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The Bulgarian saint Dimitry Bassarbovsky (St. Dimitry of Bassarbovo) was born in Bassarbovo village, situated 15 km west of Rousse. From St. Paisy Hilendarsky’s "History Slavonic-Bulgarian" we learn that St. Dimitry Bassarbovsky died in 1685. He was a village shepherd who pastured the cattle of his fellow-villagers. One day he decided to move to a monastery, not far from his native village. He became a monk and lived there to end of his life. He died on Lom river’s bank, between two rocks. After a heavy rainfall, the river flooded the bank and the saint's body was swept into the water and buried under the river sand. A blind girl had a dream about the saint. On the next morning she pointed at the exact location in the river, where his body layed. The intact body was taken out from the water and placed into the village church. The saint performed a lot of miracles there. In 1774 the first Russian-Turkish war ended. Russian general Peter Saltikov took the relics of St. Dimitry from Bassarbovo with the intention to transport them to Russia.

The chest containing the relics of St. Dimitry Bassarbovski

Icon of St. Dimitry from "St.Gerge" church in Rousse

In the city of Bucharest, Romania, his translator and counselor Hagi Dimiter Mend -- a nobleman of Bulgarian origin asked the general to leave the body of the saint to Vlahia as a reparation for its losses during the war and the general consended. Nowadays, the relics of St. Dimitry Bassarbovsky are kept in a silver cover coffin at the Patriarchal Cathedral "St. St. Constantine and Elena" in Bucharest.  The saint is protector of the Romanian capital city.