100-year-old beggar celebrated as living saint in Bulgaria

A 100-year-old beggar in a threadbare coat, 'Grandpa' Dobri, is already celebrated as a saint in Bulgaria, a symbol of goodness in a country ravaged by poverty and corruption.
For over 20 years, Dobri Dobrev has been begging on the streets of Sofia, collecting alms worth tens of thousands of euros. And he has given it all to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.
This has made him the largest private donor of the golden-domed Alexander Nevski cathedral even as he maintains an ascetic lifestyle.
"Take some bread, it comes from God!" the hunched old man mutters under his straggly white beard, offering believers the buns that other people give him as they drop coins into his plastic cup and bend to kiss his hand.

"He gave us 24,900 USD in 2009, while living a life deprived of all comfort. Dobri is an extremely rare phenomenon," Bishop Tikhon, chairman of the cathedral's trustees board said.
Several smaller monasteries and churches also say they have received between 2,500 and 10,000 euros each from the small man wearing peasant leather sandals.

These sums are considerable in Bulgaria, which remains the European Union's poorest member seven years after joining the bloc and where the average monthly salary is about 420 euros.
"While the media is full of scandalous reports on the luxurious lifestyle of certain Church dignitaries, Grandpa Dobri personifies moral values such as self-denial and generosity," said Theodora Karamelska, a sociology professor at Sofia's New Bulgarian University.

The media dubbed Dobri 'The Living Saint from Baylovo', and his name, which comes from the Bulgarian word for 'good' has become a symbol for goodness in a country where religious faith has been on the rise since the fall of communism 25 years ago.
Certain admirers have already suggested that Dobri's saintliness should eventually become official with a canonisation.