Christianity and Modernity in Eastern Europe

State Management of the Seer Vanga: Power, Medicine, and the “Remaking” of Religion in Socialist Bulgaria

state Management of the seer Vanga Power, Medicine, and the “Remaking” of Religion in Socialist Bulgaria gaLia vaLtCHinova introduction the conventional wisdom holds that religion was suppressed in, or absent from, communist societies. But proponents of this interpretation often obscure facts that counter the black-and-white view. Based on careful ethnographies, anthropologists such as Caroline humphrey and Katherine Verdery have shown the dangers of oversimplification in the study of socialism. similarly, the anthropological study of religion also refuses easy dichotomies.1 the “domestication” formula is already applied to religion in the ussr with regard to the local-level negotiation between the official discourses and ongoing practices.2 the rigid interpretations of religion under socialism were challenged in an analysis of ritual, an area of study that highlights transformation and more vividly depicts state socialism’s failure to uproot religiosity.3 ritual is part of the religious realm: after religious rituals were banned from the public (though not necessarily the private) life of “socialist citizens,” other rituals were invented. ritual life just shifted from one domain of life to another.4 as a site for the expression of symbolic relationships, ritual is the arena where power materializes and is negotiated. More attentive to local practice, the anthropology of postsocialism also pays attention to the local actors of religious life. the sociology of religion has also inspired this approach; from Luckmann’s “invisible religion” to “religion as memory” to “religion in everyday life” in the new French sociology, there is a marked shift from a church-oriented perspective to a societal- and actor-oriented one.5 this shift is defended by the philosopher Charles taylor, who demonstrated the importance of non-institutional religion and the “less structured” spiritualities.6 i4 Berglund_book.indb 245 2010.03.29. 19:30 246 GaLia VaLtChinoVa religious revival in postsocialist Bulgaria: the importance of the Local Lens While providing the most suitable framework for historical research, the church is no longer the exclusive lens for viewing everyday religious life in european societies. this is all the more true for Bulgarian society, which experienced secularization in the early years of communism .7 applied to socialist Bulgaria, the church-oriented perspective emphasized two phenomena: on the one hand, the harsh treatment of the clergy paralleled by the repression of religiosity and the imposition of “atheism”; on the other hand, the preservation of the orthodox Church as an institution and its manipulation by the regime for nationalist goals. Both took place, yet both obscure less visible developments that have come to attention only recently, when approaching the nexus of religion and communism from the perspective of postsocialism.8 in orthodox Bulgaria today, as far as local societies are concerned, the driving forces behind the religious revival are “small” and overwhelmingly lay actors, not the Church.9 the salient role of local lay actors was evident in the field work i carried out in 1994–1997 in trun, a small town in western Bulgaria , near the serbian (yugoslav) border, noted for its cult to the local patron saint. Field research has shown that the postsocialist religious revival in the town was mainly due to the activism of some middleaged and elderly women who won the financial support of local businessmen . the orthodox Church was largely absent from the parish churches in this impoverished area. in the mid-1990s, the local parish priest was said to be busier with black-market and petrol smuggling for serbia (then under international embargo) than working for souls. the lay (and female) actors involved in the religious revival had different motivations: most declared that they were “led by the pure faith,” although some hoped for divine rewards in exchange for earthly services . the most active, a retired unmarried woman (G.) and a middleaged unemployed mother (d.), explained that their deep personal involvement was inspired by divine agency, through dreaming. after her retirement in 1989, G. started seeing dead relatives in dreams. they urged her to keep a record of ongoing events and to care for the semiruined chapel dedicated to saint petka, the town’s patron saint. When i4 Berglund_book.indb 246 2010.03.29. 19:30 247 State Management of the Seer Vanga the chapel was finally restored in 1993, G. was “called,” in a dream, to be its gatekeeper. she started to tell visitors “the true story” of the saint’s life and deeds. the first time i heard the story...