Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1904-02-01
THE COLLEGIATE AND THEOLOGICAL
INSTITUTE, SAMOKOv, BULGARIA.

Samokov, a town of 9640 inhabitants,
stands 5000 feet above sea level; while
two miles south of it the Ria Noun
tains, with 4 eliminating height of
$500 feet above the sea, run east and
west. TIE district is Il g sanitorium
of large region. The town is not n
any railway. 1t is SO miles almost due
south from Sofia, and 20 miles west of
the nearest station on the line from
Constantinople to Vienna. 1t is ten
miles north of the frontier between
Bulgaria and Macedonia and is thus
about equally accessible from both
halves of the MISSIONS field.
The field of the Collegiate and
Theological Institute which is situated
in this town has until recently been
co-extensive with that of the mis- sion
by which it is conducted, viz , the
southern half of Bulgaria and all the
provinces of Euror can Turkey. But,
though forts are made to reach all
the nationalities of this region, the
Institute, like the mission, might al
most be described as Bulgarian. 1t
falls under the Bulgarian Ministry OF
National Education, its language is
Bulgarian, and the great majority or
it's students have been Bulgarians,
whether from the Principally or from
the Turkish provinces. Two or three
each of Albanians, British, Jews, and
Servians, and one Armenian, are the
only other nationalities represented
amongst its total of some 500 students.
During the last eight years few
students have been drawn from
northern Bulgaria, the field of the
Methodist Episcopal Mission. Up to
that time that mission had its own
training institution.
The history of the Samokov lnsti-
tute is the condensed counterpart of
the history of the mission. Three
years after work was started classes
were opened in Philippopolis. The
pupils were four; and they came to
the missionaries houses to receive
such instruction and training as the
other work of the missionaries per-
mitted. The desire shown by Bull
garians to obtain higher education
than could be had under the then ex-
listing Turkish regime suggested this
as an evangelizing agency. Later on,
the classes mad to be adapted to the
training of preachers. In this way
work went on from 1861 to 1869; and
then circumstances compelled its
stoppage for time. Two years later
classes were again started at Eski
Zaghra (Stara Zagora); but that town
proved too unhealthy for school
work. Accordingly in 1872 a move
was made to Samokov; and there the
educational work for young men has
been carried on ever since.
At the time of the removal the
school received the name of the Theo-
logical Seminary; and the length OF
the regular course of study was fixed
at four years, there being in addition
a course of preparatory subjects. In
1878 Bulgaria was established into a
Principally; and to the natural
development of the school there was
soon added the pressure Of competi-
ton under the growth of the Bulgarian
educational system. In 1881 it be-
came necessary to consolidate the
course of studies into regular system
whereby FIVE years should be devoted
to the subjects of good gymnasium
education combined with an exhaust,
i've course of Scriptural and religious
study, while a sixth year of purely
theological study could be taken by
candidates for the ministry. With
this change the seminary received the
name it now bears-''The Collegiate
and Theological Institute; and diplo'
mas. at the close of the fifth and sixth
years respectively, began to be give1
In 1889 the collegiate course was ex'
tended to six years.
The development of the Institut,
was considerably Influenced by thu
establishment in 1883 of an industrial
printing department.; and this re
ceived added Importance when, il
1898, the MISSIONS publication worl
was removed from Constan tinopl'
and transferred to it. A carpentr.
department was added in 1886.
The work of the Institute is indis
pensable to the prosperity of the mis-
sion, indispensable to the evangelica
body, and a blessing to Bulgaria sue
: as it does not yet realize.
It's first use is as an evangelism
agency The daily prayers, the re
ligiCus basis of teaching and disci
| Mine and systematic personal deaIiD