Glorification
The martyrs of the 1876 Uprising were officially recognized as saints by the Bulgarian Orthodox Church on April 3, 2011, in a Service of Glorification held at the St. Alexander Nevsky Memorial Cathedral in Sofia. The service was celebrated by Patriarch Maxim together with the metropolitans of the Bulgarian Church.
The same act honored two distinct groups of victims: the martyrs of Batak, killed in the church of St. Nedelya on May 17, 1876, and the martyrs of Novo Selo, killed on May 9. The Church assigned May 9 as the feast of the Synaxis of the New Martyrs of Novo Selo and May 17 as the feast of the Synaxis of the Batak Martyrs. According to reports of the glorification, these were the first Bulgarians to be glorified as Orthodox saints in several decades.