PJioto by D. W. Iddings. Copyright by Keystone View Co. 

 A GROUP OF INDUSTRIOUS BULGARIAN WOMEN IN A VILLAGE ON THE ROAD EROM 



THE DANUBE TO SOEIA 



The threatened defection of the Bul- 

 garians from the fold of the Orthodox 

 Church excited alarm in Russia, where it 

 was recognized that something must be 

 done to prevent the ''little brothers" 

 from lapsing into error. The first step 

 was the secret deportation of Mgr. So- 

 iolski, who disappeared from the scene, 

 and was, it is stated, immured in a Rus- 

 sian monastery. The principle of na- 

 tionalities, at this time so much in vogue 

 in western Europe, found its counterpart 

 in the Panslavist movement in Russia; 

 .a great "Slavophil" congress was con- 



voked at Moscow in 1867, and General 

 Ignatieff, a noted Panslavist, became 

 Russian Ambassador at Constantinople. 



THE BULGARIAN CHURCH IS ESTABLISHED 



Not only Russia, but France and Eng- 

 land, now supported the Bulgarian cause, 

 and the Grand Vizier in 1869 drew up a 

 new scheme of ecclesiastical organiza- 

 tion, which, however, was rejected by the 

 Patriarchate. At last the Sultan, noth- 

 ing loath to create a permanent barrier 

 between his Christian subjects, issued a 

 firman establishing the Bulgarian Church 



