FATHER MATEY PREOBRAZHENSKI MITKALOTO (THEWANDERING ONE) AND HIS MODEL OF A PERPETUAL CALENDAR

Regional Historical Museum, Veliko Tarnovo (Bulgaria) Father Matthew Preobrazhensky (nicknamed Mitkaloto), an activist of the Bulgarian national revival, was not only an encyclopedic educator, but also an inventor. According to his project, in 1870, the painter-iconographer of the Trevno school Venko Kalchov Venkov made the "Perpetual Calendar", which was intended for an elementary school in the village of Mikhaltsi, near the town of Tarnovo. The basis of the perpetual calendar was the Orthodox Typikon, which marked the movable holidays and times of fasting. Despite the popularity of this invention, so far no special studies have been devoted to it. In this work, Western European, Russian and Athonite specimens are noted, in which there is an affinity with the Bulgarian composition. The author does not exclude that the "Eternal Calendar" is a replica of the four seasons of the "Wheels of Life" by another famous figure of the Renaissance, Zachary Isograf, in the Transfiguration Monastery in the vicinity of Tyrnov, in which Fr. Matthew accepted the schema. The project of the Bulgarian monk shows, on the one hand, a uniform annual cyclicality, on the other hand, it refers to the theological and philosophical dimensions of a person's fate in time in general. It should not be forgotten that this "Perpetual Calendar" was painted on the wall of an elementary school for the purpose of enlightenment and was publicly available to every student, visitor, and even special highest guest. Being created on the basis of solar-lunar correspondences of cycles identified in ancient times by the Greek philosopher Meton and used in Orthodox Easter, the model of Fr. Matthew Preobrazhensky was a visual (sighted) calendar. According to it, it was possible to determine the days of holidays in any year, a mobile liturgical circle and church reading for each day of a particular year. Therefore, the model of the calendar of this Bulgarian figure of enlightenment and national revival received the name “Perpetual calendar”.publicate