Ignatius of Stara Zagora

Holy New Martyr Ignatius of Stara Zagora is a Bulgarian new martyr who suffered for the Orthodox faith under Ottoman rule. Tradition says he was born in Stara Zagora, in the diocese of Tarnovo, to parents named George and Maria, and was baptized John. The family moved to Plovdiv, where he studied the Scriptures.

Later he left his parents and went to the Rila Mountains, where he struggled for six years in obedience to an elder of severe temper. The year and circumstances of his death are not given in our sources; the Bulgarian sources count him among the new martyrs of the nation, and he is commemorated on the day appointed in the Church calendar.