A Bulgarian national revival leader, bookman and revolutionist reproduced in 1850 the circle of nature and life in a calendar known as “The Perpetual Calendar”. This calendar which “measures” time was created by father Matei “Mitkaloto” Preobrazhenski and can now be seen in the History Museum of Pavlikeni, Northern Bulgaria.

People wonder if this creation of Matey “Mitkaloto” will ease the worries of those people who fear the end of the world as predicted by the Mayan Civilization? Just like the four weather seasons, which are constantly repeating, mankind follows the course of nature.

© Photo: archive

Father Matey “Mitkaloto” Preobrazhenski was born in 1828 in the village of Novo Selo, Central Bulgaria. He became orphan at an early age and was sent by his relatives to the Dryanovo Monastery to serve as a lay-brother. Later, he moved to the Preobrazhenski (Transfiguration) Monastery near Veliko Tarnovo and to the Rila monastery and finally found himself in the Mount Athos.

Monasteries were once the ultimate spiritual places whose libraries stored a wealth of valuable books. Father Matei used these ancient writings to enrich his knowledge, which later helped him create the perpetual calendar.

He was also an adherent to the Bulgarian Apostle of Freedom Vasil Levski, who was hung by the Ottoman oppressors in February, 1873.

Matey Preobrazhenski was constantly going about the country. This is why he was given the nickname “Mitkaloto” (The Wandering One). He participated actively in the creation of revolutionary committees in this country. He was always carrying books in his saddlebags. He wrote 8 books and copied the History of Bulgarians and Slavs (Istoria Slavyanobalgarsakya) written by Paisius of Hilendar in 1762. He came up with the idea about the perpetual calendar during his stay on Mount Athos, says Neli Tsoneva, who works at the Pavlikeni History Museum.

“Matey Preobrazhenski made his first experiments to create the perpetual engine on the White Sea shore," Neli Tsoneva further explains. "This was also the time when he made his first attempts to make the prototype of the Perpetual Calendar. It resembled several concentric circles with different sizes joined in a common axis, so they could rotate around it. When Matei Preobrazhenski came in the Veliko Tarnovo district in 1870, he gave the model to an icon-painter named Venko, who later painted it onto the school in the village of Mihaltsi.” 

Measuring 158 x 116 cm, the Perpetual Calendar is now part of the exhibition of the Pavlikeni History Museum. The central part of the calendar consists of concentric circles. The outer circle is divided into 12 sections. The names of all 12 months of the calendar as well as all dates from 1 to 31 are written in each one of them. The name of a certain Christian feast is written opposite each date. The inner circles consist of a system of numbers, letters and abbreviations. According to people who read the meaning of this Perpetual Calendar, fragments of the Old Testament and various Christian liturgies have been written there. This calendar was created in conformity with the Gregorian calendar.

“There are two columns with numbers and scales on both sides of the calendar, where all years between 1850 and 1940 were written. Experts say that people can use this scale to calculate what day of the week corresponds to a certain date and find out the number of a certain week in the annual calendar. Each segment of the calendar was created to represent the eternal circle in nature and the chronology. There are 4 drawings around the concentric circles, situated in all four angles of the calendar. Three people and one of the seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter were drawn on each one. The 4 drawings represent all four seasons and the tree months of each season were depicted by human figures”, says the keeper of the museum Neli Tsoneva.

The idea of this calendar is to show that human life follows the same circle as the four seasons in nature. One is born, becomes mature and finally gets old. However, the circle of life does not end here as new generations replace the previous ones. The two hemispheres are painted in the center of the Perpetual Calendar on a blue background. There people can also see the Sun and the Moon. Between them a triangle with an eye in the middle of it is drawn. People can decide whether this is the eye of the Almighty God or an embodiment of Space. This calendar is full of knowledge and symbolical meanings that Bulgarian scholars have yet to discover.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov