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Kabile Monastery "The Birth of God's Mother"

The monastery named "The Birth of God's Mother" stands out in the middle of a field, nearby the archeology reserve of Kabile 6km away from the town of Yambol. Its well-kept yard brings joy to the visitor's eye with its numerous plants and flowers.

The monastery is currently run by nuns, while the church holiday on the 8th of September attracts a lot of pilgrims who are generously fed by the monasteryв's hosts. Most pilgrims are drawn here by the belief that the monastery's holy spring will bring them health and longevity. Often, those grateful for being cured are coming back with generous gifts.

History

In the late antiquity (4-5th c), Kabile was a big religious centre while about 1km away from the present-day archeology reserve there was a monastery during the time of Emperor St Constantine the Great. According to a legend, Queen Elena often sent people to the monastery in order to bring her back water from the curative spring.

Later, the monastery became an Orthodox cloister inhabited by nuns and existed as such until the Ottoman invasion in the late 14th c. Despite the monastery's destruction, the memory of the magic water was kept from generation to generation. In 1898, Stoyan Ganev from the village of Kabile, while resting after work in the field saw in his dream a woman in black, who showed him the place of the curative spring. The ploughman started digging in this spot and indeed, water sprang out. Later, however, rows with his countrymen forced Stoyan Ganev to dig the spring back below the surface which according to the story blinded him in this very minute. For 17 years the place was covered with grass and weeds. In 1918, an old lady from Sliven (Maria Marinova) rediscovered the spring after a prophetical dream. There, generous people built a small chapel around which a monastery gradually was erected. Construction works started in 1919 and ended in 1944. The biggest merit for the successful construction had a man from the village of Gen. Inzovo Georgi Nikolov, who travelled from village to village and raised donations for several years. Since 1995, the monastery has been run by a 26-year old nun, Minodora. The monastery at present has just 4 other nuns.