There are those who endeavor to one good deed each day.
Whether you choose to act selflessly to help people around you, or are willing to donate to charities and important causes, you will end up helping someone in need. Sometimes, the simplest of good intentions can create an experience that people will remember for a lifetime.
Almost always, we want to help those we see on the streets. We may see them as beggars, as homeless, as powerless.
There is one man in Bulgaria who begs for money. Yet, he is not a beggar. He has the greatest wealth of wisdom, and the most earnest depths of empathy. He is truly someone who is generous, who cares first and foremost about working for the greater good.
Read on to find out this man's extraordinary story.
What did you think of Dobrev's story? Let us know in the comments, and please SHARE!
There is a real-life saint in Bulgaria. His name is Dobri Dobrev, and he turned 101 years old on July 20. He is nicknamed "The Saint of Bailovo."
He is an ascetic — meaning, he has abstained from all the world's material pleasures. He lives more than 15 miles outside the country's capital, Sofia, but is determined to be there every day. He used to walk the entire way, but now he takes the bus.
Once in Sofia, Dobrev stands in front of the Cathedral of Alexander Nevsky (pictured above) to beg for money. For the longest time, he has chosen to give all the money he collected to charities, orphanages, and, most notably, churches and monasteries. The money went toward funds for the restoration of decaying religious institutions across Bulgaria.
Over the years, he has collected around a total of $50,000 from people on the street. In addition to giving the money away to churches, Dobrev donates it to orphanages that struggle to pay their bills or feed the children.
Dobrev was born in the village of Bailovo, where he still lives. During World War II, one of the bombs that devastated the capital fell near him. As a result, he lost almost all of his hearing.
Today, he lives completely off his monthly state pension — a meager $100 — and the generosity of kind strangers. As a "thank you," he kisses the hands of those who give him money.
Around 2000, Dobrev donated all his possessions to the Orthodox church, and moved to live in a small extension to the Saints Cyril and Methodius parish church in Bailovo. It was at that time that he started to live in the "spirit world," one that revolves more around the external environment, rather than the inner life.
"The good will is just and true. Everything in it is good. We must not lie, nor steal, nor commit adultery. We must love each other as God loves us," he said in the 2000 film, Mite. (Click here to view a small part of the film).
He married his wife in 1940, and had four children, two of whom he outlived.
Everyone around the area in the capital knows him as a man of God who has a pure, selfless heart. Aside from being known as a saint, he is also called "Dyado Dobri," or "Grandpa Dobri."
Please SHARE if you were as moved by Dobrev’s story as I was!
