There will be a monument to Archpriest Yordan Popov in Montana : Konkurent.bg

24/04/2024 09:00

A monument to Archpriest Yordan Popov will be placed in the Pope’s garden – the park area around the church “St. St. Cyril and Methodius” in Montana. It was made on the initiative and with the donation of his grandson Prof. Nikolay Iliev and is the work of the sculptor Alexander Haitov. At the session on Thursday, the municipal councilors must determine the exact place of the monument in the park.

Father Yordan Iliev was the chairman of the church “St. St. Cyril and Methodius” in the city of Ferdinand in the 20s of the last century, when the September Uprising was being prepared, broke out and was suppressed. The priest collected his impressions of the disturbing events in his book “Memories of the events of September 23 – 25, 1923, which took place in Ferdinand and the surrounding area. It was published by K. Ivanchev in Ferdinand in 1931. The priest describes the riot in Ferdinand and in the diocese of Vidin. He buries the victims from both opposing camps, visits the wounded in the hospital and prays for equal treatment for all the victims, goes around the parish and tries to protect the population from extremes, to make them wise.

Archpriest Yordan Popov retired in 1942 at the age of 61 with 41 years of pensionable service, of which 35 years as a priest.

Father Yordan Popov was detained after the events in Hungary in 1956, and sent to the camp in Belene. He died there on January 9, 1959. He and his wife Ivana raised and educated 9 children. Three are law graduates and one is a military pilot. His first son, Ilia, falls in Belene on the same day as his father. The second Peter, disappeared without a trace two months after September 9. The third Vasil, former mayor of Dalgodeltsi, was sentenced by the People’s Court to three years in prison. Archpriest Yordan Popov is the father of Captain Bogdan Popyordanov Iliev.

Bogdan Iliev was one of the heroes in the defense of Sofia in March 1944, when the capital was bombed by American and British fighter planes. Iliev engages in aerial combat with eight enemy aircraft, shoots down one and damages others. With numerous punctures, he managed to land the machine at the airport in Bozhurishte and was awarded the Order of Bravery.
In the next two years, Iliev was a famous aviation commander, but in 1946 he was dismissed from the army as a tsarist officer. Later he worked in Montana and Chiprovtsi as a miner, locomotive driver, car mechanic and instructor of young pilots.
On June 1, 1994, Bogdan Iliev piloted a plane again during the Open Day at the air base in Gabrovnica. He died on March 26, 1996.

In 2016, a bust-monument of Captain Bogdan Iliev was placed in the City Garden of Montana. Its author is the sculptor Alexander Haitov, who also made the monument to his father – father Yordan Popov.