Paper short abstract:

Bulgarian men go "On the trails of Zographou saints", uniting Bulgarian saints who at some point lived in the Bulgarian monastery on Mount Athos. With Stara Zagora as a town of departure and Zographou as a destination this trail could be considered as a pilgrimage and as a national commemoration.

Paper long abstract:

As some of the monasteries and shrines of the monastic republic Mount Athos are connected with the Bulgarian history, in some cases they function not only as places of religious worship by Bulgarian men but also as sites of national memory. In this regard, a small group of Bulgarian men from the town Stara Zagora (Bulgaria) goes for some years now the so called route "On the trails of Zographou saints", including Bulgarian monks, who are venerated as Bulgarian saints and had lived in the Zographou monastery. Their route starts in Stara Zagora and goes through places connected with the life of the saints (birthplace, patroned churches, memorial houses, a.o.) as well as stops of the old (Bulgarian Revival) Zographou pilgrimage trail with the Bulgarian monastery on Mount Athos as a destination. Even the participants (i.e. from emic point of view) see it as a kind of their specific Camino, from scientific (etic) point of view their trail - a part of which is outside Bulgaria - and the paid homage predominantly to the given Bulgarian saints and their lives' work, could also be seen as contributory for the maintenance of the Bulgarian memory and heritage in national and extra-national settings.