Bulgaria’s Early Christian Island Monastery

SOZOPOL, BULGARIA—In 2010, archaeologists excavating the site of an early Christian monastery on St. Ivan Island, located off the coast of the Black Sea, discovered a sandstone reliquary bearing the Greek inscription, “God, save your servant Thomas (Toma). To St. John. June 24.” The date is the Christian feast day of John the Baptist, and the reliquary is thought to have been dedicated to him. Now archaeologist Kazimir Popkonstantinov has discovered the remains of two men who had been buried in a tomb to the north of the monastery’s basilica, which was built in the late fourth or early fifth century A.D. He thinks the men may have been monks from Syria who carried the reliquary to St. Ivan Island and founded the monastic community there. “We are now firmly convinced that the first monastery was not destroyed by an invasion but by this natural disaster. We and our colleagues from abroad are very impressed with the discovery. No tomb of monastery founders, one of whom probably was the Thomas (Toma), has ever been found during excavations,” Popkonstantinov told Archaeology in Bulgaria. For more on Bulgarian archaeology, go to "Thracian Treasure Chest."