Nedyalka of Tulcea

Holy Martyr Nedyalka of Tulcea was a young woman of the 19th century, in the time of Turkish rule in Bulgaria. She was born at Tulcea into a Bulgarian Christian family and was admired by the whole town for her beauty, humility and piety.

During the Crimean War, in 1856, at the age of sixteen, she was abducted by a Turkish bey and after a time brought to the district of Varna. Because she refused to change her nationality and faith, she was slain in a field between the villages of Enikyoy and Malka Franga (today Kumanovo and Yarebichna). Her bones were buried in the yard of the church of the Dormition of the Mother of God (the "Little Mother of God") in Varna. Over the grave the Christians raised a memorial fountain, which was blessed on 23 August 1995.