkında devran eden şayia-ı vahimeyi oradaki Bulgarlar haber almaları üzerine Ayn-ı Halak kilisiyasında daha vaka olduğu güruh-u fesade tarafından alelumum Bulgarlara işaa ettirilmiştir    Otlukköy Avret-Alan ve Batak vakaları esnasında güya Ayn-ı Halak vukubulmuş olduğu o vakıt iddia kılınmış ve cehele-i ahali de muktaza-yı taassubları buna inanmış bulunduğundan hadise-i mevhume-i ahirede sefk-i dimaya alamet olmak suretiyle tabir ve istihrac ettirilmiş ve binaenaleyh Bulgarlar havf ve telaş ederek tedarikat ve tayakkuzatta bulunmağa ibtidar eylemiş oldukları cihetle arz-ı keyfiyete ictisar kılınmıştır   ferman    kulları Ferid   fi 21 Mayıs [1]318

The Ottoman Balkan territories are not my usual area of research, but stumbling across such a miraculous and fearful narrative in the archives made me think quite a bit about the significance of this account. I had assumed that accounts of statues and icons of the Virgin Mary shedding tears (or tears of blood) were a relatively recent phenomenon, but on some initial reading there are plenty of historical examples, from fifteenth-century Italy to seventeenth-century Hungary. In Bulgaria, the Monastery of the Mother of God in Arbanasi hosts a miraculous icon of the Virgin who was discovered by a shepherd boy who heard her wailing in the ground where she was buried, and this continues to serve as a draw for pilgrims and believers.

An icon of the Virgin Mary from the Holy Trinity church in Bansko, in the Nevrokop (Gotse Delchev) district, painted by the renowned icon painter Dimitar Molerov (via Wiki Commons). 

I have yet to find any reference to the weeping Mary icon in the Nevrokop district, although my lack of Bulgarian or Macedonian means that many studies on the region are beyond my reach. If any researchers on or residents of that part of the world have any details to share, please leave a comment below! I know that the city of Nevrokop commissioned a Church of the Assumption built in the 1830s, during a period of extensive church construction throughout the region, and so the Virgin was an important part of the urban setting there as elsewhere in the Macedonian provinces.

But I think it's worth dwelling briefly on the timing of this event in order to make sense of why the reports of a weeping Mary arose there and then. The summer of 1902 was a hugely significant moment in the history of the Ottoman Balkans. Growing nationalist and separatist tensions meant that political factions began planning for armed confrontation with the Ottoman authorities. The area around Nevrokop was at the heart of these rumblings, and indeed the modern city of Gotse Delchev is named after a key figure in the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organisation, a national movement against Ottoman rule in its Macedonian provinces. Delchev, a leader of an armed band (cheta, a Bulgarian word connected to the Turkish çete), was killed by Ottoman forces just before the Ilinden Uprising in 1903, which was timed to begin on 2 August, the saint's day of the Prophet Ilya (Elijah).

Religious days and images were therefore key to many of those in the nationalist movements as a rallying point and as a common cultural language. As such, we might begin to see the significance of reports of a weeping Mary icon disseminated in the year when plans were being made for major risings against the Ottoman state as a sign of something significant about to take place. And, just as the Ottoman officials feared, the tears of the Virgin were indeed to prove an augur for the bloodshed that was to dominate the final period of Ottoman rule in the Balkans.

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